Birthday surprise for Jennifer Hudson

WEDDING BELLS

Birthday surprise

Jennifer Hudson got a big surprise on her 27th birthday: an engagement ring. Hudson's beau, David Otunga, popped the question while the pair were celebrating in Los Angeles on Friday. The couple have not yet set a wedding date.

Exchanging vows

George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu on the original "Star Trek," wed his longtime partner, Brad Altman, Sunday at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in Los Angeles. The ceremony featured a Buddhist priest, American Indian wedding bands, a Japanese harp and a procession of bagpipers.

BIRTHDAYS

Making a mint

Britain's Royal Mint has issued a new collectors coin featuring images of Prince Charles and his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, to celebrate his 60th birthday. The last coin to feature an image of Charles — who turns 60 on Nov. 14 — on one side and the queen on the other was issued to mark the prince's 50th birthday.

ON THE MARKET

Robert Sargent Shriver III, the first director of the Peace Corps, and his wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister to President John F. Kennedy, put their 16,000-square-foot estate in Potomac, Md., up for sale for $11.8 million. The Shrivers built the Georgian-style home, which sits on seven acres, in 1986.

PEOPLE

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will honor Tom Hanks in its annual gala tribute, citing the actor's talent of making "a good man compelling." The two-time Academy Award winner will be feted April 27. The 52-year-old Hanks won best-actor Oscars for 1993's "Philadelphia" and 1994's "Forrest Gump."

PASSAGES

Richard Wright, a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. He was 65. Pink Floyd's spokesman said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965. The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon," which has sold more than 40 million copies.

TODAY IN HISTORY

1498: Tomas de Torquemada, notorious for his role in the Spanish Inquisition, died in Avila, Spain.

1810: Mexico began its successful revolt against Spanish rule.

1908: General Motors was formed in Flint, Mich., by William Durant.

1919: The American Legion was formally chartered by an act of Congress.

1940: President Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which set up the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.

1968: Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon exclaimed, "Sock it to ME?" in a taped bit for the NBC-TV comedy program "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In."

1977: Maria Callas, the American-born prima donna famed for her lyric soprano and fiery temperament, died in Paris at age 53.

1988: Hurricane Gilbert slammed into the Mexico coast for the second time in three days.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS

Actress Janis Paige is 86. Actress Lauren Bacall, 84. Blues singer B.B. King, 83. Actor Peter Falk, 81. Actress Anne Francis, 78. Actor George Chakiris, 76. Musician Kenney Jones (Small Faces, Faces, The Who), 60. Rock musician Ron Blair (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), 60. Actor Ed Begley Jr., 59. Actor Mickey Rourke, 52. Magician David Copperfield, 52. Former All-Star baseball pitcher Orel Hershiser, 50. Actress Kyla Pratt, 22. Rock singer Teddy Geiger, 20. Rock singer-musician Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers), 16.