BIRTHS

Actress Elizabeth Banks, 37, is a new mom to son Felix via gestational surrogate. The 30 Rock star wrote on her website March 30 that she and producer husband Max Handelman, 37, struggled to have a baby on their own, so they decided to "make a 'baby cake' and bake it in another woman's 'oven.'" Felix, Banks said, is "a blessing on our life," and she is happily "changing dirty diapers."

EXPECTING

Bones star Emily Deschanel, 34, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor David Hornsby, 36, are expecting their first child. Deschanel's sister, (500) Days of Summer actress Zooey Deschanel, 31, tweeted how she is "super excited to be an aunt."

ENGAGED

It wasn't all that intimate, but it sure was romantic. With violins playing and millions of people watching, Jesse Sloan surprised his girlfriend, DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba, 43, while she was cohosting Live with Regis and Kelly, with a diamond ring and a marriage proposal. A misty eyed Inaba joyfully responded, "Yes!"

LEGAL MATTERS

Keith Brown, 55, the father and former manager of the 5 Browns, a group of classical piano-playing siblings, was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison on March 31. In February Brown pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his three daughters, Desirae, 32, Deondra, 30, and Melody, 27, back in the 1990s. When handing down his judgment, Utah judge David Mortensen called Brown "a danger to society."

BUSINESS SPLIT

Singer Beyonce's father, Mathew Knowles, 60, is no longer her business manager. Ending a professional relationship that dates back to the 1990s, Beyonce (insert), 29, said on March 29 that "I've only parted ways with my father on a business level." Knowles noted in his own statement that "business is business and family is family."

DEATHS

Farley Granger, 85, who became a matinee idol with such films as Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948) and Strangers on a Train (1951) and then shunned Hollywood, died March 27 in Manhattan. • Harry Wesley Coover Jr., 94, who as a young chemist unwittingly invented Super Glue, died March 26 in Kingsport, Tenn. Coover concocted the adhesive during World War II, yet he didn't originally pursue it. A few years later he realized its potential. It has since been used for everything from repairing china to closing battle wounds during the Vietnam War.

BRET MICHAELS FILES SUIT AGAINST CBS

Poison lead singer and TV reality star Bret Michaels, 48, who nearly died from an April 2010 brain hemorrhage, which he described as feeling "like he was being whacked in the head with a baseball bat over and over again," filed a suit on March 25 against CBS and the Tony Awards. In his court papers, Michaels says he just finished performing when a piece of scenery at the 2009 Tony Awards "smacked [him] in the face-throwing him to the ground and ultimately sending him to the hospital." It not only fractured his nose and cut his lip, it also led to last year's "near fatal subarachnoid hemorrhage." CBS and the Tonys have not commented.

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