BIRTHS
Spider-Man 3 star Tobey Maguire, 31, and fiancée Jennifer Meyer (her dad
is Universal Studios chief Ron Meyer), 29, welcomed a baby girl on Nov. 10.
ENGAGED
Ellen Pompeo (Grey's Anatomy), 37, will wed her record-producer
boyfriend Chris Ivery, 38. No date has been set.
ARRESTED
Daniel Baldwin (Paparazzi), 46, was arrested on Nov. 7 in Santa Monica
after he allegedly pinched a 2003 GMC Yukon. His lawyer did not return
calls for comment.
SPLITS
After separating on Oct. 30, Reese Witherspoon, 30, filed for divorce
from Ryan Phillippe, 32, citing irreconcilable differences.... In
response to a bid by estranged wife Britney Spears, 24, for custody of
their two sons, Kevin Federline, 28, counterfiled for custody on Nov. 8.
COURTS
On Nov. 6, journalist Anita Busch named Hollywood mogul Michael Ovitz,
59, as a defendant in her civil suit against PI Anthony Pellicano, 62,
and his associates. Busch claims Pellicano and others threatened her
when she was working for the L.A. Times as an entertainment reporter.
Both Ovitz and Pellicano have denied any wrongdoing.... The Supreme
Court ruled Nov. 13 that it would not hear a $150 million copyright
infringement case against The Da Vinci Code scribe Dan Brown, 42. Lewis
Perdue alleged that Brown stole ideas from Perdue's 2000 novel, Daughter
of God.
LIFE SUPPORT
After being placed on EW's Cancellation Watch, Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60
on the Sunset Strip (starring Matthew Perry, above) was picked up by NBC
for a full season. The net also greenlit nine more episodes of
struggling drama Friday Night Lights....Comcast ended negotiations with
al-Jazeera International, leaving the Arab news net without a cable
distributor days before its Nov. 15 launch in the States. U.S. viewers
will be able to watch the premiere on the Internet and satellite TV.
CANCELED
Guns N' Roses canceled their Nov. 6 concert in Portland, Maine, after
officials told them state law prohibited drinking alcohol on stage. Axl
Rose, 44, apologized to fans on the band's website, faulting the
''particularly Draconian'' authorities.
INCIDENT
Denise Richards, 35, threw two computers from a hotel balcony on the
Canadian set of her movie Blonde and Blonder during a Nov. 8 altercation
with unauthorized photographers. (''They are lucky their laptops were the
only things that were thrown off the ledge,'' said Richards' rep.) The
hardware struck two women, 90 and 81, who suffered minor injuries. No
charges were filed.
DEATHS
Actress Marian Marsh Henderson (Svengali), 93, of natural causes, Nov.
9, in Palm Desert, Calif.... Broadway press agent Robert Fennell, 48,
who worked on hundreds of shows, including Wicked, of liver cancer, Nov.
12, in Yonkers, N.Y.... Sci-fi author Jack Williamson (The Humanoids),
98, Nov. 10, of natural causes, in Portales, N.M.
LEGACY
ELLEN WILLIS 1941-2006
One of the first major rock critics, a brilliant feminist thinker and
teacher, Willis died Nov. 9 of lung cancer. She was an intellectual who
valued pop culture, even the male-dominated bastion of rock. No
ivory-tower academic, she wrote in 1979 that the Velvet Underground used
''a mass art form...for transcendence, for connection, for resistance to
despair.'' She could have been writing about herself.
Gerald Levert 1966-2006
Known for making the ladies swoon with his rich and silky voice, Gerald Levert, who suffered from a heart condition, died at his home outside Cleveland on Nov. 10. He was the son of original O'Jays singer Eddie Levert and founding member of R&B trios LeVert and LSG. Releasing 19 albums between 1985 and 2004, Levert remained a gold- and platinum-selling fixture on the R&B charts with singles like 1986's ''Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop (Goes My Mind),'' 1987's ''Casanova,'' and ''Baby Hold on to Me,'' a 1992 duet with his dad. ''Gerald wrote and sang from his heart,'' says singer and friend Patti LaBelle, who collaborated with Levert on her 1997 CD, Flame. ''He was warm, fun, and cuddly like a big ole teddy bear.''
