Galapagos tortoise may be a dad

Critters

Lonesome George, the long-living Galapagos Islands giant tortoise thought to be the last of his kind, might soon be a father. The Galapagos National Park in Ecuador announced Monday that a female tortoise that has accompanied George since 1993 laid three intact eggs that are being cared for in an artificial incubator. Found in 1972 on Pinta island, George is estimated to be in his 70s — middle age for a giant tortoise. It will take another 120 days to learn if the eggs are viable.

People

Batman arrested

Christian Bale, star of "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" was arrested Tuesday over allegations of assaulting his mother and sister, police and British media said. The 34-year-old actor spent four hours at a London police station before being released on bail. British media had reported that Bale's mother and sister said he had assaulted them at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Sunday night, a day before the European premiere of "The Dark Knight."

Levine's tumor cancerous

A growth on a kidney removed from conductor James Levine, 65, was malignant, but the cancer was caught early and no further treatment is needed, the Boston Symphony Orchestra said Tuesday. Doctors in New York removed the right kidney last week because the growth was causing Levine, music director of the BSO and the Metropolitan Opera, pressure and discomfort. Levine's brother, Tom Levine, said doctors found a malignant growth on the kidney, but it was very small and confined.

Probation for Kid Rock

DeKalb County, Ga., solicitor's office officials said Kid Rock, 37, has been sentenced to a year's probation and fined $1,000 for his role in a fight at a suburban Atlanta Waffle House last fall. Rock, real name Robert Ritchie, also was sentenced Monday to six hours of anger-management counseling and 80 hours of community service. The entertainer pleaded no contest to one count of simple battery. Four counts of battery were dropped.

Real estate

It's homey

Candy Spelling, widow of producer Aaron Spelling, paid $47 million for a two-story condo atop a Century City residential tower in Los Angeles that's still under construction, her lawyer said. The price for the 16,500-square-foot property works out to $2,848 a square foot, a record price for a Los Angeles condo unit, the Los Angeles Times reported. The condo isn't the first record-breaking residence for Spelling. Her current abode, a 123-room mansion that she and her husband dubbed "The Manor," is the largest home in Los Angeles County at 56,500 square feet. The lawyer said Spelling will seek to sell "The Manor."

It was homey

A New York state report says a maintenance man who earned $100,000 last year working at a psychiatric center had been living for free in a paint shed on the grounds and had his mail delivered there. The report by the inspector general's office said the worker, who was not identified, lived on the grounds of the Rockland Psychiatric Center in New York City's northern suburbs for three years. It said he stayed in a back room of the shed and had a couch, microwave and refrigerator. The worker is being charged $2,500 for the time he lived there. Now he's living with his wife at a home about 3 miles away.

Law & disorder

Mowing violation

The driver of a riding lawnmower was so drunk — more than five times the legal limit — that he slumped over the wheel as the mower circled in an intersection before he fell to the ground and passed out, police said. Jerold Earhart, 29, of the Bay Shore, Mich., area, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.44 percent when he was arrested Saturday morning. A driver is legally intoxicated at 0.08 percent. Police said Earhart struck a tree and a lawn ornament. He was charged with drunken driving.

Passages

Sid Craig, 76, the co-founder of Jenny Craig Inc., who along with his wife built one of the most successful weight-loss companies in the world, died Monday in San Diego.

Roger Hall, 89, who wrote "You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger," a wry memoir about World War II spycraft that became a cult classic in intelligence circles and appealed to a wide audience for its irreverence, died Sunday at his home in Wilmington, Del. He had congestive heart failure.

Gladys Nederlander, 83, a theater and television producer, died Monday in New York. She was 83 and lived in Manhattan, Palm Beach, Fla., and East Hampton, N.Y.

Artie Traum, 65, a guitarist, songwriter and producer who helped carry the spirit of the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene to Woodstock, N.Y., died Sunday of liver cancer.

Charles Wick, 90, former U.S. Information Agency director, died Sunday at his Los Angeles home.

Today in History

1914: Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; the dispute led to World War I.

1952: Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a successful coup against King Farouk I.

1958: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II named the first four women to peerage in the House of Lords.

1967: A week of deadly race-related rioting that claimed 43 lives erupted in Detroit.

1982: Actor Vic Morrow and two child actors, 7-year-old Myca Dinh Le and 6-year-old Renee Chen, were killed when a helicopter crashed on top of them during filming of a Vietnam War scene for "Twilight Zone: The Movie." (Director John Landis and four associates were later acquitted of manslaughter charges.)

1986: Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. (The couple divorced in 1996.)

Today's Birthdays

Actress Gloria DeHaven, 83. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, 72. Radio personality Don Imus, 68. Actor Woody Harrelson, 47. Actor Eriq Lasalle, 46. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, 41. Model-actress Stephanie Seymour, 40. Country singer Alison Krauss, 37. Actor-comedian Marlon Wayans, 36. Actor Omar Epps, 35. R&B singer Michelle Williams, 28. Actor Daniel Radcliffe, 19.

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