Sideshow:

Just think: There was a time the lads in heavy-metal band

AC/DC

were accused of being Satan's spawn by parents across the English-speaking world. Today, they are considered cultural heroes.

Christine Grahame, a member of the Scottish Parliament, has filed a parliamentary motion titled "AC/DC, We Salute You," which calls for official acknowledgment of the group's achievements.

(Though they founded AC/DC in Australia, Angus and Malcolm Young were born in the Scottish city of Glasgow, and former singer Bon Scott was born in Kirriemuir.)

"I think they have long deserved official recognition from their homeland" for their "major musical contribution," Grahame said.

Backstreet Boys singer

Brian Littrell

, 33, says on his Web site that

Baylee

, his 6-year-old son with wife

Leighanne

, 39, "has been in the hospital for the past few days." Brian would not disclose his son's illness, only saying he has begun a new treatment. "The Littrell family asks that all Backstreet Boys fans please remember him in prayer during this trying time," Brian says.

Jeremy Piven

's doctor,

Carlon Colker

, tells People.com that the thesp, who has had to withdraw from his Broadway play,

Speed-the-Plow

, suffers from "shocking levels" of mercury in his system from eating too much sushi.

The doc says Piven, 43, resisted his order to quit the play and is "hurt . . . by the comments that he's not trying or that he walked away."

Fans griped that Piven was lazy when he missed a number of shows last week. Playwright David Mamet joked that Piven had left to "pursue a career as a thermometer."

E!Online reports that Mamet regular William H. Macy and stage vet Norbert Leo Butz will fill Piven's role until the show's close Feb. 22.

Eminem

tells Esquire that being a father has mellowed him out as man and as a songwriter.

"The music, I wouldn't say it's gotten happier, but it's definitely more upbeat. I feel like myself again," he says. But don't worry: Em, whose early tunes were fueled by so much rage that it hurt to listen sometimes, says he hasn't lost his edge: "Don't get me wrong. The aggression will still be there."

Tom Cruise

orchestrated a surprise for beloved wife

Katie Holmes

for her 30th birthday Thursday night: Just as the curtain fell on Katie's Broadway play,

All My Sons

, the cast presented her with a cake.

Costar John Lithgow told the audience that Tom couldn't be there, "but he wanted to make his presence felt." (Doesn't he always and everywhere wish to be present?) There were tears of joy.

Grammy-winning Mexican crooner

Luis Miguel

and his wife, actress

Aracely Arambula

, welcomed their second son on Thursday. Miguel, who has sold more than 55 million albums, had yet to disclose the baby's name.

During the Middle Ages, there was a brisk business for relics taken from religious martyrs - say, an object they owned or a lock of hair. The relic, it was thought, had magical healing powers.

Are things so different today?

Wednesday on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Scarlett Johansson, who had a cold, used a tissue to clear her nasal passages. She then declared that she would auction off the tissue on eBay to raise money for the hunger-relief charity USA Harvest. By last night, bidding had reached $4,050. The auction ends tomorrow.

Brad Pitt

, who turned 45 on Thursday, tells the L.A. Times that he took a look into that bottomless pit we call existence.

"It just made me think about the ticking clock," he says. "Am I in midlife? Am I halfway there? Do I have 10 years, five years? And so what are those moments going to be that I do know I have, which is now?" But think about it, Brad: Do we ever really have now? As soon as you say now, it's then.