May 31, 2006 in Features

Charity begins with Brangelina

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Associated Press photo

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
(Full-size photo)

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt celebrated their daughter’s birth in Namibia by donating $300,000 to help other babies in the impoverished southern Africa nation.

The couple also gave $15,000 for a school and a community center in Swakopmund.

“We want to contribute to Namibia and the people who have been so gracious to us at this time,” they said in a prepared statement.

Jolie, 30, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, is a frequent visitor to Africa, She and Pitt had come to Namibia before the birth to avoid the media.

Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt was born Saturday. People magazine reported Tuesday that Pitt was in the operating room and cut the umbilical cord.

The magazine quoted Dr. Jason Rothbart, Jolie’s Los Angeles-based obstetrician, as saying: “Angelina underwent a scheduled Caesarean (section) due to breech presentation. The baby was a healthy 7 pounds.”

They’re thrilled, no doubt

In a delivery that garnered significantly less attention, rockers Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale had a boy over the weekend.

Kingston James McGregor Rossdale, also born by Caesarean section, weighed in at 7 1/2 pounds.

It’s the first child for Stefani, 36, and Rossdale, 38, who were married in 2002. Rossdale also has a 16-year-old daughter with fashion designer Pearl Lowe.

Mighty aphro-didies

It’s also a boy for Oscar winner Mira Sorvino and her actor-husband, Chris Backus.

Sorvino gave birth to the couple’s second child, Johnny, on Monday. He weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces.

Sorvino, 38, who won an Oscar for Woody Allen‘s “Mighty Aphrodite” in 1995, and Backus, 24, were married in 2004 and have an 18-month-old daughter, Mattea Angel.

Better get a script doctor

Chris Tucker will star in a Hollywood remake of a Bollywood hit about a gangster who enrolls in medical school.

“Munnabhai M.B.B.S.,” which was a hit in India, will be remade as “Gangster M.D.,” director Mira Nair said.

Filming is expected to begin after Tucker, 33, finishes work on “Rush Hour 3,” again co-starring Jackie Chan.

They talked him into it

Nicolas Cage, meanwhile, will star in the Hollywood remake of the 1999 Hong Kong gangster thriller “Bangkok Dangerous.”

Twin brothers Oxide and Danny Pang will direct the remake of their movie and start shooting in Bangkok in August, the South China Morning Post reported.

The paper quoted Danny Pang as saying Cage’s character will speak, unlike the mute assassin in the original.

The birthday bunch

Actor-director Clint Eastwood is 76. Singer Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul and Mary) is 68. Actress Sharon Gless (“Cagney and Lacey”) is 63. Actor Gregory Harrison is 56. Actor Tom Berenger is 56. Comedian Chris Elliott is 46. Actor Kyle Secor (“Homicide: Life on the Street”) is 46. Actress Lea Thompson (“Caroline in the City”) is 45. Singer Corey Hart is 44. Rapper DMC (Run-DMC) is 42. Actress Brooke Shields is 41. Actor Colin Farrell is 30.

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