Rocker has a daughter with Nicole Richie

Rocker has a daughter
with Nicole Richie

NEW YORK — Joel Madden says his newborn daughter with Nicole Richie has a healthy appetite. “She looks so much like her mom it’s crazy! She eats like a little maniac and she’s really sweet,” the Good Charlotte rocker gushes in a post on his DCMA Collective Web site under the heading, “It’s a Girl!!!!!” Harlow Winter Kate Madden was born Friday in Los Angeles, weighing 6 pounds 7 ounces. She is the first child for Madden, 28, and Richie, 26. The couple began dating in late 2006. Richie, the socialite daughter of Lionel Richie, is perhaps best known for co-starring with Paris Hilton in the reality show “The Simple Life.”

Influential ‘Vampira’
actress dies at 85

LOS ANGELES — Maila Nurmi, whose “Vampira” TV persona pioneered the spooky-yet-sexy Goth aesthetic, has died, coroner’s officials said. She was 85. Nurmi died Thursday afternoon at her Hollywood home, Los Angeles County coroner’s Lt. Fred Corral said. The cause of death has not been determined, Corral said. Nurmi created her Vampira character — reminiscent of Charles Addams’ spooky New Yorker cartoons — to host horror movie broadcasts on KABC TV in Los Angeles in 1954. Nurmi appeared each week in her revealing black dress and slinky fishnets to introduce such films as “Revenge of the Zombies” and “Devil Bat’s Daughter.” “The Vampira Show” was canceled after about a year, but Nurmi remained a cult figure among B-movie buffs and is thought to have inspired the vampish Morticia Addams on “The Addams Family,” which premiered about 10 years later.

Oprah Winfrey will get
her own TV network

NEW YORK — Oprah Winfrey is getting her own TV network. Discovery Communications and Winfrey announced a deal Tuesday where the Discovery Health network will be turned over to Winfrey next year, becoming OWN — the Oprah Winfrey Network. The cash-free transaction involved Winfrey’s turning over her Web site to Discovery, while the communications company makes her chairwoman of the network, which is currently seen in 68 million homes, said David Zaslav, Discovery Communications chief. “The focus of the channel will be the focus of Oprah’s brand, which is the educate and inspire people to live the best life they can,” Zaslav said.

‘Speed Racer’ race car
on display at auto show

DETROIT — The supercharged star of the new Wachowski brothers movie, “Speed Racer,” is visiting the Motor City. The Mach 5 race car will be on display at the North American International Auto Show, which opens to the public Saturday and closes Jan. 27. The car will be on view for the first three public days. Larry and Andy Wachowski’s live-action “Speed Racer” follows the adventures of the young race car driver Speed, played by Emile Hirsch, in his quest for glory. The movie, which also features Christina Ricci, Matthew Fox, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman, opens May 9.

Stipe dismissed as juror

ATHENS, Ga. — R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe was among more than a dozen potential jurors dismissed at the beginning of the trial for a man accused of sneaking into a middle school and trying to sexually assault a girl. Stipe told Clarke County Superior Court Judge Lawton Stephens on Monday he could not be fair and impartial in the case because he has been the target of stalkers and death threats, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.

Today’s birthdays

Author William Kennedy is 80. Opera singer Marilyn Horne is 74. Auto racer A.J. Foyt is 73. Country singer Ronnie Milsap is 65. Country singer Jim Stafford is 64. Talk-show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger is 61. Movie director John Carpenter is 60. Actress-dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen is 58. Singer Sade is 49. Actor Richard T. Jones is 36. Model Kate Moss is 34. Rock musician Nick Valensi (The Strokes) is 27. Actress Yvonne Zima is 19.