Is boy the Buddha?

People

A teenage boy revered by many as a reincarnation of Buddha re-emerged this week to meet his followers, who have come by the thousands to see him in the jungles of Ratanpur, about 100 miles south of Katmandu, Nepal. The followers of Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, believe he has been meditating without food and water since he was first spotted in the jungles of southern Nepal in 2005 sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree.

Actor's tiff probed

Authorities are investigating battery allegations against Emmy-winning actor Brad Garrett, 48, in an incident involving a photographer in West Hollywood, Calif. Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Kristin Aloma said Garrett had not been arrested in the incident that occurred late Tuesday or early Wednesday. She did not provide details, although video posted on celebrity gossip site TMZ.com shows parts of the incident during which no punches were thrown. Garrett stars in the Fox sitcom " 'Til Death." He snagged three best-supporting-actor Emmys for his role in the comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond."

New Neverland owner

Michael Jackson has given up title to his Neverland ranch, transferring the deed to a company he partly controls. The singer filed a grant deed on the ranch Monday that makes the new owner an entity called the Sycamore Valley Ranch, Tom Pearson of the Santa Barbara County, Calif., clerk-recorder's office said Wednesday. Sycamore Valley Ranch is a joint venture between Jackson and an affiliate of Colony Capital, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction who requested anonymity. Jackson had gone into default on the $24.5 million he owes on the 2,500-acre property in Santa Barbara County.

Sandler clan expands

Adam Sandler and his wife, Jackie, have welcomed their second daughter, Sunny Madeline, born Nov. 2. The couple's daughter Sadie was born in May 2006.

Extra! Extra! New York Times spoofed

Commuters nationwide found out during Wednesday's morning rush hour that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had ended and global warming, health-care spending and the economy's problems were on their way to being solved. On behalf of a collective of liberal activists, 1,000 volunteers across the country handed out 1.2 million copies of a spoof of The New York Times, dated July 4, 2009. The 14-page paper — which also announced the abolition of corporate lobbying, a maximum wage for chief executives and a recall for all gasoline-fueled cars — showed up in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The pranksters said they wanted to encourage the administration of Democratic President-elect Obama to keeps its promises. The publication was paid for by small, online contributions "to maintain the pressure on the people we've elected so they do what we've elected them to do," said a journalist who used the pseudonym Wilfred Sassoon to protect his real job at a newspaper in the New York area. He said he helped create the paper with about 30 other people, many of whom work at New York daily newspapers. Times' spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said: "This is obviously a fake issue of The Times. We are in the process of finding out more about it."

Passages

Maria Elena Marques, 83, the Mexican actress who starred as the long-suffering wife of a fisherman who finds a beautiful but ill-fated pearl in in the 1947 movie "The Pearl," based on a book by John Steinbeck, died Tuesday of heart failure.

Mae Mercer, 76, a deep-voiced blues singer who spent much of the 1960s performing at a blues bar in Paris and touring Europe before launching an acting career in the United States in films and television, was found dead Oct. 29 at her home in Northridge, Calif.

Today in History

1927: The Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between Lower Manhattan and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

1956: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public city and state buses.

1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington.

Today's Birthdays

Journalist-author Peter Arnett, 74. Producer-director Garry Marshall, 74. Actor Joe Mantegna, 61. Actor Chris Noth, 54. Actress-comedian Whoopi Goldberg, 53. Actor Rex Linn, 52. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel, 41.Actress Monique Coleman, 28.

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