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EXPECTING
Minnie Driver (The Riches), 38, is pregnant with her first child. The
actress hasn't identified the dad.... American Idol alum Bo Bice, 32,
and wife Caroline Fisher, 27, have a second little one on the way.
BIRTHS
It's a girl — a first for Halle Berry, 41, and her boyfriend, model
Gabriel Aubry, 32. The baby arrived on March 16.... Sabrina, the Teenage Witch's Melissa Joan Hart, 31, and her husband, musician Mark Wilkerson, 30, conjured up their second son, Braydon, on March 12 in L.A.
COURTS
On March 14, an L.A. jury ruled that the doctors who treated John Ritter are not guilty of negligence. In 2003, Ritter was rushed to the hospital
with chest pains and died hours later due to a torn aorta; his widow, Amy Yasbeck (The Mask), 45, sued his physicians a year later. According
to the jury, Ritter ignored doctors' advice in 2001 to seek follow-up
treatment after a body scan.... On March 17, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney,
65, was ordered to pay roughly $50 million to estranged wife Heather
Mills, 40. A London judge is expected to finalize their divorce on May
12.... An L.A. court ruled on March 17 that singer Britney Spears, 26,
must pay $375,000 in legal bills for ex-husband Kevin Federline, 30, in
the ongoing custody battle over their two sons.... Jackass prankster Steve-O (né Stephen Glover), 33, was charged with felony possession of
cocaine on March 10 in L.A. The new charges stem from his March 3 arrest
after allegedly banging on his neighbor's door with a metal rod.
According to Glover's March 13 statement on his website, he's been in an
L.A. psych ward ever since a team of Jackass cast and crew members — including star Johnny Knoxville — escorted him there this month.
''I'm not getting out of this 'insane asylum' anytime in the immediate
future,'' he wrote. ''I did a great deal of damage to my brain by abusing
drugs, and now that they've all worn off, I'm facing the consequences.''
ARREST
Thomas Jane (The Punisher), 39, was arrested on DUI charges March 17
after being pulled over near Bakersfield, Calif., for allegedly driving
over 120 mph.
DEATH
Ola Brunkert, 61, the backing drummer for Swedish pop idols ABBA, after
accidentally cutting himself on a broken glass door, March 16, in
Majorca, Spain. — Additional reporting by Stewart Allen and Adam Markovitz
LEGACY
ARTHUR C. CLARKE (1917-2008)
The influential British sci-fi author, who died of
respiratory problems in Sri Lanka on March 19, penned more than 100
books in his 90 years. But Clarke — a veritable scholar of science — will be
best remembered for 2001: A Space Odyssey, his 1968 novel that he
adapted into a film with director Stanley Kubrick that same year. ''Very
few people could do better than Arthur,'' says friend and colleague
Frederik Pohl. ''He knew what he was talking about. He was a natural
resource.'' — Simon Vozick-Levinson
