Passages

Rap star and one-time underwear model Marky Mark, 22, is being sued by Sandra Gessner, 26, for injuries she allegedly sustained during a concert at Maine’s Portland Expo in 1992. Gessner, who just filed suit on Jan. 21 in Androscoggin County superior court, claims that she was pushed over a friend’s wheelchair, knocked to the floor and trampled by a crowd when the singer dropped his pants and asked his audience to approach the stage. Gessner is seeking unspecified damages from Mark, concert promoters and the city of Portland. Mark’s attorney denies that his client was negligent….

Singer Rick James, 45, who was convicted of drugging and assaulting a woman in a hotel room in November 1992, could be free in 8½ months under a plea agreement finalized Jan. 20 in L.A. The agreement was reached after the L.A. district attorney’s office started investigating whether one of its employees provided illegal drugs to a key witness against James. Though James was sentenced to five years and four months in prison, he will be released in September if he successfully completes a live-in drug-rehabilitation program in Norco, Calif.

Skid Row lead singer Sebastian Bach, 25, and his wife, Maria, 30, welcomed their second son, London Siddhartha Halford (6 lbs. 5 ozs.), on Jan. 20 in Red Bank, N.J. London’s brother is Paris, 5.

Rocker Rod Stewart, 49, and his wife, model Rachel Hunter, 24, are expecting their second child late this summer. Hunter, who suffered a miscarriage four months ago, and Stewart have a 19-month-old daughter, Renee, and Stewart has three other children from previous relationships.

Allan G. Odell, 90, who created the celebrated Burma-Shave roadside signs that dotted most of the country from 1925 until 1963, when Philip Morris purchased the Burma-Vita company, died of natural causes on Jan. 17 at his home in Edina, Minn. The whimsical verses, displayed on six panels placed 100 feet apart, helped turn the Odell family’s faltering shaving cream business into an immensely successful enterprise. A typical Odell rhyme: “Every/Sheba/Wants a Sheik/Strong of Muscle/Smooth of Cheek/Burma-Shave.”…

Irving B. Kahn, 76, the cable TV pioneer who created the Tele-PrompTer, the scrolling device that made cue cards obsolete, died of a heart attack on Jan. 22 at a Boston hospital. A nephew and namesake of legendary composer Irving Berlin, Kahn, who once attended the University of Alabama on a drum-major scholarship, persuaded CBS to use his invention in 1950 during a broadcast of the daytime soap opera The First Hundred Years.

Actor Lorenzo Lamas, 36, and his third wife, actress Kathleen Kinmont, 28, costars of the syndicated action series Renegade, have decided to end their five-year marriage. Citing irreconcilable differences, Kinmont filed for divorce on Jan. 14 in L.A. superior court. The couple, who have no children together, separated in November. Lamas and Kinmont will continue to work together.