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ENGAGEMENTS
Desperate Housewives' Marcia Cross, 43, will wed stockbroker beau Tom Mahoney, 47. No date has been announced, but this will be the first marriage for both.
EXPECTING
Actor Kevin Sorbo (Hercules), 46, and his wife, actress Sam Jenkins(Twenty Bucks), 38, will greet their third child in October.
CELEBRATION
''I went to this great DVD party, and I didn't even get a copy,'' Naveen Andrews said of the Aug. 16 bash on Oahu, Hawaii, for the Sept. 6 release of Lost's first season. ''But the band [Slug] rocked.''
COURTS
Bizarre religious celeb story of the week: Bruce Kuhlman, 59, a former
personal assistant to Carlos Santana, 58, filed suit against the
guitarist on April 13 in a Marin, Calif., court. Kuhlman claims he was
wrongfully fired when his consciousness was ''calibrated'' and deemed too
low after Santana's wife, Deborah, hired a man known as ''Dr. Dan'' to
bring employees closer to God. In a statement on his website, Santana
says, ''We are saddened by the untrue claims made by our former
employee.''... Evanescence's label, Wind-Up Records, reached an
out-of-court settlement Aug. 11 that permits anyone who bought their
live album, Anywhere but Home, at a Maryland Wal-Mart to get a refund. Last December, a Maryland couple filed a suit after buying the CD from the store, complaining that it contained explicit lyrics without a
parental advisory sticker.... Leonard Cohen, 70, filed suit Aug. 15 in L.A. against his former business manager Kelley Lynch. The
singer-songwriter claims Lynch defrauded him of more than $5 million
while he spent time in a Buddhist monastery from 1994 to 1999. Lynch was
unavailable for comment.
RECOVERING
Another Desperate star report: On Aug. 17, a falling pole bumped Eva Longoria, 30, on the head during filming. The actress was taken to the hospital and released later that day.
AILING
Actress Natasha Lyonne, 26, is in critical condition in an NYC hospital, suffering from complications from hepatitis C.
DEATHS
Robert Moog, 71, whose eponymous synthesizer inspired acts from
the Beach Boys to Stevie Wonder to Nine Inch Nails and is chiefly credited for heralding the entire electronica genre, Aug. 21, of brain cancer, in Asheville, N.C. (for more on Moog, see here.... Cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly),
81, Aug. 16, of a heart attack, in Rome.... Esther Wong, 88, whose
Madame Wong's clubs gave early breaks to the Police and the Go-Gos, Aug.
14, of undisclosed causes, in L.A.... Actor and philanthropist Brock
Peters, 78, who played falsely accused Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird, Aug. 23, of complications from pancreatic cancer, in L.A.
LEGACY
Pixar Animation Studios lost a giant Aug. 16 when story specialist Joe
Ranft, 45, was killed in a car accident. A master at storyboarding, he
shaped the Toy Story sequence in which plastic army soldiers invade a kid's birthday party. He voiced several Pixar characters, too, including genial caterpillar Heimlich in A Bug's Life. In a statement, Toy director John Lasseter mourned ''a tremendous loss to moviegoers.'' Sad and true. — Steve Daly
EPILOGUE
Fireworks (and ashes) lit the Colorado sky on Aug. 21, in a gonzo
goodbye to the father of gonzo journalism, Hunter S. Thompson. Among the
guests was Johnny Depp, who reportedly funded the $2 million-plus
ceremony. Thompson, who committed suicide Feb. 20, had requested that
his cremated remains be shot out of a cannon on his ranch.
