No more laughs for Kimmel, Silverman

Celebrity gossip, famous birthdays and other tidbits, compiled from Seattle Times news services.

MUHAMMED MUHEISEN / AP

Young Palestinian dancers in traditional costume prepare on Monday for a performance of a folk dance known as Dabkeh, during a Palestinian festival in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

DAN STEINBERG / AP

Television host Jimmy Kimmel, left, and comedian/actress Sarah Silverman at a party in April.

Khloe Kardashian

PEOPLE

Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman have broken up, their publicists said Monday. The pair dated for five years and were one of Hollywood's funniest — and seemingly solid — couples. Earlier this year, they took the Internet by storm with a mega-popular video duel. Silverman, 37, debuted a clip of her and Matt Damon singing about their fake love affair on Kimmel's ABC late-night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and Kimmel, 39, later responded with a star-studded video declaring a romance with Damon's best friend, Ben Affleck.

On the auction block

A South Carolina judge says an auction of James Brown's belongings in New York can go forward as planned this week. Christie's auction house has planned the bidding for Thursday. Among the items for sale are a red jumpsuit and a lock of Brown's hair. Brown died on Christmas Day in 2006 of heart failure. He was 73.

Her own Bastille Day

President Nicolas Sarkozy pinned the Legion of Honor — France's highest award — on former hostage Ingrid Betancourt on Monday, praising her courage and saying: "We love you." The 46-year-old Betancourt, who holds Colombian-French nationality, spent six years in the hands of Colombian rebel group FARC. Colombian soldiers freed her and 14 other hostages in a daring operation July 2. Sarkozy presented the award on Bastille Day at a party at the presidential Elysée Palace to mark France's national day.

REALITY PLUS

Off to jail

Khloe Kardashian's next dose of reality will involve the county jail. The reality-show star admitted during a July 3 court hearing that she violated her probation stemming from a 2007 drunken-driving arrest and has been ordered surrender to authorities on Friday and serve up to 30 days in jail. Kardashian, 23, will also have to enroll in an alcohol-treatment program. Her drunken-driving arrest was featured in an episode of the E! series "Keeping Up With the Kardashians."

Today in History

1958: President Eisenhower ordered U.S. Marines to Lebanon, at the request of that country's president, Camille Chamoun, in the face of a perceived threat by Muslim rebels.

1971: President Nixon startled the country by announcing he would visit the People's Republic of China.

1976: A 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, Calif., by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. (The captives escaped unharmed.)

1997: Fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot dead outside his Miami home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan was found dead eight days later.

Today's Birthdays

Actor Philip Carey, 83. Actor Alex Karras, 73. R&B singer Millie Jackson, 64. Singer Linda Ronstadt, 62. Actor Terry O'Quinn, 56. Model Kim Alexis, 48. Actor Willie Aames, 48. Actor-director Forest Whitaker, 47. Actress Lolita Davidovich, 47. Actress Brigitte Nielsen, 45. Actor Kristoff St. John, 42. Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin, 40. Actor Reggie Hayes, 39. Actor Scott Foley, 36. Actor Brian Austin Green, 35. Rapper Jim Jones, 32. Actress Lana Parrilla, 31.