Ethan Hawke turns 39 today. Mike Nichols, the film director and husband of Diane Sawyer, is turning 78. Gossip Girl's Kelly Rutherford is 41. The First Lady of California, Maria Shriver, is 54. Sally Field is turning 62. Writer Michael Cunningham is 57. Rebecca Romijn (formerly Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) turns 37 today. Thandie Newton is turning 37. Taryn Manning is 31. Actress Emma Stone is 21. TV host Catherine Crier is turning 55. Former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger is turning 69. Joe Wilson, the former diplomat and husband of Valerie Plame, is 60 And Lamar Odom, the NBA star and poor soul now married to Khloe Kardashian, is 30. A few weekend birthdays after the jump.

• Madonna reveals all sorts of juicy, personal stuff in an interview in the November issue of Rolling Stone. Like how she really wanted to work with Eminem, but he turned her down (ouch); how her graffiti tag name back in the '80s was "Boy Toy" (how ironic!); and how she was a total geek in high school, just like every other celeb in the universe. [P6, NYDN]
• Penelope Cruz is making a cameo in the Sex & the City sequel. Get ready to suspend belief: She'll be playing the role of a banker. [People]
• Emanuel Ungaro "creative consultant" Lindsay Lohan is blaming the epic disaster that was her recent fashion show in Paris on "coming in so late and having not that much time to do a whole collection." She also says she's still "learning" and that the negative press isn't going to stop her from returning to Paris in a few months to give it another shot. You go, girl! [People]
• Because he's a romantic at heart, Alex Rodriguez flew to Miami for a single night to take Kate Hudson to dinner. Oh, yea, and to see his kids, too. [P6]

• After another wild day in court, Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook settled their latest round of legal issues yesterday. But not before Brinkley called her ex an "extreme narcissist," and Cook returned the favor by telling reporters she was an "angry, bitter, vindictive woman." At least it's nice to know they still have feelings for each other, though! [NYP, NYDN]
• As easy as it is to picture Courtney Love sitting in front of her computer punching numbers into an Excel spreadsheet, it turns out she may not be the best financial planner in the world. Love owes $300K in back taxes, according to the government. [TMZ]
• Michael Lohan says he knows who Lindsay's drug dealer is and he plans to reveal all in an effort to "save" his daughter. So who is he? "He has no job. He does nothing. All he does is supply everyone in LA." Call us crazy, but supplying "everyone" in LA sounds like a pretty good job to us. [Radar, NYDN]
• Get ready to see a lot more of Megan Fox dressed in, well, not much: Giorgio Armani has tapped her to star in his new underwear ad campaign. [WWD]

In the wake of Ted Kennedy's death, many people are assuming the age of Camelot has come to an end. These people have obviously forgotten the family's fecundity, for there are plenty of Kennedy's to take the helm.

• Was the "exhaustion" that sent Samantha Ronson to the hospital the result of a marathon screaming match with Lindsay? [TMZ]
• Walter Noel's five daughters are a bunch of maneaters who used to steal other girls' boyfriends, at least according to one of their former Georgetown classmates. [P6]
• Now that he's dated half the blondes in New York, Lance Armstrong says he's having a baby with his girlfriend, Anna Hansen. [NYDN, PM]
• Star Jones has supposedly gained 30 lbs. recently and is now worried her boyfriend, chef Herb Wilson, is going to dump her because of it. [NE]

Ethan Hawke turns 38 today. Mike Nichols, director, four-time divorcé, and husband of Diane Sawyer, is 77. Sally Field is 62. California's First Lady, Maria Shriver, is 53. Michael Cunningham, the author of The Hours, is 56. TV host Catherine Crier is 54. Actress Kelly Rutherford is 40. Rebecca Romijn is 36. Thandie Newton is 36. Taryn Manning is 30. And your favorite former Manhattan Borough President, Ruth Messinger, celebrates her 68th birthday today.

Oprah has been busy planning what to wear to Barack Obama's inauguration. In fact, she says she's been making her plans since she met up with Michelle Obama, Caroline Kennedy, and Maria Shriver back in February: "I created a vision board. I had never had a vision board before. I came home, I got me a board and put Barack Obama's picture on it and I put a picture of my dress I want to wear to the inauguration." [Stylewatch]

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom is running for higher office again, so it was time for another wedding. The latest bride is actress Jennifer Siebel. Larry Page and Sergey Brin were happy to lend the Google party plane to ferry guests from the Bay Area, so apparently no hard feelings about that whole San Francisco-wide Wi-Fi thing.

The moderator's chair was empty as Tom Brokaw and Meet the Press vets James Carville, Mary Matalin, Mike Barnacle, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Gwen Ifil, Maria Shriver and the show's executive producer Betsy Fischer gathered to celebrate the life of their old friend. Clip after the jump.

• Rob Lowe sued two former nannies and a former chef after saying one nanny tried to extort $1.5 million from him. The nanny basically accused the movie and TV star of hitting on her, while Lowe denied it and said the nanny was stalky. The second nanny supposedly plotted to spread lies of some sort about Lowe and his wife. The chef allegedly stole drugs from the medicine cabinet and had sex in Lowe's bed. You know, there may be a remote possibility that Lowe is a poor judge of character. [People]

After Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California, Maria Shriver was in an awkward spot. Not only was she married to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but being the first lady of California was sort of a conflict of interest with her Dateline gig. So she left the show, with an option to return. Because of that option, NBC has only paid her a "fraction" of her salary during the past few years, instead of the full amount they'd have owed her had they fired her. And after Anna Nicole Smith died, Shriver decided that she wouldn't go back to broadcast journalism because, well, it's a little gauche. The gruesome coverage of Anna Nicole Smith ended up saving NBC millions of dollars. Is there anything this woman can't posthumously do?