Celebrity news for the week of May 19, 2006

BIRTHS
Big Daddy Adam Sandler, 39, and model-actress wife Jackie, 31, had their first child on May 6 in L.A…. Brendan Fraser (The Mummy), 37, and actress wife Afton Smith, 38, welcomed their third child, Leland, on May 2…. The White Stripes frontman Jack White, 30, and wife, model Karen Elson, 27, had their first child, Scarlett Teresa, on May 2 in Nashville.

FOR SALE
More than 1,000 items in the Joe DiMaggio collection will be up for auction May 19-20 in New York City, including Marilyn Monroe mementos, such as her 1954 passport.

RESIGNED
On May 2, Warner Bros. announced that Mark Gill, 43, was stepping down as president of Warner Independent Pictures. (Polly Cohen, an exec at Warner Bros. Pictures, will fill his vacancy.) Gill, credited with finding the smash March of the Penguins, has signed on to become a producer for Warner Bros.

SCUFFLE
On May 4, Dame Edna Everage issued a rebuttal to the claim that her alter ego, Barry Humphries, 72, punched a photographer in Sydney. Said the Dame: ”Poor Barry, desperate for publicity as usual…. I’m told he didn’t deliberately hit the poor photographer but was pushing the camera away.”

COURTS
Kim Mathers, 30, the estranged wife of Eminem, 33, has filed a response to his divorce petition and is requesting custody of their daughter, Hailie, 10…. Life is tough on Brokeback Mountain. On May 2, Randy Quaid, 55, withdrew his claim filed March 23 that Focus Features did not adequately compensate the actor for his work in the Oscar-winning film. According to Quaid, the studio has agreed to pay him an unspecified sum. But the studio says ”such assertions are simply untrue.”… A London judge dismissed the Apple Corps v. Apple Computer trademark infringement suit on May 8. Filed in March by The Beatles‘ record company, the suit claimed that the computer giant violated a 1991 agreement by using the Apple name and logo to promote a music business (iTunes). Apple Corps didn’t like them apples, so it’s filing an appeal.

AWARDS
At the Tribeca Film Festival Awards on May 6, Blessed by Fire won Best Narrative Feature, The Treatment nabbed Best Made-in-New York Narrative Feature, and The War Tapes took home Best Documentary.

AILING
After complaining of headaches following his fall on May 2 from a tree in Fiji, Keith Richards, 62, underwent surgery on May 8 in Auckland, New Zealand, to relieve pressure in his brain. The Rolling Stones’ European tour, which was supposed to kick off this month, will be pushed to June.

DEATHS
Actress Susan Browning, 65, a two-time Tony Award nominee, of respiratory failure, April 23, in NYC…. Philant Johnson, 26, a member of rapper T.I.‘s (né Clifford Harris) entourage was gunned down May 2 outside a Cincinnati nightclub hosting an after-party for T.I. and Yung Joc. The police are still investigating the incident…. Singer Rosita Fernández, 88, a Tejano legend, of undisclosed causes, May 2, in San Antonio.

LEGACY
Grant McLennan (1958-2006) Life had been so good for Go-Betweens frontman McLennan that the indie rocker — an inspiration to everyone from Bono to Belle & Sebastian — decided to throw a party on May 6. Before the guests arrived, McLennan, 48, who had the swagger of a boxer and the eloquent cadence of a Dylanesque songwriter, went upstairs for a nap and never woke up; he’d had a heart attack. ”The party turned out to be his wake,” says friend Bernard MacMahon, owner of English record label Lo-Max. ”And there was something poetically Grant about that.”