Monitor

EXPECTING
Actor Tobey Maguire, 33, and wife Jennifer Meyer, 31, will bring home their second child this spring…. My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, 31, is expecting his first child with wife LynZ, 32, a bassist for Mindless Self Indulgence. The baby is due next summer.

BIRTHS
It’s a boy for Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, 24, and Fall Out Boy frontman Pete Wentz, 29, who had their first child, Bronx Mowgli, on Nov. 20 in L.A.

MARRIED
The Hills stars Heidi Montag, 22, and Spencer Pratt, 25, reportedly eloped Nov. 19 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

SPLIT
Jodie Sweetin (Full House), 26, filed for legal separation from husband Cody Herpin on Nov. 19 in Orange County, Calif. The two wed in 2007 and have a daughter, Zoie, born in April.

HOSPITALIZED
Winona Ryder, 37, was rushed to the hospital as a precautionary measure Nov. 19 after becoming ill while on a flight from L.A. to London. She was released an hour after checking in.

COURTS
Madonna, 50, and Guy Ritchie, 40, were granted a preliminary divorce Nov. 21 by London’s High Court. It will likely become final in six weeks…. On Nov. 24, Michael Jackson, 50, settled a $7 million lawsuit filed by Bahraini royalty Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad, who alleged that the pop star reneged on a recording contract…. Two months after suffering injuries in a plane crash, rocker Travis Barker, 33, filed a lawsuit against several aviation companies on Nov. 21 in L.A. The suit claims that the plane was defective and its pilots were poorly trained. A rep for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, one of the companies cited in the lawsuit, said in response: ”While the tires may have been involved, it is too early to speculate on a cause.”… On Nov. 20 in L.A., Jennifer Garner, 36, obtained a three-year restraining order against a man who’s allegedly been stalking the actress and her family since 2002…. On Nov. 20 actor Warren Beatty, 71, filed a lawsuit in L.A. against Tribune Media Services over film and TV rights to the comic-strip character Dick Tracy. Tribune claims Beatty lost his rights because he hadn’t produced a Tracy-related project since his 1990 film Dick Tracy. According to the suit, Beatty contends that he began work on a Dick Tracy television special on Nov. 8 of this year.

ON BREAK
Four-season Dancing With the Stars participant and two-time winner Julianne Hough, 20, announced on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show Nov. 20 that she won’t be back next season in order to focus on her music. Hough’s self-titled debut album hit No. 1 on the Billboard country chart in June.

DEATHS
Longtime theater and dance critic Clive Barnes, 81, who wrote for the New York Post for 30 years, died of cancer Nov. 19 in New York…. Broadway titan Gerald Schoenfeld, 84, who chaired the Shubert Organization, passed away Nov. 25 in New York City…. Rapper MC Breed — best known for his 1993 hit featuring Tupac Shakur, ”Gotta Get Mine” — died near Detroit on Nov. 22. Breed was on life support for two days in September after experiencing kidney failure…. Bye Bye Birdie screenwriter Irving Brecher, 94, passed away Nov. 17 of cardiac arrest in L.A. Brecher also wrote for the Marx Brothers…. B-movie composer Irving Gertz (It Came From Outer Space), 93, died Nov. 14 in L.A. of natural causes…. Poet Donald Finkel, 79, who authored 2003’s Not So the Chairs, passed away Nov. 15 in St. Louis of Alzheimer’s disease. — Additional reporting by Stewart Allen

WINEHOUSE’S WOES
It’s been a rough week for British singer Amy Winehouse. On Nov. 23, the 25-year-old checked into a London hospital for the third time in the past month after suffering an allergic reaction to medication. (Her previous stays were related to chest and lung ailments.) That same day, British papers reported rumors of Winehouse splitting from husband Blake Fielder-Civil…who 24 hours later would lose an appeal of his jail sentence for assault and perverting the course of justice. Winehouse’s rep declined to comment on the state of the couple’s marriage; the singer remains at the hospital under observation. — Kate Ward

SPEARS SPEAKS OUT
”What the hell was I thinking?” Britney Spears asks herself during a moment of introspection in the MTV documentary Britney: For the Record, airing Nov. 30. The 90-minute film offers a candid look inside the troubled entertainer’s remarkably isolated world as she prepares to drop her new CD, Circus (out Dec.2). Among other revelations — including an accusation that the paparazzi have robbed the singer of her ”cool chick” status — Spears opens up about her failed romance with Justin Timberlake and Kevin Federline. ”With Justin, he was part of the magnitude of what I had become. So when he was gone I was like, What am I supposed to do with myself? I was devastated [by the break up] but I handled it a lot better that the [split] with Kevin.” We all know how that ended, but the dark secrets that led to her 2007 meltdown remain a mystery. — Margeaux Watson