The Dailies

A judge has ruled that Rod Stewart’s son can stand trial on charges stemming from an alleged assault on a couple outside a party in the Hollywood Hills.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Julius M. Title acknowledged that witnesses for the prosecution and defense offered conflicting testimony Wednesday, but said there was sufficient evidence to allow the case against Sean Stewart to proceed.

It would be “up to the trial court to decide the credibility of the witnesses,” Title said.

Stewart, 27, one of the stars of the A&E reality show “Sons of Hollywood,” pleaded not guilty in June to three felony counts, including assault with a deadly weapon. He remains free on bail.

Aww… another Angelina Jolie/Madonna in the making???

“Weeds” star Mary-Louise Parker is a proud new mom ” and if you’re wondering why you didn’t see a baby bump in her sleek Emmy dress, there’s a reason.

Parker has adopted a baby girl from Africa, reps for the actress told People magazine.

The 43-year-old Parker, who was up for two Emmys on Sunday night for her role as a dope-dealing soccer mom in the hit Showtime series, was seen with her new daughter over the weekend leading up to the awards show.

Parker also has a 3-year-old son with actor Billy Crudup. The couple, who dated for eight years, split before the child was born in 2004.

Parker co-stars with Brad Pitt in the new Western, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” Her other film credits include “Saved!,” “Boys on the Side” and “Fried Green Tomatoes.”

In papers filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Denise Richards levels some explosive accusations against ex-husband Charlie Sheen.

In the papers obtained by Access Hollywood, Richards is asking the court to terminate Sheen’s overnight privileges with the couple’s two daughters (ages 2 and 3).

The filings are filled with explosive accusations against Sheen, with Richards claiming her ex-husband still exhibits “inappropriate behavior… and conduct,” including “his attraction to underage women and his sexual explicitness on the Internet, including revealing his private parts.”

Sheen released the following statement to Access Hollywood on Wednesday:

“Clearly the mother of my children has no interest in responsible co-parenting when it comes to my relationship with our girls. She behaves as though she OWNS our children. She does not. A day of legal reckoning for her is fast approaching. The truth will prevail. It always does.”

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Quotes by Luciano Pavarotti, taken from his 1995 autobiography: “Pavarotti: My World,” by Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright.

“I am a very simple person. In spite of all that has happened to me, I have tried to remain the simple person I started out.”

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“Every day I remind myself of all that I have been given. … With singing, you never know when you are going to lose the voice, and that makes you appreciate the time that you have when you are still singing well. I am always thanking God for another season, another month, another performance.”

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“As an art form, opera is a rare and remarkable creation. For me, it expresses aspects of the human drama that cannot be expressed in any other way, or certainly not as beautifully.”

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“It is not always a matter of wild ovations and legendary performances. Sometimes you are just happy to get through an opera without trouble.”

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On the “Three Tenors” concert in Rome in 1990, also featuring Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras:

“For all three of us, the Caracalla concert was a major event in our lives. I hope I am not immodest to think it was also unforgettable for most of the people who were present.”

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“Nothing that has happened has made me feel gloomy or remain depressed. I love my life.”

Luciano Pavarotti left half his estate to his second wife and half to his four daughters, including three from his first marriage, an attorney said Tuesday.
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In the final months of his yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer, Pavarotti made two wills, said attorney Giorgio Bernini, who represents the singer’s second wife. One dated June 13 divides up his assets according to Italian law, with half going to his wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, and half to his children.

The second, dated July 29, elaborates on the first and concerns the tenor’s U.S. holdings, which he entrusted to Mantovani, Bernini said.

Interest in Pavarotti’s will has mounted in the days since his Sept. 6 death at age 71 amid reports that his three adult daughters from his first marriage were squabbling with Mantovani, and that there had been a “crisis” in their marriage.

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The serene facade of a resting baby belies a brain churning with activity.

A new study, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals active brain regions in sleeping infants.

Other recent research has found evidence in adult brains of 10 so-called resting-state networks, which are clusters of neurons that stay “online” while a person is in a resting state.

Whether the same activity occurred in resting infants was not known.

What can be more exciting than this, huh?

Starbucks opened its first coffee shop in Russia on Thursday, two years after it won a legal battle to protect the right to its brand in the fast-growing Russian market.

“This is an important step for the company, and we are looking forward to being a part of every day life for Russians,” said Cliff Burrows, president of Starbucks Europe, Middle East and Africa, as he opened the cafe.

The newest Starbucks in the worldwide chain of around 10,000 outlets is in the Mega shopping mall in Khimki, just north of Moscow.

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You see a tabloid shot of Mary-Kate Olsen and think, “Why does she look so depressed?” Well, there’s a reason for that.

“I don’t want my picture taken,” the 21-year-old actress tells Entertainment Weekly magazine. “The only time I think it’s OK is at a red-carpet event or a photo shoot.

“So every time I see paparazzi, I cover my face so they don’t get a picture, and I’m just ‘the mean person who doesn’t smile.’ ”

Olsen, whose waiflike figure has made her a target of media scrutiny, avoids public displays of attention.

“I would love to be able to swim in the ocean in Malibu,” she says. “But that is asking for a bikini shot. That’s inviting something that I don’t want to happen. I don’t need to be on a ‘Who’s Skinny, Who’s Fat, Who’s Looking Healthy, Who’s Not Eating?’ list.”

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Well, you think you’ve seen everything on TV. Then along comes HBO with “Tell Me You Love Me” to open your eyes.

On this spare-no-feelings drama about human relationships, brace yourself to see plenty — including yourself, reflected in ways that may feel painfully familiar and register more forcefully than you bargained for. My response after watching the full 10-episode season in just three sittings: “I am SO busted.”

I make no prediction how others will receive “Tell Me,” and in what numbers. But I see it as the most important drama HBO has introduced since “The Sopranos.”

Early reports about the series (premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT) have dwelled on its graphic sex scenes. But the sex only underlines what “Tell Me” is really about. For most of each hour, the characters engage in an even more intense brand of explicitness: Their beyond-the-flesh struggle to preserve, or recover, some measure of intimacy with the partner each of them is committed to.

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A rare Honus Wagner baseball card has been sold for a record $2.8 million, just over six months after it was bought for a then-record $2.35 million.

Referred to as the “Mona Lisa” of baseball cards, the almost mint-condition collectible — released in 1909 by the American Tobacco Company — was sold by Brian Seigel of Las Vegas to an unidentified Southern California collector in February. SCP Auctions was a minority owner, but David Kohler, the company’s president and CEO, said that’s no longer the case.

Kohler said the new owner wishes to remain a private collector for now, but might identify himself at a later date. The sale was completed last week and announced Thursday.

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The New York Giants and New York Jets broke ground Wednesday on the first stadium to be jointly owned by two NFL teams and unveiled how architects plan to make two competing teams feel at home in a $1.3 billion stadium.

“Ensuring that the stadium would feel like home to both teams and both groups of fans was our goal and also one of the biggest challenges in the design of the stadium,” said Steve Tisch, chairman and executive vice president of the New York Giants.

To do that, the stadium will feature an eight-story mega display, called the “Great Wall,” with 400-foot-long by 40-foot-high panels featuring either team’s logo or neutral colors for non-football events.

Tisch, Giants President and CEO John Mara and Jets Chairman and CEO Woody Johnson unveiled the design at a ceremony also attended by New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

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Tobey Maguire and longtime girlfriend Jennifer Meyer are now husband and wife, a rep for the actor confirmed to Access Hollywood earlier today.

The couple wed in Hawaii last night.

Reports say actor Lukas Haas was among the guests at the Big Island ceremony.

Maguire, the star of the “Spiderman” series and Meyer, the daughter of Universal Studios head Ron Meyer have been together for four years.

The couple have a daughter, Ruby, who was born on November 11, last year.

Luciano Pavarotti, opera’s biggest superstar of the late 20th century, died Thursday. He was 71. He was the son of a singing baker and became the king of the high C’s.

Pavarotti, who had been diagnosed last year with pancreatic cancer and underwent treatment last month, died at his home in his native Modena at 5 a.m., his manager told The Associated Press in an e-mailed statement.

His wife, Nicoletta, four daughters and sister were among family at friends at his side, manager Terri Robson said.

“The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer,” Robson said. “In fitting with the approach that characterised his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness.”

Pavarotti’s charismatic personna and ebullient showmanship — but most of all his creamy and powerful voice — made him the most beloved and celebrated tenor since the great Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar.

For serious fans, the unforced beauty and thrilling urgency of Pavarotti’s voice made him the ideal interpreter of the Italian lyric repertory, especially in the 1960s and ’70s when he first achieved stardom. For millions more, his thrilling performances of standards like “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot” came to represent what opera is all about.

“Nessun Dorma” turned out to be Pavarotti’s last aria, sung at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin in February 2006. His last full-scale concert was at Taipei in December 2005, and his farewell to opera was in Puccini’s “Tosca” at New York’s Metropolitan in March 2004.

Instantly recognizable from his charcoal black beard and tuxedo-busting girth, Pavarotti radiated an intangible magic that helped him win hearts in a way Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras — his partners in the “Three Tenors” concerts — never quite could.

Hong Kong’s youngest ever university student said he was already bored with his “very easy” classes as he started his mathematics course on Tuesday.

The nine-year-old maths genius gained two grade As and a B in his A-levels in England — normally taken by 18-year-olds.

March Boedihardjo told reporters gathered at Hong Kong Baptist University he was excited about starting school, but the classes were not stimulating.

“I’ve learned it a year or two years ago,” Boedihardjo said as reporters peppered him with questions and cameras flashed around him.

The boy appeared impatient with the endless questions from reporters and kept asking his father when they could leave.

Boedihardjo did not have a good impression of his classmates either.

“They made no response (in classes). They just listened in the class and didn’t interact with each other,” he said.

The boy said that his old school friends “wanted to play”, unlike the university students.

The university accepted Boedihardjo last month and has designed a special five-year course for him that will lead to a masters degree.