U.S. pop star Madonna and her British filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie have reached a settlement in their divorce, The Times of London said Thursday. The couple married in 2000 and have two sons together -- Rocco, 8, and David, 3. They announced last month their plans to divorce.

British pop singer and television actress Billie Piper has given birth to a son, her husband, actor Laurence Fox told reporters outside a London hospital. The BBC said Winston James Fox was born Tuesday via an emergency Caesarean section at the Portland Hospital.

By jon wise IT'S official - wholesome, girl-next-door Billie Piper is as distant a memory as low-cost fuel bills. One French maid's outfit, an older man, a lot of water to drink and a sex act that would make you choke on your breakfast sausage.

By Joan Burnie WHAT with Billie Piper climbing back into the fishnets for another series of Belle du Jour and Helen "no date rape" Mirren giving us yet more of her wit and wisdom on brothels - "Madams are wonderful..." - is it any wonder that prostitution thrives? When television and the movies persist in portraying it as a suitable career for an ambitious girl, they mask the nasty brutal truth about the trade which has few if any Billies, but thousands of dead, broken and abused women.

British actress Billie Piper will reprise her role as sleuth Sally Lockhart in "The Shadow in the North," a TV movie to air this month, WGBH-TV, Boston, said.