Christina Aguilera (inset) and Jordan Bratman welcomed a baby boy Saturday at 10:05 p.m., according to People magazine. This is the first child for the 27-year-old singer and her music executive husband. “Christina and Jordan are proud to announce the birth of their son Max Liron Bratman,” the couple’s rep told People. Max - 6 pounds, 2 ounces, and 20.5 inches long - arrived late Saturday night in the same maternity ward at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles as three other babies of high-profile couples. Nicole Richie, along with thespians David Alan Grier and Courtney Thorne-Smith, each announced new additions from the same hospital, the New York Post reported. Richie, 26, and her punk-rocker boyfriend, Joel Madden, 28, welcomed their baby boy on Friday. Richie was just down the hall from Aguilera. Also Friday, “According to Jim” costar Smith, 40, and husband Roger Fishman, 47, welcomed Jacob Emerson into the world. And Grier’s wife,Christine Y. Kim, delivered Luisa Danbi Grier-Kim Thursday afternoon, according to People.com. (People.com/New York Post) 

BET honors West

Former Harvard prof Cornel West was among those honored by the BET network at its annual gathering to recognize the achievements and contributions of African-American leaders in their fields. West was recognized at the “2008 BET Honors” at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., Saturday night in the areas of education and inspiration. Others feted at the soiree were supermodelTyra Banks, singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, Time Warner board chairmanRichard Parsons, congresswoman Maxine Waters, and CEO Janice Bryant Howroyd. (BET.com)  

Oates laps the field

Joyce Carol Oates led a field of National Book Critics Circle finalists announced Saturday, with nominations in both fiction and autobiography categories. Oates was nominated in fiction for “The Gravedigger’s Daughter,” along with MIT creative writing professor Junot Diaz (inset), whose “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” was passed over for a National Book Award nomination last fall. Other nominees were Marianne Wiggins’s “The Shadow Catcher,” Hisham Matar’s “In the Country of Men,” and Vikram Chandra’s “Sacred Games.” Winners of the 34th annual National Book Critics Circle prize will be announced March 6 in New York City. There are no cash prizes. (AP)  

No drop in ‘The Bucket’

Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman narrowly took the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office in North America with “The Bucket List,” according to studio estimates issued yesterday. The Warner Bros. release, in which the duo play cancer patients who spend their last days on a high note, earned $19.5 million during the three days beginning Friday. New at No. 2 with $19 million was “First Sunday,” a comedy starring Ice Cube. The teen pregnancy comedy “Juno” slipped one place to No. 3 with $14 million, taking its total to $71.25 million after six weeks. After three weekends at No. 1, Nicolas Cage’s “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” fell to No. 4 with $11.5 million. (Reuters)  

Stars linked to steroids

A number of entertainers were named in connection with an Albany, N.Y.-based steroid investigation, but are not part of an ongoing criminal probe, according to a published report. The Times Union of Albany cited unnamed sources in a report yesterday that R&B music star Mary J. Blige, rap musicians 50 Cent,Timbaland, and Wyclef Jean, and award-winning author and producerTyler Perry may have received or used performance- enhancing drugs. Albany District Attorney P. David Soares launched an investigation into steroid trafficking last year. Law enforcement officials have said evidence does not indicate that the celebrities broke the law. Officials are focusing on the doctors, pharmacists, and clinics that provide the drug

  And if you would believe it, so are Japanese pop diva Ayumi Hamasaki, Bollywood queen Aishwarya Rai, US President George Bush and even Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.If you type in Mr Lee’s name on the Find Friends function on the social networking site, you will find four profiles with his name - three with his photos.One of the profiles lists 13 friends - which include ‘Tony Blair’, ‘Mao Ze Dong’ and ‘Gregori Rasputin’ - the latter two being, respectively, a deceased Chinese leader and the infamous Mad Monk of Russia who was murdered in the early 20th century.An Eric Lee from Malaysia writes on this profile, ‘Err… who exactly are you ah?’, to which, ‘Mr Lee’ responds: ‘Go read your papers.’Facebook fake? Quite likely.And there are a slew of them. There is even one open profile of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, where the only application added is an IQ test.Fake celebrity profiles made headlines recently after two bogus Facebook profiles of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were found on the site.Bilawal is the 19-year-old son of recently-assassinated Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto. He took over his late mother’s position as party chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party.

A federal judge ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mail messages, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against. The order, from Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. of Federal District Court, came in response to two lawsuits trying to determine whether the White House destroyed e-mail messages in violation of federal law. Two private groups that filed suit, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive, say 5 million messages have disappeared. Judge Kennedy’s order is directed at maintaining backup tapes that contain copies of messages.

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) faces a federal patent infringement lawsuit by Northeastern University over technology used in its core Web search system, according to legal papers filed last week. The complaint was filed on Nov. 6 in Marshall, in the Eastern District of Texas — the U.S. court with a history of decisions that are highly favorable to plaintiffs in patent cases — but the case only came to light over the weekend.

The plaintiffs are Boston-based Northeastern University and Jarg Corp, a start-up founded by a Northeastern University professor that is the exclusive licensee of search technology patented in 1997, a year before Google was incorporated.

A spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google said it believed the suit was without merit.

“While we have not been served, we are aware of the complaint and believe it to be without merit based upon our initial investigation,” Google spokesman Jon Murchison said.

The leading Internet company derives 99 percent of its revenue from online advertising, which is delivered in response to keyword searches Google users perform to find Web links.

Michael Belanger, president and co-founder of Jarg, said in a phone interview that his company had become aware of the infringement several years ago, but lacked the resources to press its case until it found a law firm willing to fund the case on a contingency-fee basis. Northeastern then signed on.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys are from the Texas-based global law firm of Vinson & Elkins, which is paying the costs of the case, assisted by local counsel in Marshall and nearby Tyler.

 College students today know they can save money buying textbooks online. They go to the campus bookstore and write down ISBN numbers for their courses. But do they know for certain they wrote down the correct ISBN? They joke about it on their web site, humorously naming a condition “Chronic ISBN Transposition”, as if it was some kind of disease. Seriously though you can write down the wrong number or switch number positions which is transposing. Therefore you have the wrong ISBN and will have to go back to the campus bookstore. TextBack has made it easy. While in the bookstore simply send keyword “ISBN” followed by the 10 digit ISBN number to short code 4INFO (44636). Isn’t it better to text the ISBN to confirm you have the right textbook when you go online? After you send a text message they store the book on the website in a mobile cart so can purchase online from Amazon Market Place. They also send you a text with online pricing and the title. Giving you confidence knowing you have the right textbook. You don’t have to sign up or join. More importantly, you don’t have to give them your cell phone number. They place a numeric code in their response messages. All you need do is enter the code on the site and they will display all of the books for you. The system is good for any book not just textbooks. Technical professionals can use the system for those expensive tech books too.