New oyster-eating champ

Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti, 22, won the Acme World Oyster Eating title in New Orleans on Saturday. Bertoletti, of Chicago, won the championship belt — leather, with a silver dish featuring an oyster on the half-shell — by slurping 35 dozen of the big bivalves in eight minutes. Bertoletti holds the endurance oyster-eating record, having downed 53 ½ dozen in 2007 before calling it quits. Defending champion Crazy Legs Conti — whose real name is Crazy Legs — tied for third, sucking down 24 dozen. Juliet Lee, of Germantown, Md., polished off 31 ½ dozen for second place.

People

Texan named Miss USA

A 26-year-old entrepreneur from Texas was named Miss USA late Friday in Las Vegas. Crystle Stewart, of Missouri City, Texas, runs a party-planning and motivational-speaking company, and models professionally. She said she wants to dedicate her life to international philanthropy. Stewart edged out first runner-up Leah Laviano, of Mississippi, and Tiffany Andrade, of New Jersey. Stewart will compete in the Miss Universe pageant in Vietnam in July. The judges for Friday's pageant included Heather Mills, former wife of Paul McCartney; comedian Rob Schneider; Olympic gold-medal swimmer Amanda Beard; and Christian Siriano, most recent winner of Bravo's "Project Runway."

Another Trump marries

Ivana Trump, 59, ex-wife of real-estate mogul Donald Trump, tied the knot Saturday night with Rossano Rubicondi, 36, her spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman billed Rubicondi as an Italian entrepreneur, but People magazine called him a model-actor. The wedding took place at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's seaside mansion in Palm Beach, Fla. The Donald, whom she divorced in 1990, attended, as did their children. People magazine reported that sons Donald Jr., 30, and Eric, 24, gave the bride away, while daughter Ivanka, 26, was maid of honor for the wedding, Ivana's fourth. Trump and Rubicondi have been together for about six years. They got engaged in September.

Rodeo gig canceled

Matchbox Twenty has canceled a performance at Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming out of concern for the animals. Lead singer Rob Thomas confirmed that the band pulled out of its July 18 show at the event. "We ask that [fans] please understand that it would be impossible for us to put ourselves in the position of making money from what we believe to be the mistreatment of animals," according to a statement from Thomas posted Saturday on the band's Web site. The Grammy-winning band is scheduled to perform at the North Dakota State Fair, which includes rodeo events.

Grand opening

Norway's opera house

King Harald V opened Norway's long-awaited national opera house on the shores of the Oslo Fjord on Saturday, kicking off a gala performance before royalty, national leaders and music lovers. The Nordic nation's newest landmark, a stunning $840 million building of white marble on the water's edge, fulfills a more than 120-year-old dream for Norwegian music fans used to watching the Norwegian Opera and Ballet in old downtown theaters.

Today in History

1742: George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" was first performed publicly, in Dublin, Ireland.

1958: U.S. pianist Van Cliburn, 23, won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

1986: Pope John Paul II visited the Great Synagogue of Rome in the first recorded papal visit of its kind to a Jewish house of worship.

Today's Birthdays

Actor Edward Fox, 71. Playwright Lanford Wilson, 71. Actor Paul Sorvino, 69. Composer Bill Conti, 66. Actor Ron Perlman, 58. Singer Peabo Bryson, 57. Actress Saundra Santiago, 51. Actor Rick Schroder, 38.

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