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It's been more than a month since the shooting deaths of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew, but the case is picking up steam.

A day after his arrest, Hudson's estranged brother-in-law, William Balfour, was formally charged this morning with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of home invasion by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

The 27-year-old Balfour, who has been the sole focus of the Chicago Police Department's investigation from day one, is scheduled to appear for a bond hearing Wednesday afternoon.

Until then, Balfour's attorney, Joshua Kutnick, is wasting no time in defending his client, telling E! News that while Balfour may be a convenient suspect, he's not a guilty one.

"They were under pressure because William is scheduled for a parole hearing tomorrow and, if successful, he would have been released," Kutnick said.

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AP Photo/Sang Tan

Boy George won't be making a star turn in his London trial.

The ex-Culture Clubber's lawyer told the Snaresbrook Crown Court that the crooner otherwise known as George O'Dowd would not be called to defend himself on charges of handcuffing and roughing up a male escort.

Yesterday, the jury heard a recorded police interview with the singer from April 2007 in which he admitted to restraining the victim, Audun Carlsen, whom George suspected of stealing pornographic photos from his computer.

There’s another reason to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, besides the fact that it stars Brad Pitt, is directed by David Fincher and looks awesome. Drumroll please...Shiloh makes a little cameo! Brad refuses to call it that, though.

At last night's New Orleans premiere of the film, he explained to E! News that Shi is only in one scene because the real actor baby was crying too much and they needed a baby who could behave. Shiloh obliged and showed that actor baby what's up.

However, Shiloh better not be hoping to go all Jaden Smith, because papa Pitt sternly plans to tell his kids, "[You can pursue acting only] after you’re 18, you can do whatever you want to do.”

If we're not going to be seeing any Jolie-Pitts at the cineplex for another decade, at least we still have Suri Cruise. We have a hunch she'll be making her big-screen debut soon enough...

Chris Haston / NBC

Yes, Virginia, some shows do fall faster and harder than Heroes.

ABC's holiday combo of Shrek the Halls and How the Grinch Stole Christmas together shed an entire Bones—or, nearly 10 million viewers—from last year to last night, Nielsen estimates said.   

But because the shows were so big last year, they remained pretty big this year. Shrek (11.2 million) and Grinch (11.7 million) each easily won their time slots in the 8 p.m. hour.

NBC's Heroes (7.9 million) can't afford to bleed any viewers. And it didn't. It again held steady, and was even up a bit from last week. Except among the 18-49 demo, where it was down.

Returning from a holiday break, the CW's Gossip Girl (3.1 million) was up in viewers, and No. 1 in its hour among women 18-34. ABC's Samantha Who? (6.8 million) missed Dancing With the Stars. A repeat of CBS' How I Met Your Mother (8 million, down 2 million) got Grinch-ed at 8:30 p.m, while a repeat of CBS' Two and a Half Men (13.7 million) was Monday's biggest show.

Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chroncicles (5.9 million) and Prison Break (5.8 million) showed marked improvement over last week.

Oscilloscope Pictures; Sony

Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams and James Franco, your tickets to Oscar season have been punched.

Mickey Rourke, you've been punched, too. In a good way, this time.

All actors were front and center as nominations were announced today for the Independent Spirit Awards, the movie-award calendar's first major test.

Brokeback Mountain costars Hathaway and Williams are up for Best Female Lead for dressing down in the art-house hit Rachel Getting Married and the upcoming Wendy and Lucy, respectively.

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