Sideshow: Anthony verdict a media magnet

What were you doing when the Casey Anthony verdict was delivered?

Chances are you were watching cable coverage or following the event on your digital device.

The channel HLN, a CNN spin-off, had the most-watched hour in its history. A record 4.57 million tuned in between 2 and 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. Viewership peaked at 5.2 million as the verdict was read.

HLN has owned the trial, largely because its primary anchor, Nancy Grace, has made the prosecution of Anthony a personal crusade. HLN's prime-time ratings are up 86 percent over last year's. A record 2.89 million tuned in for Grace's reaction Tuesday night. She did not disappoint, thundering, "The devil is dancing!"

On Twitter, the top 10 trending topics Tuesday afternoon were Anthony-related, including #notguilty, Nancy Grace, Johnnie Cochran, HLN, Jose Baez, Law & Order, and Law Abiding Citizen. The NBC series L&O shouldered in there because many people commented that its prosecutors would have brought home a guilty verdict. Law Abiding Citizen, a film set in Philadelphia, explored glaring injustices in our legal system.

Our favorite tweet came from Kim Kardashian: "WHAT!!!!???!!!! CASEY ANTHONY FOUND NOT GUILTY!!!! I am speechless!!!" Really? Wasn't your father part of the defense team that won O.J. Simpson's acquittal on murder charges?Justin Timberlake, 30, and Jessica Biel, 29, may be getting back together. But shhhh: Be vewwy, vewwy quiet!!!!

Well, that's enough of that! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! World's prettiest couple!!!!! Love triumphant!

Just and Jess announced their separateness in March, to our tearful regret, and now, says Us mag, they're seeing each other again. Unnamed Source (whose initials the mag bears as its name) says they've been talking the whole time, Jess really wants to give it another chance, and Just, hilariously, is realizing that "single life is not what it's cracked up to be." Really? What's it cracked up to be? Gotta love anonymous sources. They can say the dumbest, most idiotic, benighted things and see them in print. A lot like celebrity gossip columnists!

We like Jess and Just. We really like their taste in hats. That means we like the idea of them together, oh, twice as much. You go, kidz.

NBC says James Spader, recently of Boston Legal, will become a regular on The Office. His character, cracked exec Robert California, debuted at the end of this season. He replaces Kathy Bates, who, as star of Harry's Law, had to make a choice. The Office still hasn't decided, and it's driving us crazy, whether to write super comic Steve Carell out of the show. Wait . . . wasn't that a done deal? No? Yes? Hello?????

Forbes mag lists the highest-earning actresses every year, and it's a net-and-gross-out! Tied at the top are Angelina Jolie and Sarah Jessica Parker, each of whom carted off $30 million between May 2010 and this May. Tied for third are Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon at $28 mil. (See? Your movies can flop and you can still make out like a bandida!) Tied for fifth are Julia Roberts and Kristen Stewart at only $20 mil. Next come Katherine "Krazy Kat" Heigl ($19 mil), Cameron "No Hips" Diaz ($18 mil), and Sandra Bullock ($15 mil), even though Sandra hasn't been seen on screen since 2009. Number 10 was Meryl Streep, limping in at a pitiable $10 million, but then she, too, has been movieless for two years. What, does she get money just for being her? "Oh, you're Meryl Streep, here, take this $10 million"? Where do we get her job?

And that name may be Alef! - first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. "SideShow" favorite Natalie Portman and fiance Benjamin Millepied became parents in June but had shunned the spotlight, not divulging baby's name. Now reports say it's Alef! It's a beginning.

CNN released its new prime-time lineup Wednesday, and it's adios to Eliot Spitzer and his show, In the Arena, itself a Band-Aid after the debacle of Parker Spitzer, his doomed tandem with Kathleen Parker

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First moves are Aug. 8, with the whole thing in place by autumn. John King will move his square-jawed show from 7 to 6 p.m. At 7 comes news cutie Erin Burnett, newly hired away from CNBC. Anderson Cooper's show takes Spitzer's previous parking space at 8 p.m. Then come Piers Morgan, a Cooper reprise at 10, and a Burnett redo at 11.

Clayton Hill, once in the Nation of Islam and now in the federal slammer in Chicago, tells HipHopDX.com he was an accessory to the killing of rapper Notorious B.I.G. on March 9, 1997. Hill claims that, acting under orders from higher-ups at an Atlanta mosque, he met an L.A. man who called himself Dawoud Muhammad. Said man gave Hill a firearm. Said he'd shot B.I.G. with it.