• Gwen Stefani gave birth yesterday! The baby boy, Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale, weighed 8 1/2 lbs. Yes, "Nesta" was Bob Marley's middle name. Gwen and Gavin's other kid, Kingston, is named after a town in Jamaica. See the trend? [People]
• Newly pregnant: Melanie "Sporty Spice" Chisholm. The dad is maybe probably property developer Thomas Starr, whom Mel has been seeing for six years. [The Sun]
• Makeup mogul Bobbi Brown has been named as a New Jersey delegate for the Democratic convention to support Barack Obama. She's done Michelle's makeup! She'll be giving delegates goody bags in Denver. [NY Mag]
• Teri Hatcher's former uncle through marriage, Richard Hayes Stone, had been serving a 14-year jail sentence for child molestation when he died Tuesday of colon cancer. Hatcher helped put Stone behind bars after she heard of a teen suicide involving a girl who knew Stone; Teri also revealed she'd been molested by Stone as a child as well. [Perez Hilton]
• Michael Phelps was seen making out with Aussie swimmer Stephanie Rice. They "swapped spit" at a party and then posed together for Speedo, "laughing and groping" each other. Olympic heat! [Page Six]
• No one wants to see Katie Holmes on Broadway. [MSNBC]

• Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, 61, is still torn between his wife, 53, and his Russian lover, 20, whom he calls a "slut." He's currently battling booze in rehab. [The Sun]
• Despite the unexpected deaths of three patients and the rape of a teenage girl, Dr. Drew insists that Aurora Las Encinas is "an excellent hospital." As for the deaths and the rape, he says, "My heart is broken about these cases." While Drew Pinsky is the co-medical director of the chemical dependency program, he says of Las Encinas: "It's not my hospital." [LA Times]
• The Gossip Girl girls wearing My Fair Lady costumes. [Just Jared]
• Rihanna is number one on the charts, keeping American Idol alum David Archuleta from taking the top spot. [Reuters]
• Haha, this story is ridiculous: "Presumably Rihanna hoped that donning a wacky pair of boots would divert attention away from her latest romantic outing with lover Chris Brown." [The Sun]
• 50 Cent has met with officials regarding the fire that destroyed the house his baby mama and son were living in. The case is under investigation; what do you think they will find? [Perez Hilton]
• Jay-Z's new track, "Jockin' Jay-Z," has lyrics about Noel Gallagher: "That bloke from Oasis said I couldn’t play guitar/ Someone shoulda told him I’m a muthafucking rock star/ Today is gonna be the day that I’m gonna throw it back to you/ I’m living life as a rocker…" So current! [The Sun]
• Casting scoops on fall TV shows: Blythe Danner will guest star on Medium; there are two new peeps on Lost; James Cromwell is joining My Own Worst Enemy, that Christian Slater thriller. [EW]
• So you know how Courtenay Semel, Lindsay Lohan's former "roommate" and Tila Tequila's girlfriend, went to jail in Vegas on Wednesday? She was trying to get into a club with a passport and a California I.D., one of which was not in her name. She was detained by security and ended up hitting a guard on the back of the head. She can pay a fine or go in front of a judge. She should probably just shell out the cash. [Yahoo News, via E!]
• Sharon Osbourne has been approached to publish a work of fiction loosely based on her dealings with reality TV contests. A source says: "She wants it to be a Jackie Collins-inspired romp, something shocking, saucy and witty - and a chick lit hit." [Mirror]
• Peaches Geldof's first week of married life involved seeing her husband's band play a gig. [Mirror]
• A lady thought that Lily Tomlin was cutting down trees on her property and called the cops but it turned out she was wrong and Lily Tomlin was having trees cut on her own damn property and the lady was just an alarmist. [LA Times]
• A dig at Amy Winehouse won funniest joke of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Here is comedian Zoe Lyons' joke: "I can't believe Amy Winehouse self-harms. She's so irritating she must be able to find someone to do it for her." [The Star]
• Prepare yourself: Paris Hilton is coming out with something called The Bandit, which is "he first interchangeable hair extension headband." Act accordingly. [E!]
• Holy crap, this Jean-Claude Van Damme mockumentary sounds kind of awesome: JCVD plays himself in the midst of a hostage situation in his native Belgium. [Reuters]
• Pete Doherty has a new girlfriend. She's 18 and her name is Matilda. She says: "My mum made me attend alcohol counseling because I started drinking so much. Pete drinks a LOT and I feel like I have to keep up, but it's hard." [Mirror]
• Headline of the day: "Did Jackie Kennedy's Jealous Lover Order The Assassination Of Her Beloved Brother-In-Law Bobby?" [Daily Mail]
• Gary Glitter update: He's on his way to the UK, where he'll be met by police and placed on the sex offenders' register. [Guardian]
• The California Supreme Court has refused to take up the case in a bitter legal dispute between the three surviving members of The Doors. This is the end. Beautiful friend. This is the end. [AP]
• "I've kissed just three people in my life, other than stuff I've done for TV or movies. I grew up with the mindset that after work you go to dinner and watch a movie. I don't want to go to a club and not wear panties." —20-year-old Blake Lively, star of Gossip Girl. [Independent]

An editor from the Tribune explains: "I don't believe that, in the reality of limited and ever-shrinking resources, it's the right thing for us to simply say, "everything's the same and gets exactly the same treatment." We just can't do that. I believe we cover all sports as the news dictates - in fan interest, in accomplishment (an outstanding team that dominates, for example) and in uniqueness... But we're not in the promotion business." Still, it's true that when high schools, colleges and professional sports teams get covered, it's more often than not the men's team being covered.

As a non-sporting person, I took a moment to think of all the female sports figures I know as compared to the male sports stars. As a kid, I took gymnastics, but it seemed obvious — even from the Olympic athletes I saw on TV — that it was not a sport for adults. It was something to be left behind as you aged. Meanwhile, my brother, who was into baseball, could actually look up to Darryl Strawberry and Keith Hernandez — have their posters on his wall and dream of that future. Considering that under Taliban rule, women could not play outdoors and sports were out of the question, it's amazing that Mahboba is headed to the Olympic games, even if she doesn't really stand a chance of getting a medal. But we live in a world where a man who plays basketball can land the cover of Vogue while female teams don't get equal newspaper coverage. For all the soccer players, softball players, runners, basketball players and other sporty ladies out there, I have to ask: Does being a female athlete mean taking an extra leap of faith?

Not Enough Coverage Of Women's Sports? Blame "The Market," Trib Sports Editor Says [WIMN]
Afghan Girl Braves Taliban, Jeers In Olympic Quest [Guardian]
VIDEO: Afghan Woman's Olympic Dream [National Geographic]
When Girls Gotta Run . . . [Washington Post]

• Halle Berry was showing distorted pictures of herself during a taping of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and said "Here's where I look like my Jewish cousin!" when displaying one in which her nose looked large. Although the segment aired, NBC dropped the audio of her saying "Jewish." Berry says "I so didn't mean to offend anybody." Halle knows about nose regrets. [Page Six]
  
• Jennifer Lopez racked up $16,000 in limousine charges while promoting her film El Cantante in July... and then disputed the bill, so it went unpaid. [Page Six]
  
• Leonardo DiCaprio is single again, having split with Israeli model Bar Refaeli. But what's weird is that Refaeli is now dating Kelly Slater, who dated Gisele Bundchen after DiCaprio did. WTF. [Page Six]
  
• Ryan Gosling was supposedly dropped by director Peter Jackson on the film The Lovely Bones because he cut his own hair and fought with wardrobe. We say give Ryan what he wants! [Page Six]

• The Hills star Heidi Montag shot her music video last week — with Spencer Pratt as the camera man. Classy! [TMZ]
• Amy Winehouse's live DVD comes available with a Double Trouble combo — an engraved pint glass and ashtray. Beehive not included, boo. [TMZ]
• Owen Wilson participated in a lawn-mower race for a Willie Nelson video shoot! He raced against brothers Luke and Andrew, as well as Jessica Simpson, Woody Harrelson and Dan Rather. We wanna see! [People]
• Melanie "Sporty Spice" Chisholm was reluctant to do the Spice Girls reunion because she suffered from depression and an eating disorder during her years with the group. "They basically said if I wanted to do it, great, but if I didn't want to do it then they were going to do it anyway," she says. Aw, sisterhood. [Telegraph]
• Kate Moss is selling the London mansion where she spent time with ex Pete Doherty... Too many memories? [Mirror]
• David Copperfield has canceled upcoming shows in Southeast Asia — but not because of his allegations of sexual misconduct, his lawyer says. The charges that Copperfield "forced himself" on an unidentified woman are false, his lawyer claims, "because David Copperfield has never forced himself on anyone." (Aside: This subject came up and Moe said, "If he is magic, can't he make 'No' 'Yes'?") [Showbuzz]
• Oprah flew to South Africa over the weekend to deal with the crisis of allegations of sexual misconduct at her school for girls. It was her second visit in ten days. [Times Of London]
• Mariah Carey's makeup artist waxed the singer's upper lip and chin — in front a studio audience at the CBS studios. Yes, there are pictures! [Daily Mail]
• Blind item! "Which major league athlete has been trying to sleep with all his former fiancee's celebrity friends since he broke up with the B-lister? But even Paris Hilton turned him down!" [Gatecrasher, last item]
• Jay-Z says that when he watched his retirement movie, Fade To Black recently, he was "embarrasssed. I couldn't watch. I had to turn it off. I was cringing." [Rush & Molloy, 2nd item]