Celebrity news for the week of April 28, 2006

DIVORCE
Thirty-two-year-old Tori Spelling‘s year-long marriage to actor Charlie Shanian was dissolved April 20 in Los Angeles, so she can wed TV-actor fiancé Dean McDermott, 39. And the material for so noTORIous just keeps rolling in.

EXPECTING
Singer Melissa Etheridge, 44, and partner Tammy Lynn Michaels, 31 (the preggie one), will welcome their first children — twins — this fall. For the curious, Dad is an anonymous donor.

ADDITION
Ewan McGregor, 35, and wife Eve Mavrakis, 39, reportedly adopted a 4-year-old girl who hails from Mongolia.

FOR SALE
Faced with money woes, Michael Jackson, 47, may be forced to sell a portion of his publishing catalog, which includes some 250 Beatles tunes, to the Sony Corporation. Reps for Jackson would say only that Sony has helped in the ”restructuring” of his finances.

LEGAL
The View‘s Elisabeth Hasselbeck, 28, claims she’s the target of a female stalker who’s been calling in false accusations of abuse to NYC’s child services. ”This is a malicious attempt to harass our family,” Hasselbeck and husband Tim said in an April 11 statement. The matter has been turned over to the DA’s office…. In a coordinated effort, CBS, ABC, Fox, and NBC — along with the Hearst — Argyle Television group?have filed legal challenges in D.C. and NYC federal appeals courts to question FCC indecency rulings that the nets say are a result of the commission’s ”arbitrary” regulations…. As part of an agreement, director John McTiernan, 55 (Die Hard), pled guilty on April 17 in L.A. to making false statements to the FBI. McTiernan, who had denied he’d paid private eye Anthony Pellicano $50,000 to wiretap producer Charles Roven (Rollerball), faces sentencing on July 31.

PROTECTIVE CUSTODY
Richard Hatch, 45, found guilty in January of failing to pay taxes on his $1 million Survivor prize and other income, is being held apart from other inmates at a Plymouth, Mass., jail pending his sentencing on April 25.

UPDATE
Mario Etheridge, 28, was named as a suspect in connection to the April 11 shooting that killed 32-year-old rapper Proof (né Deshaun Holton) at an 8 Mile nightclub in Detroit. Etheridge, an occasional bouncer at the club, has only been charged with carrying a concealed weapon and discharging it. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 26. His lawyer has denied any wrongdoing. Meanwhile, Keith Bender, who police believe was shot by Proof that same night, died April 18 at the age of 35.

DEATHS
Rajkumar, 77, who starred in over 200 films and never played a villain, of cardiac arrest, April 12, in Bangalore, India…. Scott Brazil, 50, award-winning director-producer of TV dramas such as The Shield and Hill Street Blues, of respiratory failure, April 18, in Sherman Oaks, Calif…. Dame Muriel Spark, 88, author of more than 20 novels including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, of undisclosed causes, April 13, in Florence, Italy.

LEGACY
JUNE POINTER 1953-2006
She was the youngest of the three-time Grammy-winning Pointer Sisters, famous for spunky songs like ”Jump (For My Love)” and ”He’s So Shy.” But her brother Fritz says he’ll always remember June — who succumbed to cancer at age 52 on April 11 in Santa Monica — as a born performer. ”When my parents, who were ministers, would leave for a prayer meeting, June, Anita [center], and Ruth [right] would get up on the piano and put on a little show.”

(Additional reporting by Stewart Allen)