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Jennifer Hudson will address the October 2008 murders of three of her family members on an upcoming episode of VH1’s “Behind The Music.”

According to MTV News, the star will “talk at length” about the loss of her mother, brother and nephew in the episode, which will debut Monday on the network.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, her mother, Darnell Donerson, and brother Jason Hudson were found dead at the time inside the family’s Chicago home with the body of her nephew, Julian King, found several days later.

William Balfour — the estranged husband of Hudson’s sister, Julia — was charged with the killings.

The star has mentioned her heartbreaking losses several times in the year and a half since the murders, though never at length.

“I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time,” she wrote on her MySpace page in November 2008. “My sister and I take great comfort and strength from your love and concern.”

Months later, she thanked her fans once again on the red carpet.

“Everyone has been so supportive and it’s overwhelming,” she told Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson at the Grammy Awards in February 2009.

At the ceremony itself, she thanked “my family in heaven, and those who are here today” after earning Best R&B album — her first Grammy.

The upcoming “Behind The Music” episode will also feature a look at Jennifer’s stunning rise to fame, which has found her going from a run on “American Idol” to an Oscar-winning role in “Dreamgirls,” Grammy success and a thriving career in film and music – as well as welcoming fiance David Otunga and their son, David Jr., into her life.

Mena Suvari has tied the knot — in Vatican City.

The “American Beauty” star, 31, wed concert promoter Simone Sestito, 25, on Saturday in a private church in the holy city, according to TV Guide.

The pair got engaged in 2008 after meeting the year before at the Toronto Film Festival.

According to a People source, the intimate nuptials were “truly unique and Mena looked breathtaking.”

The couple reportedly chose the destination wedding thanks to the groom’s family members, many of whom are Rome-area residents.

According to People, the Canadian singer married rapper Souleye, 30, whose real name is Mario Treadway, in a small ceremony in Los Angeles on May 22. The couple’s close family was reportedly in attendance at the intimate ceremony held in the singer’s home.

Morissette’s rep confirmed the news to the mag, saying she wed just a week before her 36th birthday on June 1.

The singer was previously engaged to Ryan Reynolds. Morissette was also previously linked to “Full House” star Dave Coulier, who, after many years of speculation, told the New York Daily News in 2008 that the singer’s breakthrough hit, “You Outta Know,” was about their rocky relationship.

Actor Don Cheadle has become a spokesman for the United Nations environment program.

He was appointed Saturday in Rwanda’s capital as a U.N. Environment Program Goodwill Ambassador and vowed to fight climate change and promote environment conservation.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner announced the appointment, saying that Cheadle would help raise green awareness among millions of people around the globe.

Cheadle also named a baby gorilla Zoya, a name chosen by internet users as part of a UNEP awareness program.

In 2004, Cheadle starred in the film “Hotel Rwanda” which told the world about the Rwandan genocide in 1994 that claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Rwandan government, however, was critical of the film.

Rue McClanahan, the Emmy-winning actress who brought the sexually liberated Southern belle Blanche Devereaux to life on the hit TV series “The Golden Girls,” has died. She was 76.

Her manager, Barbara Lawrence, said McClanahan died Thursday morning at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital of a brain hemorrhage.

She had undergone treatment for breast cancer in 1997 and later lectured to cancer support groups on “aging gracefully.” In 2009, she had heart bypass surgery.

McClanahan had an active career in off-Broadway and regional stages in the 1960s before she was tapped for TV in the 1970s for the key best-friend character on the hit series “Maude,” starring Beatrice Arthur. After that series ended in 1978, McClanahan landed the role as Aunt Fran on “Mama’s Family” in 1983.

But her most loved role came in 1985 when she co-starred with Arthur, Betty White and Estelle Getty in “The Golden Girls,” a runaway hit that broke the sitcom mold by focusing on the foibles of four aging — and frequently eccentric — women living together in Miami.

“Golden Girls” aimed to show “that when people mature, they add layers,” she told The New York Times in 1985. “They don’t turn into other creatures. The truth is we all still have our child, our adolescent, and your young woman living in us.”

Blanche, who called her father “Big Daddy,” was a frequent target of roommates Dorothy, Rose and the outspoken Sophia (Getty), who would fire off zingers at Blanche such as, “Your life’s an open blouse.”

Fellow “Golden Girl” Betty White called McClanahan a close and dear friend.

“I treasured our relationship,” said White, who was working in Los Angeles on the set of her TV Land comedy “Hot in Cleveland” on Thursday. “It hurts more than I even thought it would, if that’s even possible.”

McClanahan snagged an Emmy for her work on the show in 1987. In an Associated Press interview that year, McClanahan said Blanche was unlike any other role she had ever played.

“Probably the closest I’ve ever done was Blanche DuBois in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ at the Pasadena Playhouse,” she said. “I think, too, that’s where the name came from, although my character is not a drinker and not crazy.”

Her Blanche Devereaux, she said, “is in love with life and she loves men. I think she has an attitude toward women that’s competitive. She is friends with Dorothy and Rose, but if she has enough provocation she becomes competitive with them. I think basically she’s insecure. It’s the other side of the Don Juan syndrome.”

The We TV cable network said it would honor McClanahan with a marathon of “Golden Girls” episodes featuring Blanche on Friday night. The Logo network said it would replay all episodes of “Sordid Lives,” her last TV series, on Sunday.

Vicki Lawrence worked with McClanahan on “Mama’s Family.” Lawrence called her “a consummate professional, an actor’s actor.”

“It was my good fortune to get to work with her on the first season and a half of ‘Mama’s Family.’ When she got stolen away from ‘Mama’s Family’ to do ‘Golden Girls,’ I cried,” Lawrence said in an e-mail.

After “The Golden Girls” was canceled in 1992, McClanahan, White and Getty reprised their roles in a short-lived spinoff, “Golden Palace.”

McClanahan continued working in television, on stage and in film, appearing in the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau vehicle “Out to Sea” and as the biology teacher in “Starship Troopers.”

She stepped in to portray Madame Morrible, the crafty headmistress, for a time in “Wicked,” Broadway’s long-running “Wizard of Oz” prequel.

In 2008, McClanahan appeared in the Logo comedy “Sordid Lives: The Series,” playing the slightly addled, elderly mother of an institutionalized drag queen.

During production, McClanahan was recovering from 2007 surgery on her knee. It didn’t stop her from filming a sex scene in which the bed broke, forcing her to hang on to a windowsill to avoid tumbling off.

McClanahan was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Okla., to building contractor William McClanahan and his wife, Dreda Rheua-Nell, a beautician. She graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa with a degree in German and theater arts.

McClanahan’s acting career began on the stage. According to a 1985 Los Angeles Times profile, she appeared at the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse, studied in New York with Uta Hagen and Harold Clurman, and worked in soaps and on the stage.

She won an Obie — the off-Broadway version of the Tony — in 1970 for “Who’s Happy Now,” playing the “other woman” in a family drama written by Oliver Hailey. She reprised the role in a 1975 television version; in a review, The New York Times described her character as “an irrepressible belle given to frequent bouts of ‘wooziness’ and occasional bursts of shrewdness.”

She had appeared only sporadically on television until producer Norman Lear tapped her for a guest role on “All in the Family” in 1971.

She went from there to a regular role in the “All in the Family” spinoff “Maude,” playing Vivian, the neighbor and best friend to Arthur in the starring role.

When Arthur died in April 2009, McClanahan recalled that she had felt constrained by “Golden Girls” during the later years of its run. “Bea liked to be the star of the show. She didn’t really like to do that ensemble playing,” McClanahan said.

McClanahan was married six times: Tom Bish, with whom she had a son, Mark Bish; actor Norman Hartweg; Peter D’Maio; Gus Fisher; and Tom Keel. She married Morrow Wilson on Christmas Day in 1997.

She called her 2007 memoir “My First Five Husbands … And the Ones Who Got Away.”

Charlie Sheen has reached an agreement with authorities in Colorado over domestic violence allegations involving his wife, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

The agreement was confirmed by Chief Deputy District Attorney Arnold Mordkin, who declined to disclose details.

But a source close to the situation revealed to Access Hollywood that the actor will plead guilty on Monday to one count of misdemeanor and will spend 30 days in the Pitkin County Jail.

Sheen had pleaded not guilty to menacing, criminal mischief and assault charges stemming from an argument with his wife, Brooke Mueller Sheen, on Christmas Day at an Aspen home where they were on vacation.

The most serious charge is menacing, a felony that carries a maximum three-year prison sentence.

Sheen’s attorney Richard Cummins did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment.

Access Hollywood has also reported that the star’s lawyers are trying to work out an agreement with the jail that will allow Sheen to smoke while there. A rep for the jail has indicated that the facility has had a no-smoking policy since 1992.

Sheen is scheduled to be in court Monday for a disposition hearing. His trial had been scheduled for July 21.

Cummins had sought to have statements thrown out that the “Two and a Half Men” actor made to police investigating the case. Cummins argued that an officer questioned Sheen in the basement of a house without advising him of his right to remain silent.

Charlie Sheen denied threatening or hitting his wife but told police that he broke two pairs of her eyeglasses in front of her.

A police officer’s arrest affidavit quoted Brooke Sheen as saying the actor pinned her on a bed while holding a knife to her throat and making a threat.

In an audio recording of a 911 call, a woman who identifies herself as Brooke tells the dispatcher, “I thought I was gonna die for one hour.”

Brooke Sheen’s attorney, Yale Galanter, previously said that Brooke Sheen had asked prosecutors to drop the case. Galanter did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press.

Dennis Hopper, the high-flying Hollywood wild man whose memorable and erratic career included an early turn in “Rebel Without a Cause,” an improbable smash with “Easy Rider” and a classic character role in “Blue Velvet,” has died. He was 74.

Hopper died Saturday at his home in the Los Angeles beach community of Venice, surrounded by family and friends, family friend Alex Hitz said. Hopper’s manager announced in October 2009 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The success of “Easy Rider,” and the spectacular failure of his next film, “The Last Movie,” fit the pattern for the talented but sometimes uncontrollable actor-director, who also had parts in such favorites as “Apocalypse Now” and “Hoosiers.” He was a two-time Academy Award nominee, and in March 2010, was honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

After a promising start that included roles in two James Dean films, Hopper’s acting career had languished as he developed a reputation for throwing tantrums and abusing alcohol and drugs. On the set of “True Grit,” Hopper so angered John Wayne that the star reportedly chased Hopper with a loaded gun.

He married five times and led a dramatic life right to the end. In January 2010, Hopper filed to end his 14-year marriage to Victoria Hopper, who stated in court filings that the actor was seeking to cut her out of her inheritance, a claim Hopper denied.

“Much of Hollywood,” wrote critic-historian David Thomson, “found Hopper a pain in the neck.”

A major hit
All was forgiven, at least for a moment, when he collaborated with another struggling actor, Peter Fonda, on a script about two pot-smoking, drug-dealing hippies on a motorcycle trip through the Southwest and South to take in the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

On the way, Hopper and Fonda befriend a drunken young lawyer (Jack Nicholson, whom Hopper had resisted casting, in a breakout role), but arouse the enmity of Southern rednecks and are murdered before they can return home.

“‘Easy Rider’ was never a motorcycle movie to me,” Hopper said in 2009. “A lot of it was about politically what was going on in the country.”

Fonda produced “Easy Rider” and Hopper directed it for a meager $380,000. It went on to gross $40 million worldwide, a substantial sum for its time. The film caught on despite tension between Hopper and Fonda and between Hopper and the original choice for Nicholson’s part, Rip Torn, who quit after a bitter argument with the director.

The film was a hit at Cannes, netted a best-screenplay Oscar nomination for Hopper, Fonda and Terry Southern, and has since been listed on the American Film Institute’s ranking of the top 100 American films. The establishment gave official blessing in 1998 when “Easy Rider” was included in the United States National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

London, May 4 : Actress Lynn Redgrave, who receivedOscar nominations for ”Georgy Girl” and ”Gods and Monsters”, has died at the age of 67.

Speaking on behalf of her children, her publicist Rick Miramontez said Redgrave died on Sunday night.

She had been treated for breast cancer in 2003.

Lynn’s death comes a year after her niece Natasha Richardson died from head injuries sustained in a skiing accident, reports The Mirror.

Children Ben, Pema and Annabel said: “Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven-year journey with breast cancer.

“She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives.

“Our entire family asks for privacy through this difficult time.”

“I really do,” Simpson told PEOPLE before the White House Correspondents’ dinner in Washington, D.C., Saturday. “She’s such an incredible woman, and she’s with such a powerful man.”

What does Simpson admire most about the First Lady? “Everything she does she exudes confidence,” says the singer. “I’m really just here to celebrate her.”

Simpson was just one among many celebrities who came out for the annual event and mingled at the packed pre-party. Other starts included Sex and the City star Kristin Davis, Michael Douglas and Bradley Cooper.

“It’s sort of like Oscar night,” mused comedian Bill Maher, who joked: “It’s great to mingle with America’s real intellectual heavyweights. I saw the Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber, Jessica Simpson, Ryan Seacrest – I can’t wait to talk politics.”

Despite all the bold-faced names, the most mobbed star of the evening was teen heartthrob Bieber. “Look at that guy: He’s got more secret service than [President] Obama,” quipped Entourage’s Adrian Grenier.

Still, the star of the night was President Barack Obama, who got lots of laughs during his speech. “It’s been quite a year, ” he said. “Lots of ups, lots of downs – except for my approval ratings, which have just gone down.”

Obama also poked fun at Tonight Show host Jay Leno, who was in attendance at the event. “I am glad that the only person’s whose ratings fell more than mine last year is here tonight. Great to see you, Jay,” the president quipped to loud laughter. “I’m also glad that I’m speaking first because we’ve all seen what happens when somebody takes the timeslot after Leno’s.”