New URL for the American Idol buzz blog!
Please go to the new American Idol Buzz blog at http://blogs.ajc.com/american-idol-blog/
Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > October > 28
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
10/28: More on the Jennifer Hudson tragedy, Josiah Leming opens up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve been so busy with Michael Johns and David Archuleta, I haven’t done much on Jennifer Hudson at all.
Here’s the latest news:
-From the Chicago Tribune:: Julian King, the 7-year-old nephew of actress-singer Jennifer Hudson, died from multiple gunshot wounds and his death has been ruled a homicide, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said this afternoon. The announcement follows an autopsy on Julian’s body, which was found in a sport-utility-vehicle parked on a street on the city’s West Side on Monday.
On the morning of the day Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother were killed, the singer’s sister Julia Hudson had argued with her estranged husband over car payments, sources say.
The husband, William Balfour, is in custody but has not been charged with the killings of Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew.
Although her famous daughter encouraged her mom to leave their often-dangerous Englewood neighborhood, Donerson resisted.
“She didn’t need to move,” says Richard Lyons, Hudson’s acting coach for her 2006 Oscar-winning role in Dreamgirls. “She didn’t need a bigger house. She didn’t need anyone to buy her a new car. She didn’t desire or want those things. She was just supportive and stood by her daughter.”
And Jennifer’s sister Julia (right) blogs about her son’s death, according to mtv.com.
“I guess it’s time to update this,” she continued. “Now because I chose to do what was natural to me and love someone, it cost me my beautiful family. It cost me my beautiful, loving, supporting mother Darnell, my true blue baby brother Jason — I love you baby — and last but never least, my only son Julian, my innocent baby one that was sheltered from all the evil in the world because we loved him so much.”
And in more frivolous “Idol” news:
-Thanks to Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler has gone vegetarian:
“Most country girls do like their meat!” she told People. “I used to eat steak rare all the time. I’d just throw it on the grill for two seconds, flip it over and it was done and everyone was like, ‘That’s so gross - that thing is still moving!’ ”
He’s quite embittered by the “Idol” experience:
“The real story is that the producers didn’t like me,” said Leming, who lived out of his car during his “Idol” experience. ” ‘Cause I wanted to do my own songs, and I wanted to have complete control.”
And of the show that brought him to the world’s notice, he added: “The producers pretty much control everything. You know, it’s all kind of rigged, and hands are coming in from places you don’t see. You just see the hand. It’s a dirty hand. And you don’t want to eat the food that that hand touches.”
“Idol” declined to comment.
Despite his new album coming out and having a pad in L.A., he seems a bit lost and may always be:
*”Sadness finds you,” he said as he ripped a sliver of onion in half, again and again, until the fragments covered his plate. “It doesn’t matter where you are, or how much money you’ve got, or how many people know your name. It’ll get you one way or another.” *
