Passages

• LEGAL MATTERS
• On Oct. 3 a New York City judge ordered Oscar-winner Charlize Theron, 33, to pay high-end watchmaker Raymond Weil for violating a $3 million endorsement deal. The amount in damages will be determined at a jury trial. The company sued the actress in February 2007, alleging that she reneged on an agreement to wear its timepieces exclusively from October 2005 through December 2006. She was photographed wearing a Christian Dior watch at a press conference during a March 2006 film festival.
• A woman accused of stalking John Cusack (inset), 42, avoided jail time by pleading no contest in L.A. Oct. 10. Emily Leatherman, 33, who received five years’ probation, must undergo psychiatric counseling and stay away from the actor, his homes and his businesses for the next 10 years.

RETIRING

Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown’s racing career ended Oct. 13 when the 3-year-old colt tore a 3-in. piece of flesh off his right front hoof during a workout at Aqueduct race track in New York City. “It’s in the best interest of the horse to let him recover and move on to his breeding career,” said his co-owner Michael Lavarone.

DEATHS

Guillaume Depardieu, 37, son of French film star Gérard Depardieu, 59, died of pneumonia near Paris Oct. 13. He received a César Award (France’s equivalent to the Oscar) in 1996 for most promising actor, but tragedy struck the year before, when he was in a motorcycle accident. As a result, Guillaume contracted an infection that resulted in part of his right leg being amputated in 2003. “He was very sensitive,” said Jean-Pierre Mocky, a director with whom he worked. “That’s what gave him that slightly James Dean-style personality.”

• I DO, TIMES TWO
• Four years and two babies later, Marc Anthony, 40, and Jennifer Lopez, 39, renewed their wedding vows in front of 12 people during a spur-of-the-moment ceremony at Las Vegas’s Caesars Palace Oct. 12. While Lopez’s parents babysat the stars’ 8-month-old twins Max and Emme, the couple were joined at 3:15 a.m. by pals New York Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran and his wife of nearly nine years, Jessica, both 31, who also reconfirmed their vows. Earlier that night, says a source, Anthony and Lopez “were both winning at the craps tables and Marc kept saying that it was going to be a lucky night.”