Ang Lee wins at Venice

Honors

Ang Lee's erotic spy thriller "Lust, Caution" won the Venice Film Festival's top award Saturday, the Golden Lion, two years after he captured the same prize with "Brokeback Mountain." Brian De Palma won the award for best direction for "Redacted," about the Iraq war. Cate Blanchett won best actress for her role in "I'm Not There," a movie about Bob Dylan. Brad Pitt won best actor for his role in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."

Sick bay

Home after surgery

First lady Laura Bush had surgery Saturday to relieve pain from pinched nerves in her neck. A White House official said the procedure was successful. Mrs. Bush underwent the 2 ½-hour procedure at The George Washington University Hospital. She returned to the White House in the afternoon.

Actress out of danger

The Monceau Clinic in Paris said French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg is "out of danger" after surgery to treat "a massive brain hemorrhage caused by a shock to the head," the BBC reported. Gainsbourg had complained of headaches since a recent water-skiing accident in the United States.

People

No secrets in court

Country star Sara Evans' husband is asking the singer in a court filing whether she was romantically involved with nearly a dozen people, including Kenny Chesney, Richard Marx and former "Dancing With The Stars" partner Tony Dovolani. The document was filed Tuesday in Williamson Country, Tenn., chancery court as part of Evans' divorce from Craig Schelske, according to The Tennessean newspaper. Evans has not responded, and the filing provides no evidence she had relationships with any of the people named.

Baby birthday party

Hundreds of guests bearing gifts attended the first birthday party Saturday for Anna Nicole Smith's daughter, Dannielynn, in Louisville, Ky. Pink balloons decorated the iron gates in front of socialite Tricia Barnstable Brown's home, where Smith and Dannielynn's father, Louisville native Larry Birkhead, met at a party in 2003. Smith, 39, died of an accidental drug overdose in February.

Expecting second child

Casey Affleck, 32, and his wife, actress Summer Phoenix, 28, are expecting their second child, a spokeswoman for the actor said Saturday. Affleck and Phoenix married in 2006 and have a son, Indiana August, 3.

Kingsley weds again

Sir Ben Kingsley, 63, has taken Brazilian actress Daniela Barbosa de Carneiro, 34, as his fourth wife in a private ceremony in England.

Today in History

1830: Charles Durant flew a balloon from New York City across the Hudson River to Perth Amboy, N.J.

1893: Frances Cleveland, wife of President Cleveland, gave birth to a daughter, Esther, in the White House; it was the first time a president's child was born in the executive mansion.

1956: Elvis Presley made the first of three appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

1957: President Eisenhower signed into law the first civil-rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction.

Today's Birthdays

Actor Tom Wopat, 56. Actress Angela Cartwright, 55. Actor Hugh Grant, 47. Actor Adam Sandler, 41. Model Rachel Hunter, 38. Actor Goran Visnjic, 35. Pop-jazz singer Michael Buble, 32. Actress Michelle Williams, 27.

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