PASSAGES: Diana's Letters for Sale

By Stephen M. Silverman

03/21/2002 at 10:25 AM EST

OFFERED: Nine letters and 14 holiday and thank-you cards handwritten by Britain's late Princess Diana between 1981 and 1995 (she died in 1997) are expected to fetch as much as $30,000 collectively at England's Keys auction house on Friday, reports Reuters. A spokesperson for the auction house calls the correspondence, which apparently is being sold by those who received the letters and cards, "rather special and unique" . . . REVIEWED: Superior Court Judge Bernard J. Kamins praised comedian Paula Poundstone, 42, for meeting court-ordered requirements to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and regular counseling sessions according to the terms of her probation, reports the Associated Press. "I'd say this woman is trying real hard to get her children back," the jurist said Wednesday. Poundstone lost custody of her three adopted children last year following a plea of no contest to a felony count of child endangerment related to a charge of driving while intoxicated with children in her car . . . FILED: Tommy Smith, a former keyboard player for the Backstreet Boys, is suing the group for more than $1 million for his alleged cut of two of their songs, reports Billboard magazine. Smith claims to have cowritten "The Answer to Our Life" and "Time," from the Boys' "Black and Blue" album. A lawyer for the group said the matter is under investigation and his clients "will be responding fairly" . . . MAINTAINED: Sarah Jessica Parker, who turns 37 on Monday, addresses the state of her marriage to Matthew Broderick on Barbara Walters's Sunday night Oscar special. When Parker picked up her Golden Globe award for "Sex and the City" in January, she fueled rumors of a troubled union when she neglected to mention her husband in her acceptance speech. "I was shocked," Parker tells Walters about the allegations, USA Today reported. She called the stories that the marriage was falling apart "a 24-hour bug, you know, it's gonna go away." Only they didn't. "Listen," says Parker, "my marriage speaks for itself. Come see me in 25 or 30 years when I'm still married to the same man."