Buzz Briefs: Usher, Harry Belafonte

Usher Welcomes Second Son

Usher has gotten an early holiday gift -- a second son.

The 29-year-old singer and his wife, Tameka, are celebrating the birth of Naviyd Ely Raymond. The infant arrived early Wednesday, weighing 5 pounds, 13 ounces.

A statement from the couple released Thursday read: "Tameka and the baby are doing fine."

This is the second child for the couple, who were married in August 2007. Their first boy, Usher Raymond V, was born last November.

Tameka Raymond has three children from a previous marriage.

Sotheby's Yanks 3 MLK Docs From NY Auction

Sotheby's has withdrawn from auction three papers related to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after his estate claimed the documents being sold by Harry Belafonte are estate property.

Belafonte himself asked that the papers be withdrawn from Thursday's sale, said Lauren Gioia, a Sotheby's spokeswoman. The auction house did not comment further.

The documents, including a handwritten draft of King's first anti-Vietnam war speech in 1967, had a collective pre-sale estimate of $750,000 to $1.3 million.

"The King estate believes the documents being offered in Thursday's auction are a part of the wrongly acquired collection," said a statement issued on behalf of the estate Wednesday by Isaac Farris, CEO of the King Center in Atlanta. "The King estate is currently in conversations with Sotheby's to establish the truth."

Stewart & Walters Encourage Reading

Jon Stewart, Barbara Walters and some other famous people would like you to buy books during the holiday season.

"Books make great gifts because they're an amazing way to kill time while your Web site is buffering," Stewart jokes during a two-minute video that is part of an industry campaign, www.BooksAreGreatGifts.com, organized by the Association of American Publishers to boost books during an especially bleak economy.

The association announced Thursday that sales for October, based on results from 80 publishers, dropped 20 percent from the month before.

Las Vegas Honors Mexican Singer Tatiana

Las Vegas is paying tribute Thursday to a Mexican children's entertainer with few links to the American adult playground, beyond her many fans who live here.

Officials are unveiling a star for singer Tatiana on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars, which will be placed on the Las Vegas Strip nearly 25 years after she began as a teenage pop singer and 13 years after she gained fame singing songs for kids.

Tatiana, who turns 40 years old on Friday, is known to Latinos throughout the world as "La Reina de los Ninos," translated to English as "Queen of the Children."

Actor Suicide Scene In Austria Becomes Too Authentic

An actor's suicide scene became a little too real for comfort when he accidentally stabbed himself in the neck during a performance after a stage prop was replaced with a sharp knife at an Austrian theater.

Daniel Hoevels of the Thalia Theater company from Hamburg, Germany, was supposed to be using a knife blunted for use onstage, but the knife had been switched with a sharp one for the show Saturday night.

Vienna police said Thursday they were investigating "bodily injury caused by negligence."

The theater company said the original prop knife was damaged and that instructions to blunt the replacement had been "carelessly" disregarded. It did not specify who it thought might be responsible.

Hoevels received stitches for his injury at a hospital and was back on stage at Vienna's prestigious Burgtheater the next day. He was playing the role of Mortimer in Friedrich Schiller's "Mary Stuart."

Oak Ridge Boys Try To Lift Auto Workers' Spirits

The Oak Ridge Boys gave away 500 concert tickets to employees of a Wisconsin auto plant that's closing two days before Christmas.

Group spokesman Sanford Brokaw says the tickets were for the group's Christmas concert Wednesday at the Rockford MetroCentre in Rockford, Ill. The arena is about 30 miles south of General Motors Corp.'s Janesville Assembly Plant in Janesville, Wis.

GM announced earlier this year that the plant would close Dec. 23 because of slumping SUV sales.

The Oak Ridge Boys' many hits include "Elvira," "American Made" and "Bobbie Sue."