Passages

Wed

Former Baywatch star Traci Bingham, 30, wed musician and record producer Robb Vailier, 28, on Aug. 29 in Ames, Iowa. The bride wore a $35,000 Escada confection, embellished with beads hand-sewn in India, and a 20-foot train. Her bridesmaids included fellow ex-Baywatch babes Gena Lee Nolin, Carmen Electra and Angelica Bridges….

TV’s curmudgeonly actor Ed Asner, 68, married retired movie producer Cindy Gilmore, 58, on Aug. 2 in L.A. It was the second marriage for both….

Actress Jasmine Guy, 36, alumna of the long-running sitcom A Different World, and investment broker Terrence Duckette, 36, exchanged I do’s on Aug. 22 in L.A.

Engaged

On Aug. 25, during a taping of TV’s Everybody Loves Raymond in Burbank, actor Brad Garrett, 38, proposed to Jill Diven, 33, with his fellow cast members, the stage crew and the audience as witnesses. The couple is expecting a son, whom they intend to name Max, in October. They plan to marry in May.

Births

On Aug. 23 Elizabeth Taylor, 66, became a great-grandma when Finnian McMurray was born in California to Laela Wilding and Todd McMurray. Laela is the daughter of Michael Wilding Jr., 45 (the oldest of Taylor’s four children), and her birth 27 years ago made the superstar a grandmother at 39….

Pop balladeer Lionel Richie, 49, and his wife, Diane, 32, welcomed new daughter Sofia (7 lbs. 4 ozs.) on Aug. 24 in Los Angeles. The couple has a 4-year-old son, Miles.

Deaths

Louise Shepard, 76, widow of astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, died of a heart attack aboard an airplane en route to her home in Pebble Beach, Calif., on Aug. 25, five weeks after her husband’s death….

Columnist Dorothy Manners Haskell, 95, who wrote about Hollywood for the Hearst newspaper chain from 1965 to ’77, died on Aug. 25 in Palm Springs, Calif….

Former First Dog Rex, the Reagans’ Cavalier King Charles spaniel that had the run of the house (the White one) from 1985 to ’89, died on Aug. 30 in L.A. of complications from an enlarged heart. He was 13.

In Court

In Princeton, W. Va., Bob Denver, 63, formerly of Gilligan’s Island, pleaded no contest on Aug. 27 to possession of marijuana and began six months of unsupervised probation. Police arrested Denver on June 4 after intercepting and then delivering a package, containing about an ounce of pot, addressed to the actor’s home.

Recuperating

On Aug. 27 a spokeswoman for star opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti, 62, confirmed that he had undergone hip-replacement surgery in New York City in July.

Back Home

On Aug. 27, tennis great Rod Laver, 60, left UCLA Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized after a stroke one month earlier. Laver, who is able to get about with a walker, now must go through several months of physical therapy at his home in Newport Beach, Calif.

Behind Bars

Police in Sabinal, Texas, charged country crooner Johnny Rodriguez, 46, who had six No. 1 hits in the ’70s (including “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico”), with murder on Aug. 29. He was accused of shooting Israel Borrego, 26, an acquaintance Rodriguez says he mistook for a burglar. The singer was jailed in lieu of $250,000 bond.