Daily News Feed 12.03.08

Brandy Breaks 4-Year Recording Hiatus
You can’t blame Brandy for being a little nervous stepping back into the recording studio. Four years have elapsed since the release of the R&B/pop singer’s fourth album, “Afrodisiac.” And it has been just two years since her headline-making car accident in which another driver died. “Once you get into a zone, it’s hard to come out,” says Brandy, who will not face criminal charges but still faces a wrongful-death lawsuit that goes to trial in April. “What I experienced in the past couple of years was tough, but I had to face it and find the strength to move forward. Connecting back with music has definitely helped me through everything. Once I got back in the studio, the butterflies went away.” (Continue Reading…)

‘Housewives’ Star NeNe Leakes Evicted
NeNe Leakes, the breakout star of the hit Bravo reality show “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” is no longer living at the pricey Duluth five-bedroom residence shown on the series. According to Darryl Pierce, the broker for the 5,000-square-foot home at 1765 Silvermere Court in Duluth, NeNe and her husband, Gregory Leakes, left in November after Winwood Properties filed an eviction notice in September. he notice, filed Sept. 24 with the Magistrate Court of Gwinnett County, said Greg Leakes owed $6,240 in past due rent. “The tenant said they would move by Sept. 14th because they could no longer afford the house,” the notice said. The owner of the home, Kajani Shenaz Ali, lives overseas, Pierce said. Online records show the home in the gated community of Stonebrier at Sugarloaf, was purchased for $829,400 in September 2006. Pierce said the Leakeses moved into the home shortly after it was built in 2006. (Continue Reading…)

Police Confident Hudson Family Murders Solved
Police charged the estranged brother-in-law of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson with the murders of her mother, brother and nephew, expressing confidence on Tuesday the evidence was sufficient to convict. “You can never always know how a jury will decide a case but I’m confident the evidence is there and I’m confident we’ll be successful,” Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said. Police said they had the murder weapon and physical evidence as well as testimony that would convict William Balfour, 27, the estranged husband of Jennifer Hudson’s elder sister, Julia. The motive for the October 24 murders involved a dispute between the two, police said. Found dead from gunshots were Hudson’s mother Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother, Jason Hudson, 29, in the family’s South Side home. The body of Julian King, Julia’s son, was found four days later, with the gun used in the slayings found nearby. (Continue Reading…)