Celeb Birthdays: April 16

Happy Palm Sunday! (Orthodox Easter is next week. My people are all about the marked-down candy.)

Howlin' Pelle Almqvist of the Hives turns 27 today.

Model Alex Wek turns 29 today. See Alex Wek's birth chart (Astrotheme, no birth time)

Actor Lukas Haas hits 30.

Comedian and aspiring anger manager Martin Lawrence is 41. See Martin Lawrence's birth chart (Astrotheme, no birth time)

Jon Cryer, Pretty in Pink's adorable Duckie (I choose not to acknowledge his current project), also turns 41 today.

Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum, whose songs I have oddly been listening to lately even though I never liked them when they were popular, is 42. See Dave Pirner's birth chart (Astrotheme, no birth time)

The most righteous and inspiring Ian MacKaye, frontman of Fugazi and Minor Threat, turns 44 today. Happy birthday, Ian!

Actress Ellen Barkin is celebrating her 52nd birthday as well as her cha-ching divorce settlement. See Ellen Barkin's birth chart (Astrotheme, no birth time)

Hip-hop elder statesman Kool Herc is 54.

Libra-rising baller Kareem Abdul-Jabbar turns 59. That conjunction of Mercury (mental activity) with Mars (physical action) in quick-witted Aries must have served him very well in basketball. See Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's birth chart (Astrotheme)

Fabulous throaty-voiced singer Dusty Springfield hits 67. See Dusty Springfield's birth chart (Astrotheme, no birth time) http://www.astrotheme.fr/en/portrait.php?info=1&clef=5AduEd7NXX53

The brand-new Pope Benedict XVI, née Cardinal Ratzinger, is spending his 79th birthday officiating over his first Easter Mass. It's fitting that a man chosen to represent the very Piscean Christian Church (think of all the Jesus/fish symbolism) has a Pisces Ascendant and his Midheavean (career goals) in Sagittarius (the sign of religion). See Pope Benedict XVI's birth chart (Astrotheme)

Birth dates from IMDB.com. Please email me any corrections, additions or -- especially appreciated! -- exact birth times.