This is the worst Friday we can remember since the last terrible one. Darnell Hudson, mother to almost universally loved Oscar-winner and American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson, was murdered in Chicago today. "Investigators said two shooting victims were discovered inside a home belonging to Hudson's mother just before 3:00 this afternoon," local TV reports. The other victim: her brother Jason. Police are releasing no details except to say it was "domestic," which means... not a robbery, we suppose. Just sad.

Tragedy In Chicago. Jennifer Hudson's mother was found shot to death just hours ago in her Chicago home along with another man, which TMZ is identifying as her brother Jason, in what authorities are calling a "domestic" shooting. UPDATE: Now a 7-year-old nephew is reportedly missing, and police are searching for someone named William Balfour, who had lived in Hudson's mother's house in the past year. [CBS2Chicago]

Jennifer Hudson is an Oscar-winning singer/actress, so of course it makes sense that she would marry a castoff from the second season of VH1's low-rent The Bachelorette takeoff, I Love New York. Sadly, New York (also known as Tiffany Pollard) was not invited to the blessed union between J-Hud and her new groom, David Otunga (nee "Punk"), but she helpfully weighed in anyway, via In Touch Weekly:

Madonna carrying son David into the Kabbalah Center on East 48th Street ... Whitney Port walking in SoHo ... Blake Lively shooting a scene for Gossip Girl in Times Square ... Pete Wentz leaving the SoHo Grand with a coffee in hand ... Denzel Washington and wife Pauletta leaving lunch at Nello's ... Clay Aiken leaving the Shubert Theater ... Jennifer Hudson posing for photos outside MTV in Times Square ... Anne Hathaway standing outside outside the Letterman show ... Katie Holmes leaving her apartment en route to the Schoenfeld Theatre ... and Britney Spears making her way into the Fragment jewelry store on Prince Street, then checking out In The Heights on Broadway later that night.

Kate Winslet picking up her kids from school with her ex-husband, Jim Threapleton ... David and Victoria Beckham shopping on Fifth Avenue ... Michelle Williams' daughter Matilda walking in the rain with her nanny ... Mariska Hargitay walking on the street ... Ali Larter outside the Today show ... Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise, and Suri leaving Alice's Tea Cup on East 64th Street ... Jennifer Hudson showing up to an appearance on BET's 106 & Park ... Michael Cera and Julia Louis-Dreyfus outside the Letterman show ... Jennifer Lopez making an appearance at Macy's in Herald Square for the launch of her new fragrance ... Rapper T.I. leaving the Waverly Inn ... and Britney Spears leaving Serendipity 3 with a bunch of handlers.

Matt Damon unpacking luggage with his wife and daughter in front of his apartment building on Lafayette Street ... Britney Spears arriving at JFK ... Cameron Diaz walking in the Village with boyfriend Paul Sculfor ... David and Victoria Beckham making an appearance at Macy's in Herald Square for the launch of their new fragrance ... Taylor Momsen on the set of Gossip Girl in Queens ... Katie Holmes carrying Suri and then later heading to dinner with Tom at Il Valentino on East 56th Street ... Anne Hathaway leaving the premiere of The Class at Avery Fisher Hall ... Jennifer Hudson at the airport ... James Franco looking at his Blackberry ... Brooke Shields leaving NBC after an appearance on Conan O'Brien's show ... and Michelle Williams leaving the premiere of her new movie, Wendy and Lucy, at the Ziegfeld Theater.

And You, And You, And You—You're Gonna Wed Her. Jennifer Hudson was given the greatest gift for her 27th birthday any ascendant American Idol also-ran could ever ask for: an engagement ring from her boyfriend, David Otunga. Like his fiancee, Otunga himself is a notable reality TV runner-up, having been passed over for lifetime studding services by a professional skank on VH1's I Love New York 2. Back then, the world knew him as Punk; but from here on out, it's Mr. That Guy With J-Hud. Congratulations to the happy couple! [AP]

• Jennifer Lopez competed in a triathalon in Malibu, then flew to New York to throw Marc Anthony a birthday party at the Bowery Hotel. It's unclear, though, if she ever had an injured foot, which was the reason she gave for pulling out of the Project Runway finale last week and now some are wondering if a fight with Harvey Weinstein over a movie role was the real reason she cancelled. [People, NYDN, MSNBC]

Author James Frey turns 39 today. Another author who has dealt with a bit of controversy is celebrating, too: Jessica Seinfeld, the wife of Jerry Seinfeld, is 37. Restaurateur Stephen Hanson is turning 59. Sculptor Robert Gober is 54. Photographer Nan Goldin is 55. Emmy Rossum is turning 22. Actor Benjamin McKenzie is 30. Book designer Chip Kidd is turning 44. Blogger and former magazine dude Jeff Jarvis is 54. Literary agent David McCormick is 47. Ben Folds is 42. And two American Idol winners are celebrating: Jennifer Hudson is 27 and Ruben Studdard is 30. On Saturday, former Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams will turn 40, Stella McCartney will turn 37, Ben Savage will be 28, and Fiona Apple will celebrate her 31st. On Sunday: Sex and the City producer Michael Patrick King will be 54, Nas will celebrate his 35th, model Carmen Kass will be 30, and former financial titan (and Mike Bloomberg's former boss) John Gutfreund will be 79.

Jennifer Hudson signing autographs for fans before filming a segment for Regis & Kelly ... Julianne Moore hailing a cab in the Village ... Rainn Wilson taking a walk downtown with a chick ... Jessica Simpson leaving the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South ... Nas protesting outside the News Corp. building ... Eliot Spitzer taking a solo stroll uptown ... Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon holding hands while walking to dinner ... and half the socials in Manhattan at a goodbye party last night in honor of Rufus Albermarle.

What would a Sex And The City movie premiere be without bouts of drama worthy of the show itself? While last night's premiere in New York looked glamorous on camera, on the scene it was another story entirely. From a controversial remark made by the franchise’s token villainness to fashion mishaps to thousands of ticketless die-hard fans ending up in tears, the scene outside Radio City Music Hall last night was chaotic and Cosmo-drenched. And that was just the crowd! As for the stars of the film, there were signs that sex-despising Sarah Jessica Parker's co-stars weren't entirely pleased to pose in front of the movie's poster (you know, the one that they don't even appear on). All the scandals and controversy, plus the highs and lows of the cast's fashion choices, after the jump.

Who doesn’t adore blind items? True, many are snoozy (“Which unmarried local newscaster is totally making out with his assistant!?!”), but when the sneaky item involves “rotund actresses,” “cocaine-fueled romps,” and name-calling on the level of “this beast,” we are all over it. In today’s NY Daily News, those lovable married gossips Rush & Molloy serve up one of the juiciest Just Askings we’ve seen in some time:

It took several years for the ladies of Sex And The City to finally figure that whole cell phone thingie out (Carrie’s neon pink contraption in the series finale was one of the cutest/saddest attempts by a TV show to be “cool” we’ve ever seen) and, as these two leaked clips from the movie show, it’s taken them until now to conquer the Booty Text discussion. In the first clip — spoiler-phobes should avoid there eyes starting NOW — Sarah Jessica Parker brags to her assistant, played by Jennifer Hudson, about her texting ignorance before launching into a wink-filled lecture on what exactly your 20s, 30s and 40s are all about. And in the second, SJP brags to her hags about her brand new apartment before launching into a wink-filled lecture on boys ‘n real estate. We haven’t been winked at so many times since...the series finale of Sex And The City.

Having done our homework about dedicated Hollywood recluses over the last few days, we can assert with 100 percent certainty that despite her disappearance after the Park City clusterfuck that was Hounddog, Dakota Fanning is no John Hughes or Terrence Malick. Nevertheless, while this somewhat frightening video passed along by MTV (with its insistent English narrator positing: "Was she scared off by the negative press for Hounddog, or did she simply run and hide because she hit that awkward pubescent stage? Because it seems like all the little girl roles lately have been filled by others!") helps allay our worst DakotAWOL fears, what replaces them is perhaps eerier than any exile we could have imagined.

Sad news for any schadenfreude addicts out there, but there was nary a swan head nor a peek of butt floss out to be seen on the carpet last night. Instead, we saw 80s-esque gold glitter fiascos (Faye Dunaway), billowy black muumuus (Ellen Page) and particularly poor choices in fabric, especially for a former stripper (Diablo!). While there aren't any oh-no-she-didn't moments, we were disappointed in several of the carpet walkers this evening:

Out magazine's annual Out 100 gala is like the Oscars of gayness: Redundant, sparkly, long. Though the bouncers and PR girls lurking in every doorway of Cipriani's Wall Street desired to keep us out, the gays' desire to have their pictures taken was stronger—and so we infiltrated every level of the elitist gay caste system. We began at the tail of the red carpet next to Queerty reporters, the pasta buffet, the people who ate from the pasta buffet and ended with our hair blowing in the wind of Chaka Kahn's stage exit. She was swift enough to avoid gay mauling. Single Straight Female guest reporter Amy Odell and shutterbug Nikola Tamindzic captured her and those who weren't as lucky. He's got even more here.

From the mailbag: "I hesitate to even say this, but they are filming Sex and the City outside my office building at 9th and Broadway. A bunch of who I assume to be NYU students were standing around as Jennifer Hudson walked from one trailer to another. They must be freshmen, because they really haven't mastered the whole not caring about celeb sightings thing. Anyhow, Jennifer Hudson was wearing black stirrup pants—are those in style now?"

· Because that weekend-house mortgage isn't going to pay itself, Don Cheadle signs on for the Emma Roberts vehicle Hotel for Dogs (plot more or less self-explanatory). [Variety]
· Hollywood Out of Ideas, Recycling Lightcycles Edition: Newly assigned Logan's Run director Joseph Kosinski is in "final negotiations to develop and direct" a new Tron movie from a top-secret idea by two Lost writers, a cutting-edge take rumored to involve Tron Guy's efforts to escape the YouTubes after being digitized into the viral video world by the evil Master Control Program. [THR]
· Fear of the looming labor apocalypse leads Roman Polanski to withdraw from his megabudgeted Pompeii project. [Variety]
· Cinea discontinues production of the magical, privacy-preventing DVD player that could play enchanted Oscar screeners issued by the MPAA's copyright-respecting wizards. [THR]
· Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson's Dreamgirls catfighting experience should come in handy on the set of the Sex and the City movie, where she'll play Carrie Bradshaw's assistant. [Variety]

· CAA takes the first steps in building ice-cold new client's Jim Carrey confidence back up, working to book him in the easy comedy gig Me Time, in which he'd play a put-upon, Mr. Mom-style househusband. [Variety]
· Newly minted Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson is in talks for her next acting gig, the ensemble Winged Creatures, which already has a cast including Forest Whitaker, Guy Pearce, Jackie Earle Haley, and Dakota Fanning, with whom Hudson is expected to have daily diva confrontations that even her Dreamgirls experience with Beyonce won't have prepared her for. [THR]
· Helen Mirren takes some time off from demanding, Oscar-worthy performances to go slumming in National Treasure: The Book of Secrets as the MILF who gave birth to Nicolas Cage. [Variety]
· The world needs more movies inspired by guys named Tebucky. [THR]
· Variety salutes Scary Hollywood Lawyers! All your favorites are here: Bert Fields! Marty Singer! That Skip Guy! [Variety]

In what could point towards a slackening of the once-rigorous standards for recruitment into their Celebrity Goodwill Ambassadorship grooming programing, American Idol survivor and recent Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson was invited to address the U.N. yesterday. She wasn't there to tattle to the Committee on Human Rights Violations about Simon Cowell's Geneva Convention-violating treatment of fellow Idol contestants, however, but rather to represent ladies' face-painting giant Avon (she's their new spokesmodel!) on International Women's Day: