And now, the latest news on the Brando front

Marlon Brando died painlessly and suddenly, according to his elderly sister, who was by his side. “It was quick, it was easy — just the way he wanted it,” Jocelyn Brando told the New York Daily News. Jocelyn, 84, who’s as reticent as her legendary brother, refused to say anything more about Brando’s last moments when he died last week of lung failure at UCLA Medical Center.

It was Brando’s big sister who introduced him to Stella Adler‘s acting studio. Jocelyn’s own film credits included “The Big Heat” with Glenn Ford, and she acted with her brother in “The Ugly American” and “The Chase.”

Meanwhile, Brando’s various offspring have hired four sets of lawyers to represent them in the upcoming battle over his estate, estimated at $21.6 million. The actor left behind at least nine children born to five different women.

And a photo from the 1950s showing Brando in an intimate position with another man reportedly will soon hit the Internet. That’s no real surprise; Brando was quoted by biographer Gary Carey as saying he had never been ashamed of having had homosexual experiences.

What, no “Ch-ch-ch-chambers”?

Rocker David Bowie is resting comfortably at home after undergoing emergency heart surgery.

Bowie, 57, had canceled the final 11 dates of his European tour because of shoulder pain that was originally attributed to a pinched nerve.

“Can’t wait to be fully recovered and back to work again,” Bowie said in a statement, adding: “I tell you what, though, I won’t be writing a song about this one.”

Still stuck in that revolving door

Velvet Revolver lead singer Scott Weiland has been ordered to complete a six-month drug program after pleading no contest to a charge of driving under the influence. Weiland, 36, also was ordered to pay restitution to the owner of a parked vehicle he rammed with his car.

The former Stone Temple Pilots singer pleaded no contest last August to possession of heroin and was ordered in January to return to a live-in drug detoxification center after he left early. He also was jailed in 1999 for violating probation on a previous drug arrest and failing to complete a rehabilitation program.

There’s something scary about Mary

Cameron Diaz is trying to block a Russian Web site from showing her performing topless in an S&M video she made in 1992 at the tender age of 19.

Diaz’s representatives say they have obtained a court injunction banning distribution of the film and have sent the Web site a cease-and-desist letter.

Once again, it’s Garry Shandling’s show

Garry Shandling, who hosted TV’s Emmy Awards the last time they aired on ABC in 1998, will return when the network broadcasts this year’s awards Sept. 19.

Ratings were down last year when Fox used a rotating set of host comedians for the ceremony.

“This is perfect for me, since I just recuperated from the last time,” Shandling said in a statement. “I can hardly wait to get that real sense of existence you can only get from being on live television four straight hours.”

So now she’s got a tiger by her tail

Globe-trotting actress Angelina Jolie stopped in Bangkok this week on her way home from Cambodia to have a 12-inch tiger tattooed on her lower back.

Last year, the same tattoo artist applied an image featuring ancient Cambodian script, designed to ward off bad luck, on her upper back.

The birthday bunch

“Mr. Wizard” Don Herbert is 87. Singer Mavis Staples is 65. Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 57. Banjo player Bela Fleck is 46. Country singer Gary LeVox (Rascal Flatts) is 34. Actor Thomas Ian Nicholas (“American Pie”) is 24. Singer Jessica Simpson is 24.