Gossip/Celebrity News

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Diddy, Kim Porter Welcome Twin Girls

Sean "Diddy" Combs and girlfriend Kim Porter welcomed twin daughters on Thursday, PEOPLE has confirmed.

"Diddy received an early Christmas gift! It gives us great joy to announce the arrival of Diddy's twin girls. The beautiful, healthy baby girls were born this morning with Diddy by mother Kim Porter's side," Sean Combs's rep, Robert Zimmerman, of Dan Klores Communications tells PEOPLE.

"The first arrived at 7:56 a.m. weighing 5 lbs., followed 2 minutes later by the second at 5 lbs., 4 oz. Diddy had a plane on standby in Toronto where he is filming Raisin in the Sun and made it just in the nick of time for the delivery. Both Kim and the girls are doing great."

In honor of two people who had an enormous influence on both Porter and Diddy, 5 lb., D'Lila Star Combs was named after Porter's grandmother, Lila Star, Zimmerman said Thursday afternoon. Her 5 lb. 4 oz. sister, Jessie James Combs, was named after Diddy's grandmother, Jessie Smalls.

On his MySpace page Diddy also posted a message announcing the birth of his girls, adding: "Thank you for all your support this year! I Love Y'all! God Bless."

Diddy, 37, and Porter, 36, are already parents to son Christian, 8. (Diddy also has a son, Justin, 12, with ex-girlfriend Misa Hylton-Brim.)

The hip-hop mogul joked about having daughters at his and Porter's star-studded baby shower in New York City last month, "I'm so excited to have girls, but I know I'm in trouble now!"

And even before the girls were born, they brought out Diddy's softer side, Porter said. "I see the way he's been acting," she told PEOPLE at the shower. "He said, 'I can't wait for them to fall asleep on my chest.' He's going to be very hands on. I don't think he's going to be able to say no to them."

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Brad & Angelina Spend Christmas with Refugees

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have spent their year helping others, and they didn't take a break on Christmas Day. The couple spent Monday handing out gifts to refugee children in the Costa Rican capital San Jose.

"We had a wonderful Christmas both with the Costa Rican people and the Colombian refugee families we met," Jolie said in a statement. Her visit was part of her work as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

About 11,500 refugees have come to Costa Rica, most of them from Colombia, where an armed conflict between leftist guerrillas, soldiers and paramilitary forces has forced them to flee, says the UNHCR. All told, an estimated 3 million Colombians have been forced from their homes.

"The conflict in Colombia is the greatest humanitarian tragedy in the Western Hemisphere, but it receives very little international attention," Jolie said after her arrival in San Jose. "My Christmas message to Colombian refugees and to the millions of displaced people in Colombia is that the world has not totally forgotten them."

In San Jose, Jolie and Pitt dropped in on several small businesses established by refugees thanks to UNHCR economic initiatives. They also talked with young refugees, learning about the problems they and their families have faced.

"It's been sad for me to hear so many negative stories that show confusion between refugees, who are the victims of the conflict, and some criminal elements," Jolie said.

The UNHCR said this was Jolie's second trip to the region in her five years as a goodwill ambassador. She also went to Ecuador in 2002 and later wrote a personal journal of her meetings with Colombian refugees there.

Holiday visits with the underprivileged has become something of a tradition for Pitt and Jolie. In 2005, they spent their first Thanksgiving together aiding earthquake victims in Pakistan.

That same holiday this year, before visiting Ho Chi Minh City, Jolie paid an unannounced visit to son Maddox's birth country, Cambodia, where she pledged to aid conservation efforts.

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Barbara Walters: I Don't Regret Hiring Rosie

Barbara Walters, star and executive producer of The View, did some cleaning up Wednesday in the wake of Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump's pre-Christmas war of words that began when O'Donnell criticized Trump on the show over his dealing with the behavior of Miss USA Tara Conner.

"Rosie's on a long, planned vacation with Kelli (Carpenter, her wife) and the kids, and not, I can promise you, with Donald Trump," Walters said on the program.

In response to claims made by O'Donnell about Trump's finances, Walters also read a statement prepared by ABC. "Just to clarify things, and I quote: Donald Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy. Several of his casino companies have filed for business bankruptcies. They are out of bankruptcy now. That's the end of the quote."

Trump responded Wednesday afternoon telling Inside Edition in a phone interview: "They were afraid they were going to be sued, they know it was the truth and I respect ABC for doing that."

Walters also went on to say directly into the TV camera: "But while I am clearing things up, Donald Trump also said that I am not happy with my decision to bring Rosie O'Donnell to this table. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have never regretted, nor do I now, the hiring of Rosie O'Donnell."

Trump, however, is holding firm on his assertion that Walters said she regrets hiring O'Donnell.

"As Barbara well knows, that is not what she told me," he told Inside Edition. "However, I fully understand why Barbara has to say that, she has no other choice. What is she going to say, 'I told Donald Trump some negative things about Rosie?'"

On The View Walters also lauded O'Donnell, saying, "She has brought a new vitality to the show, and the ratings prove it." She also cited praise O'Donnell has received from critics in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and USA Today.

"Next Monday," Walters said, bringing the topic to a close, "we will all welcome her back with open arms, yes?" And with that, the studio audience and the other women at the desk burst into prolonged applause.

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Appendix Surgery for Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan is having surgery to remove her appendix on Thursday.

"She does have appendicitis, and she is getting her appendix removed," her rep, Leslie Sloane, tells PEOPLE. "She will be going in shortly."

Lohan, 20, was reportedly diagnosed with appendicitis after feeling ill on Wednesday.

"I'm shocked," a friend of the actress tells PEOPLE. "I talked to her last night and she told me she was not feeling well but she thought it was a 24-hour-flu."

This is not the first health scare for Lohan. She fractured her wrist in September after a fall at a party in New York City, and was hospitalized in July after becoming "overheated and dehydrated," Sloane said at the time.

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Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Esposito Marry

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Esposito were married over the holidays in late December, their rep has confirmed to PEOPLE.

The wedding, just like their romance, was a low-profile affair. No details of when or where the ceremony took place were available. The two only announced their engagement in October.

It was a year ago, though, that Cooper, who turns 32 Jan. 5, and Esposito, 34, greeted each other with a kiss on the lips at the Warner Bros. and InStyle Golden Globes party. When asked if they were an item, Esposito told PEOPLE coyly, "I'm not answering that."

Esposito starred in the 2005-06 WB series Related and last year won, along with her costars, a Screen Actors Guild award for best cast in a motion picture for Crash. She had an eight-month romance with Benjamin Bratt from 1996-97 and later dated All My Children actor Cameron Mathison.

Cooper got his big break in 2001, when he joined the cast of Alias, and in 2005 starred in the short-lived FOX sitcom Kitchen Confidential. He also appeared in last summer's Wedding Crashers and performed opposite Julia Roberts on Broadway in Three Days of Rain.

This is the first marriage for both.

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Laurence Fishburne, Gina Torres Expecting

Actor Lawrence Fishburne and his actress wife Gina Torres are expecting a child, PEOPLE has learned exclusively. Torres's rep confirms the actress is due this summer.

The couple was married in 2002 and this is their first child together; Fishburne, 45, has two children from his previous marriage to Hanja Moss.

Torres, 37 (who stars in the FOX drama Standoff), will costar in the upcoming Chris Rock film I Think I Love My Wife. Fishburne can currently be seen in the Emilio Estevez-directed Bobby.