Passages

SPLITS

Oscar winner Sean Penn, 48, filed for legal separation from his wife, actress Robin Wright Penn, 43, in San Rafael, Calif., April 24. The pair, who wed in 1996, started divorce proceedings in December 2007 but asked the court to dismiss the divorce petition four months later and resumed their relationship. They are the parents of daughter Dylan, 18, and son Hopper, 15. • “Milkshake” singer Kelis, 29, filed for divorce in L.A. April 30 from rapper Nas, 35, her husband of five years. She is pregnant with their first child together, due in July.

LEGAL MATTERS

According to legal papers recently made public, supermodel Cindy Crawford’s husband, entrepreneur Rande Gerber, 47, was named, along with companies he owns, in a sexual harassment suit filed in San Diego March 11 by two former waitresses at one of his bars. One plaintiff alleges that he tried to kiss her three times one night last year, then put his hand up her dress. She also claims that the advances of Gerber and other managerial staff created a hostile working environment that led her to quit. Gerber’s reps countered, “These allegations were previously investigated and shown to be baseless.”

ENGAGED

Meg White, 34, of the rock duo the White Stripes, is set to wed guitarist Jackson Smith, 26, son of singer Patti Smith, this year. This will be the second marriage for the future bride, whose musical partner is ex-husband Jack White.

RECOVERING

A throat condition caused Jennifer Hudson, 27, to postpone a May 3 concert date in Oakland and reschedule shows that same week in Phoenix and Houston for later dates. The Grammy- and Oscar-winning singer-actress is currently on tour with Robin Thicke.

DEATHS

Jack Kemp, 73, a former NFL quarterback who became the Republican vice presidential nominee during the 1996 election, died of cancer at his home in Bethesda, Md., May 2. After playing for the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills—winning the American Football League’s Most Valuable Player award in 1965—he served as a western New York congressman from 1971 to 1989. •American Idol winner David Cook’s brother Adam (inset), 37—who during his illness came to see his brother perform on the show last year—died in Terre Haute, Ind., May 2 after a decade-long battle with brain cancer. At the Race for Hope 5K—an annual benefit for research on the disease that felled Adam—David, 26, told the crowd in Washington, D.C., “I actually lost my brother yesterday to a brain tumor, and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else right now.”

THE FIRST FACE TRANSPLANT IN THE U.S.

Connie Culp, 46, of Steubenville, Ohio, has a dramatic new look, revealed May 5, thanks to a 22-hour, near-total face transplant—the world’s most extensive. Culp, who was shot in the face in 2004 by her husband, underwent her 31st surgery last December—this one with a team led by Dr. Maria Siemionow at the Cleveland Clinic. The mother of two had 80 percent of her face rebuilt—including her nose, cheeks, upper jaw and upper lip. “When somebody has a disfigurement and doesn’t look as pretty as you, don’t judge them,” says Culp, whose husband was sentenced to seven years in jail. “You never know what might happen. One day it might all be taken away.”