AMERICAN IDOL - HUDSON BACK WITH SWEETHEART

AMERICAN IDOL star JENNIFER HUDSON has revived her relationship with childhood sweetheart JAMES PEYTON, a month after she traded him in for an American football player. According to the National Enquirer, Hudson, 26, has ended her fling with New York Jets player Kerry Rhodes, 25 - and is back dating maintenance engineer James Peyton. A close friend tells the tabloid, "Jennifer was so caught up in her own success - rising from American Idol finalist to winning an Academy Award for Dreamgirls - that she had to leave James behind. "Her family and friends thought she was making a mistake. James had been wonderful to her - and it was not right to put him on the backburner after she had made it big. "They discovered the spark was still there and soon they were back together."