Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Victoria Rainert, Heather Won Tesoriero, Rebecca Winters

BENCHED. MICHAEL JORDAN, 39, comeback king of the NBA's Washington Wizards; following knee surgery; in Washington. Jordan decided to sit out the rest of the season after playing on reserve for seven postsurgery games.

BORN. To ELIZABETH HURLEY, 36, actress and single mom; a boy, Damian Charles; in London. The co-star of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and former girlfriend of Hugh Grant has named former boyfriend Stephen Bing, a film producer, as the father. Bing has questioned that claim, saying the two "were not in an exclusive relationship" when Hurley became pregnant.

ACCUSATION DENIED. ROGER M. CARDINAL MAHONY, 66, of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; in L.A. Mahony revealed--and strongly denied--an accusation brought to church officials March 20 that he sexually molested a high school student in Fresno, Calif., 32 years ago. Police in Fresno said they are investigating the allegation.

SENTENCED. ROBERT TULLOCH, 18, and JAMES PARKER, 17, teenagers convicted of the brutal stabbing murder of Half and Susanne Zantop, husband-and-wife Dartmouth professors, in January 2001; to life in prison and 25 years to life, respectively; in North Haverhill, N.H. Prosecutors said the killing was part of a scheme engineered by Tulloch to steal $10,000 they needed in order to travel to Australia.

SEPARATED. MARION BARRY, 66, former mayor of Washington; from his fourth wife Cora, whom he married two years after his release from prison in 1992; on misdemeanor drug charges, following reports that police found traces of marijuana and crack cocaine in his car; in Washington. Barry, who had been hoping for a political comeback, at the same time dropped out of his race for an at-large D.C. council seat. "I put the well-being of Cora above the well-being of my political life," he said, "and I'm going to fight to get her back."

DIED. ABDULLAH BIN LADEN, 75, patriarch of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families and estranged uncle of Osama bin Laden; of undisclosed causes; in Riyadh. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he condemned the "tragic incident...which contradicts the teachings of our religion, Islam." In 1994, the year Osama was stripped of his citizenship, the family disavowed links with him.

DIED. ROY HUGGINS, 87, pioneering writer-producer of popular TV series such as Maverick, The Fugitive and The Rockford Files; in Santa Monica, Calif. Huggins' dramas were innovative in style and tone: Maverick (1957-62) took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the popular western genre, while The Fugitive (1963-67) drew huge ratings for the finale of its four-year saga of Dr. Richard Kimble, a man wrongly accused of murdering his wife.

DIED. MARJORIE HOLMES, 91, inspirational author known as the "patron saint of housewives"; in Manassas, Va. Holmes' 32 books and articles for McCall's, Ladies' Home Journal and others struck a chord with readers by making biblical characters accessible and relating religion to real life. Of the popularity of her trilogy on Christ's birth and life, begun with 1972's best-selling Two from Galilee, Holmes said, "I made the Holy Family as real as the folks next door."

DIED. DIANA STREISAND KIND, 93, mother of singer Barbra Streisand; in Los Angeles. The star's strained relationship with her mother, who raised her in Brooklyn, N.Y., and could be critical of her work, eased over the years. At a 1994 comeback concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Barbra greeted her mother in the second row and asked, "Are you proud of me now, Mama?"