Monitor

BIRTHS
Music maker Madonna, 42, gave birth Aug. 11 — three weeks early — to a 5-pound 9-ounce boy, Rocco. It's her first child with director Guy Ritchie, 32. She has a daughter, Lourdes, 3, from a previous relationship. After denying reports the baby was hospitalized for up to a week, Madonna's publicist acknowledged minor birth complications but insisted neither life was threatened.... On Aug. 15, David Bowie, 53, and wife Iman, 45, welcomed their first child together, 7-pound 4-ounce Alexandria Zahra Jones (Dad's original surname). Bowie has a son, Duncan (né Zowie), 29, and Iman a daughter, Zulekah, 22, both from previous marriages ... On Aug. 1, William H. Macy (Fargo), 50, and wife Felicity Huffman (Sports Night), 37, debuted their first child, 7-pound 14-ounce Sofia Grace.

EXPECTING
A Dixie Chick is filling her nest. Natalie Maines, 25, and actor hubby Adrian Pasdar (Mysterious Ways), 35, await the birth of their first child in April. ''This is merely the first of 10 children,'' crows Pasdar, who wed Maines on June 24.

REUNIONS
Following reports that Meg Ryan, 38, and hubby Dennis Quaid, 46, were trying to reconcile, reps for both actors were tight-lipped. On July 11, Quaid filed for divorce from his wife of nine years, who reportedly was romancing actor Russell Crowe, 36, her Proof of Life costar.

SPLITS
Can this marriage be saved? Slim chance. On Aug. 16, controversy magnet Eminem (a.k.a. Marshall Bruce Mathers III), 27, filed for divorce from his wife of 14 months, Kim Mathers, 25. Eminem is seeking joint custody of their daughter, Hailie, 4. But on Aug. 21, Kim filed a counterclaim, seeking full custody and $10 million. In June, the rapper was arrested for allegedly assaulting a man he claims he saw kissing Kim outside a Michigan club; in July, she attempted suicide ... Country mama Naomi Judd, 54, filed for divorce Aug. 11 from her hubby of 11 years, Larry Strickland, 54. Citing irreconcilable differences, she claimed in court papers he had committed adultery. It was Judd's second marriage. Strickland could not be reached for comment.

MELTDOWN
Hours after her separation from girlfriend Ellen DeGeneres, 42, was announced Aug. 19, actress Anne Heche, 31, was found confused and disoriented near Fresno, Calif. Local police say that after abandoning her Toyota SUV, the actress wandered down a dirt road to a farmhouse, where she reportedly babbled about being God. Authorities say she suffered from an unspecified ''medical condition.'' She was treated briefly at a local hospital; medical officials and Heche's camp declined to comment. Two days later, Heche flew to Toronto, where she is shooting John Q with Denzel Washington.

FEUDS
This is how the West won ... and then left empty-handed. West Wing exec producer John Wells returned a Family Television Award, citing censorship concerns after Allison Janney's acceptance speech in support of actors striking against TV ad producers was cut from the Aug. 10 broadcast. The Association of National Advertisers, the awards' sponsor, said it regretted his decision ... Craig Kilborn has a new killjoy. In an Aug. 18 letter to CBS president Les Moonves, FCC commissioner Gloria Tristani criticized the ''misguided humor'' of an Aug. 4 joke on Kilborn's The Late Late Show. Both CBS and Kilborn apologized for a bit in which ''snipers wanted'' appeared under a picture of presidential candidate George W. Bush.