Sideshow: Jennifer Hudson is ready for Broadway
Hudson: Broadway calls "I think I'm going to fall in love with Broadway," says Jennifer Hudson, who will make her Broadway debut this month as Shug Avery in a new adaptation of Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple.
Hudson: Broadway calls
"I think I'm going to fall in love with Broadway," says Jennifer Hudson, who will make her Broadway debut this month as Shug Avery in a new adaptation of Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple.
Hudson, 34, who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her role in Dreamgirls, says she's come a long way since her days as a shy girl in the church choir overcome by stage fright.
"I used to beg for a solo, and then when they gave it to me, I would be too afraid to sing," she tells Glamour. "I didn't start singing with my eyes open until I was 19 years old."
Who knew, Hudson says, she'd grow up to sing for the pope and the president?
"We speak to each other like we've been knowing each other forever," she says of President Obama.
Hudson, whose mother, brother, and nephew were murdered in 2008 by her sister's estranged husband, says having a child of her own helped her face the challenge of going on with life.
"I went from being an aunt, having a mom, and being a child to not having a mom, becoming a mom, and raising my own child," says Hudson, who gave birth to David Daniel Otunga Jr. in August 2009. "I tell David all the time, 'You saved my life.' "
Gossip petits fours
Fox has renewed its animated comedy Bob's Burgers for two more seasons, says Variety. . . . Blake Shelton's people tell People rumors are untrue that Miranda Lambert's ex-husband is dating his Voice costar Gwen Stefani. In August, Stefani and Gavin Rossdale announced they were kaput. . . . Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild actress Quvenzhané Wallis, 12, has signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to pen four books, including a picture book loosely based on her life.
Stern defends Kimmel
American media god Howard Stern says former Tonight Show host Jay Leno has no right dissing late-night star Jimmy Kimmel.
Leno recently told the New York Daily News that Kimmel was losing the ratings war because he has a "mean streak."
Stern takes exception.
"No one is more cruel than Jay Leno," the schlock jock said Wednesday on his Sirius XM show. "Jimmy Kimmel is one of the nicest guys on the planet. . . . Jay is putting his enormous chin where it doesn't belong." Stern is well known for defending niceness.
This 'Jackass' went to jail
A Los Angeles court on Wednesday sentenced Jackass genius Steve-O (Stephen Gilchrist Glover) to 30 days in jail. Steve-O climbed a 100-foot crane on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to protest SeaWorld for keeping killer whales in captivity. Once at the top, the stuntman lit fireworks and inflated a killer whale balloon that read "SeaWorld Sucks."
The British-born TV star was defiant yet compliant. "I must say I'm ready to go to jail," he said, "not just because it will bring so much attention to the plight of orcas in captivity, but because it's nice to let people know I haven't lost my edge."
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