FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) – Kenny Chesney and his ex-wife Renee Zellweger were seen together recently in a sandwich shop near Nashville, Tenn.

Chesney’s publicist, Holly Gleason, however, says not to read too much into the sighting and that they have no plans to remarry.

“They’re friends,” Gleason said. “The media made so much more out of everything that the public has no clarity about any of it. And that’s the tragedy. They’re two nice people who don’t choose to live in public.”

Zellweger, 36, and Chesney, 37, wed in a small ceremony on the Caribbean island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands last May. It was the first marriage for both of them, and it lasted about four months. The union was annulled by the Los Angeles Superior Court in December.

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NEW YORK (AP) – Melissa Joan Hart, former star of TV series “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” has given birth to a baby boy.

Mason Walter Wilkerson was born Wednesday afternoon and weighs 9 pounds, People magazine reported. It is the first child for Hart, 29, and husband, Mark Wilkerson, 28, lead singer and guitarist for rock band Course of Nature.

“He was a little stubborn, but all is well,” Hart told People. “Everyone is well and we are all relieved.”

Hart and Wilkerson met in May 2002 when she introduced his band at a Kentucky Derby event in Louisville, Ky., according to the magazine.

The new parents tied the knot in Florence, Italy, in July 2003, three months after “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” a popular sitcom about a high school student with magic powers, ended its seven-year run.

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On the Net:

http://people.aol.com/people

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NEW YORK (AP) – Martha Stewart’s daughter and “Apprentice” co-star, Alexis Stewart, has written Mayor Michael Bloomberg a letter urging him to support a citywide ban on horse-drawn carriages.

In a letter written on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Stewart said she was upset by a recent accident involving a horse that ran into vehicular traffic while pulling a carriage home from Central Park.

The carriage driver was seriously injured. The horse, which hit a car, was euthanized.

“As evidenced by this catastrophe,” Stewart wrote in the letter, dated Tuesday, “horse-drawn carriages aren’t just cruel to the horses who are forced to work long hours in extreme weather conditions while walking on hard pavement and inhaling exhaust fumes all day long; they are equally dangerous to riders, drivers, pedestrians and motorists.”

Bloomberg’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the letter on Wednesday.

Operators of Central Park’s horse-drawn carriages have vehemently denied that the animals are mistreated and say accidents like the Jan. 2 crash are rare.

PETA and the Stewart clan have an unusual history.

In 2004, the animal rights group put Martha Stewart at the top of its Worst Dressed list for wearing what appeared to be a fur scarf while leaving a federal courthouse. The fur, however, turned out to be fake.

“My daughter doesn’t allow me to wear fur,” Martha Stewart explained in a Barbara Walters interview.

PETA quickly revised its list, and Stewart didn’t hold a grudge. She later videotaped a public service message for PETA decrying fur industry practices as cruel.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Jack Hirschman, a prolific Beat Generation poet known for decades of social activism, has been selected as San Francisco’s new poet laureate, Mayor Gavin Newsom said.

Hirschman, 72, was set to accept the post at a ceremony at City Hall on Thursday. Shortly afterward, he planned to read poetry on the steps of the State Building in San Francisco as part of a demonstration against the death penalty.

The appointment surprised some political observers because Hirschman supported Newsom’s chief opponent – Green Party member Matt Gonzalez – in the city’s mayoral race in 2003.

Newsom said he wanted an outspoken poet laureate and that Hirschman’s vocal activism made him a perfect pick for the slot.

“I want that position to be more audacious, more exciting, to shake things up,” Newsom said. “I want someone who will challenge the status quo.”

As part of the unpaid position, Hirschman will be required to deliver an inaugural address on the state of poetry in San Francisco and work on poetry programs in the community.

He emerged as a poet during the Beat Generation and his half-century of published work includes more than 70 books and pieces in literary journals, magazines and newspapers.

His criminal record includes numerous arrests for social protest.

The city’s poet laureate program began in 1998. Three people have held the post prior Hirschman.

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