Britney welcomes new son

Los Angeles – Britney Spears gave birth to her second son early Tuesday at a Los Angeles hospital, according to several entertainment magazines.

The baby boy was delivered about 2 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Us Weekly reported on its Web site Wednesday, citing an unnamed family source. The child was delivered by a scheduled Cesarean section procedure, People.com reported.

The newborn’s name was not known by Wednesday night.

It was the second child for Spears, 24, and her husband Kevin Federline, 28.

The newborn’s arrival came just days before their son Sean Preston’s first birthday, which is today.

Federline also has a daughter and a son with actress Shar Jackson.

Houston files for divorce

Los Angeles – Whitney Houston has filed for divorce from her husband Bobby Brown, her publicist told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Publicist Nancy Seltzer declined to reveal where or when Houston filed the divorce papers, and said the singer had no statement to make.

“I can just confirm that she has filed for divorce,” Seltzer said.

Houston and Brown, who married in 1992, have had a sometimes tumultuous marriage, and rumors of their breakup have surfaced often over the years.

The couple have one child, 13-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina.

No space trip in offing

Moscow – Madonna will not be sent into space, despite a lawmaker’s proposal to book a seat for the pop star on a Russian flight to the international space station, news agencies reported Wednesday.

State Duma member Alexei Mitrofanov, referring to Madonna’s reported expression of desire to become a “space tourist,” proposed that the lower house of parliament send a formal inquiry to the Russian space agency about organizing a space trip for her in 2008.

“Because of the television possibilities, it would be a pretty serious event in the year of elections in the United States and Russia,” he was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency.

The Duma turned down the proposal, agencies reported without specifying the vote tally.

Later, space agency spokesman Igor Panarin was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying no seats on the Soyuz spacecraft would be available until 2009.

Smith death ‘suspicious’

Nassau, Bahamas – Anna Nicole Smith frantically tried to revive her stricken son and had to be sedated after he died, her attorney said Wednesday. Authorities termed the death “suspicious” and said criminal charges could be filed.

Daniel Smith died Sunday while visiting his mother, a reality TV star and former Playboy playmate, in her hospital room three days after she gave birth to a baby girl.

“The devastation and grief over Daniel’s sudden death coupled with the sedation has been so extreme that Anna Nicole experienced memory loss of the event,” attorney Michael Scott said.

The chief inspector of the Bahamas coroner’s office on Wednesday called the death of the 20-year-old Smith “suspicious,” and a formal inquiry that could lead to criminal charges was scheduled for next month.

Tough love for Lohan

New York – Jane Fonda praised a studio executive’s recent scolding of Lindsay Lohan for her absences on the set of their film, “Georgia Rule.”

“I think every once in a while, a very, very young person who is burning both ends of the candle needs to have somebody say, ‘You know, you’re going to pay the piper, you better slow down.’ So I think it was good,” the 68-year-old actress told “Access Hollywood” in an interview that aired Tuesday.

In July, James G. Robinson, CEO of Morgan Creek Productions, chided Lohan in a letter for her behavior on a movie set and doubted her absence was related to heat exhaustion. “We are well aware that your ongoing all-night, heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called ‘exhaustion,”‘ he wrote.

Fonda remains sympathetic toward the 20-year-old actress, who is estranged from her imprisoned father, Michael Lohan. “I just want to take her in my arms and hold her until she becomes grown up. She’s so young and she’s so alone out there in the world in terms of structure. And she’s so talented.”