Gossip/Celebrity News

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Jessica Simpson Pinpoints When Marriage Ended

Jessica Simpson says she realized that her marriage to Nick Lachey was over when he opted out of accompanying her to Africa on a charity trip in October 2005.

"I went there on our three-year wedding anniversary," she tells Jane magazine for its November issue. "He stayed home"

Simpson was part of a travel contingent representing Operation Smile, a not-for-profit, volunteer medical services organization that provides reconstructive facial surgery to indigent children in remote areas.

Although Simpson and Lachey had both been presented with the organization's Universal Smile Award at a Los Angeles Gala, Simpson ended up traveling to Nakuru, Kenya, with hairdresser Ken Paves, friend Cacee Cobb and her manger-father, Joe Simpson.

Once in Africa, according to the official Operation Smile Web site, Simpson aided the volunteer team with the medical evaluations of more than 280 patients and gave out gifts and spread cheer to the kids as they awaited their medical procedures.


Simpson, 26, says the trip changed her life. "On that day, everything became so clear. I was in hospitals with all these sick kids," she says. "I just knew I needed to find something more in my life, on my own."

She and Lachey separated in November 2005.

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Anna Nicole Ordered to Move Out

The day after Anna Nicole Smith buried her son Daniel, a letter was hand-delivered to her house in the Bahamas ordering her to leave the residence by Oct. 31, PEOPLE has learned.

G. Ben Thompson, a Myrtle Beach, S.C., developer, says he owns the property in New Providence where Smith has been staying. He says he purchased the house for a bit less than $1 million in August as a favor to Smith, whom he befriended after he met her through neighbors in mid-2005.

Smith was then supposed to sign a mortgage to buy the house from him, he says, but she has refused to do so. "She said it was a gift," Thompson tells PEOPLE. "I never said that. I don't have that kind of money."

An attorney representing Thompson delivered the letter to the house on Oct. 20; if Smith does not leave, Thompson says, he will pursue a formal eviction. "I don't want to embarrass her or humiliate Anna," he says. "I just need my money, or collateral, back."
Ron Rale, Smith's attorney in the paternity case against her brought by photographer Larry Birkhead, who claims to be the father of Smith's 7-week-old daughter, Dannielynn Hope, would neither confirm nor deny that Smith had received the letter.

Rale did say, however, "If that's the case, it's amazing the sequence of events that poor Anna Nicole has had to endure, the one bright light being Dannielynn."

The possible eviction begs the question of whether Smith, who applied for residency based on home ownership, will have to leave the country. If she returns to her home in California, she could also face the paternity suit filed by Birkhead.

Smith's longtime legal counselor Howard Stern has said that he is Dannielynn's father; he's also listed as the father on the birth certificate. But Birkhead has said Smith told him he was the father, and has filed a request in a California court asking Smith to make Dannielynn available for a paternity test.

"We're going to get that paternity test," Birkhead's lawyer, Debra Opri, said last week. "It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but I'm not going away."

But Wayne Munroe, Smith's attorney in the Bahamas, told the Associated Press that his client has no intention of allowing the test.

The possible eviction is yet another strange twist in a story that began Sept. 10, when Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel was found dead in her hospital room three days after she gave birth to Dannielynn. Methadone as well as two antidepressants were found in his system. Bahamian police have investigated the death and authorities may order a formal inquest.

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Actor Derek Luke, Wife Expecting First Child

Derek Luke and his wife, actress Sophia, are expecting their first child together, the actor's rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.

The baby is due in early March, according to Luke's rep, Samantha Hill.

Derek Luke is currently promoting his film Catch a Fire, which hits theaters this weekend. Luke stars in the real-life story of Patrick Chamusso, in the intellectual political thriller set in turbulent 1980s South Africa. The film also stars Tim Robbins.

Best known for his starring role in Antwone Fisher, Luke brought his wife onstage, handing her his 2003 Independent Spirit Award for best actor. Luke, 32, and his wife wed in 1998.

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Matt Leinart, Brynn Cameron Have a Son

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart and University of Southern California basketball player Brynn Cameron welcomed a son on Tuesday, PEOPLE has learned.

Cole Cameron Leinart was born at 9:33 p.m. in California, and weighed in at 6 lbs., 7 oz.

"The baby is healthy, and both families are very excited," a source tells PEOPLE. "Matt is thrilled."

Leinart, who was present for his son's birth, had to rush to the hospital from his late afternoon practice. One of PEOPLE's 2006 Most Beautiful People, the football star, 23, graduated from USC in December 2005 and lives in Los Angeles and Arizona.

Cameron, who is a junior at USC, will sit out the 2006-07 basketball season.

"It's an exciting time in their life," a source who knows both athletes told PEOPLE in August when the two announced they were expecting. "They both have support from their families."

Leinart, a Heisman trophy winner and close pal of Nick Lachey, was linked romantically to Paris Hilton in the past.

Through his Matt Leinart Foundation, the football star helps raise money for underprivileged and disabled children. "Kids are important to Matt," his rep told PEOPLE in August.

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Boy's Father Afraid Madonna Will 'Dump' Son

Yohane Banda, the father of the 13-month-old Malawian boy Madonna hopes to adopt, says he's worried the controversy surrounding her plans will cause the pop singer to back out of the adoption.

"I am afraid Madonna may get angry and frustrated and decide to dump my son because of these people," Banda told the Associated Press on Thursday, in reference to human rights activists in Malawi who claim the law has been bent for the singer.

"These so-called human rights activists are harassing me every day, threatening me that I am not aware of what I am doing," Banda said Thursday. "I'm afraid David may be sent back and the orphanage may not even accept him back. So where will he end up? Here? He will certainly die."

A hearing in the adoption case is set for Friday. The Human Rights Consultative Committee has asked Judge Andrew Nyirenda to review the adoption process and make sure the laws have been followed.
Madonna has denied she's gotten any special favors due to her celebrity status. She told Oprah Winfrey on her show Wednesday, "If only my wealth and my position could have made things go faster. I assure you it doesn't matter who you are or how much money you have, nothing goes fast in Africa."

Banda said that the activists have pressured him to side with them in court: "They want me to support their court case, a thing I cannot do for I know what I agreed with Madonna and her husband."

Madonna also told Winfrey that Banda understood her intentions to adopt David. "He came into the courtroom with my husband and I and he looked into my eyes and said to me that he was very grateful that I was going to give his son a life," she said, "and that had he kept his son with him in the village he would have buried him. I didn't really need any more confirmation that I was doing the right thing."

Earlier this week, Banda told the AP that he didn't understand the full implications of the adoption papers he signed and was unaware that Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie, were going to take David "for good." However, on Tuesday he told Time magazine that he would not contest the adoption and that he wanted his son to have a good life.

But HRCC chairman Justin Dzonzi said the group would go forward with its petition in court on Friday. Dzonzi said David could suffer psychological damage if Madonna and Ritchie ever split up, and said that under current laws, David is not entitled to inherit any of Madonna's wealth.

"It's not like we are blocking the adoption, but we want laws followed to the letter," Dzonzi said. "We want these issues clarified."

NBC announced Thursday that Madonna will talk with Meredith Vieira about the adoption in an interview set to air on the Nov. 1 and 2 episodes of Today and Dateline NBC on Nov. 2.

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Sara Evans, Husband Square Off in Court

Country singer Sara Evans and her estranged husband, Craig Schelske, faced each other in a Tennessee court Thursday morning for the first time since Evans filed for divorce on Oct. 12, charging Schelske with adultery and pornography use. (He denied the allegations and later accused Evans of having an affair.)

Though the atmosphere was tense in the Williamson County, Tenn., court room, the couple agreed to divide some of their assets and Schelske, who is under a restraining order and not allowed in the family home in Franklin, Tenn., consented to look for new housing. They also agreed to discuss visitation rights for their three children, ages 7, 3 and 2.

Schelske had asked that the court allow him to move back to their home, saying the allegations of abuse and infidelity were false. His attorney, Anne Russell, told the court that Schelske had not seen his children since Evans filed for divorce and had only spoken to them once a few days earlier.

"Mr. Schelske has been evicted from his home and we do not see a single indication that there is a danger to anyone," said Russell, prompting Evans's lawyer, John J. Hollins, to object, saying that he has additional evidence of Schelske's pornography use and Schelske's profile is posted on a dating Web site.
Judge Robert E. Lee Davies recommended that the two maintain separate residences, saying, "By the nature of this proceeding, there is tension here and there will be tension in the home and the children are going to feel that."

Evans and Schelske decided to split in half a joint bank account of $274,000; Schelske, who told the court he has no independent source of income, was to use his share to find housing.

The two sides also agreed not to speak to the media, although a motion to close the proceedings to cameras was refused by the judge.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Schelske walked over to Evans, whose hair was pulled back in a bun and who was wearing a dark brown trouser suit with a gold cross necklace, and tried to speak with her, calling her name and whispering to her for several seconds. Saying nothing, Evans shook her head and turned away from him.

When asked by reporters outside the courtroom if he still loved his wife, Schelske said, "I do." Asked the same question, Evans made no comment.

Also in court was Ronald J. Burke, a lawyer for the couple's former nanny, Alison Clinton, who Evans claims had an affair with Schelske. Burke said that Evans's lawyers told him they have photographs showing his client and Schelske being intimate, but he says Clinton maintains her innocence.

"They won't show us any photographs and we are convinced that there are no photographs because Alison did not have a sexual relationship with him," he said. He added that Clinton denied any sexual contact with Schelske when she underwent, and passed, a two-hour lie detector test last week during an interview with TV's Entertainment Tonight.

A judge agreed to removed Clinton's name from court documents, a move Clinton priased. "I cannot thank the Williamson County courthouse enough," Clinton said in a statement later. "I'm really grateful."

Reps for both Schelske and Evans had no comment.