Nicole Richie gives birth to daughter Harlow

Los Angeles – “The Simple Life” just got more complicated for Nicole Richie: She’s a first-time mom.

Richie, 26, gave birth Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to a daughter named Harlow Winter Kate Madden, People magazine reported on its Web site.

The father is Richie’s 28-year-old boyfriend, Joel Madden, of the rock group Good Charlotte.

“We are very blessed she’s healthy and beautiful and so good already,” Madden told People on Saturday. “We are very happy.”

Calls to the couple’s representative at Handprint Entertainment, Richie’s publicist and the hospital were not immediately returned Saturday.

Richie, the socialite daughter of singer Lionel Richie, is perhaps best known for co-starring with Paris Hilton in the reality show “The Simple Life.”

Last year, she spent 82 minutes in jail after being convicted of driving under the influence of drugs. She was arrested in December 2006 after witnesses reported seeing her Mercedes-Benz SUV headed the wrong way on a freeway in Burbank.

Directors begin contract talks with studios

Los Angeles – The union representing Hollywood directors began contract talks Saturday, with striking TV and film writers calculating how a deal might affect them.

A quick resolution with directors could undercut the writers’ bargaining power by serving as an industry template for the central issue of new media compensation, observers said.

The Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild issued a joint statement Friday saying they hoped directors reach a fair deal that “incorporates principles that will benefit all creative artists.”

“The DGA has to do what is best for its membership, but it is important to remember that they do not represent actors and writers,” the statement said.

An e-mail from DGA president Michael Apted to guild members added to speculation that a speedy resolution with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers could be in the works.

“We would not enter negotiations with the AMPTP unless we were within shouting distance of an agreement on our two most important issues: jurisdiction for our members to work in new media and appropriate compensation for the reuse of our work on the Internet and other new media platforms,” Apted wrote in the e-mail.

Both sides in the 2-month-old writers strike have said the central issue is compensation for programs, movies and other content streamed or downloaded over the Internet.

That issue also could dominate studio negotiations with directors and the Screen Actors Guild. The contracts of both those unions expire in June.