Celebrities pay tribute to Irish singer Bernie Nolan

LONDON (Reuters) - Celebrities paid tribute on Friday to the Irish singer and TV star Bernie Nolan, who has died at the age of 52 after a three-year battle with cancer.

Nolan was the youngest of the original Nolan Sisters lineup, whose middle-of-the-road pop made the five siblings one of Britain's best known acts from the late 1970s to the mid-80s, with regular appearances on various television shows.

The band is best known for its 1979 hit "I'm in the Mood for Dancing", which reached No. 3 in the British charts and No. 1 in Japan.

A statement on Nolan's website said she had died on Thursday with her family around her, an "irreplaceable" wife, mother and sister.

"Peace and love to Bernie Nolan. Thoughts of course with her family," tweeted another pop star-cum-actor, the Australian Jason Donovan.

Nolan, born in Ireland, was involved in the entertainment business from an early age as part of a family troupe that performed in pubs and clubs at night.

Their father Tommy was their manager, and she recalled how he had a volatile temper, especially when drunk.

After his death in 1998, Anne, the eldest sister, revealed that her father had sexually abused her from the age of 11.

Bernie, the lead vocalist on many of the Nolans' recordings, quit the group in 1994 and went on to build a career as an actor, appearing in the soap opera "Brookside" after being spotted in the stage musical "Blood Brothers" in London.

In 2009, she rejoined her sisters for the Nolans' reunion tour but in 2010 she announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, the third Nolan sister to have the disease.

After being told she was clear of the cancer, in October last year she revealed that it had returned and had spread throughout her body and was incurable.

Nolan is survived by her husband, drummer Steve Doneathy, and their daughter, Erin.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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Singer Jessica Simpson gives birth to a boy

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Singer and fashion designer Jessica Simpson gave birth to her second child, a boy named Ace Knute, at a Los Angeles hospital on Sunday.

Simpson, 32, and her fiance, former football player Eric Johnson, also have a daughter, Maxwell Drew, who was born in May 2012.

"Ace Knute (pronounced Ka-nute) Johnson has arrived! Mom and baby are doing great," her representative told Us Weekly magazine. "Jessica, Eric and Maxwell are thrilled to welcome the new addition to their family."

Simpson, who is also an actress and appeared in the 2005 film, "The Dukes of Hazzard," has been engaged to Johnson since November 2010.

She was a teen pop star and starred in a TV reality show with her then-husband Nick Lachey, a member of the boy band 98 degrees. The couple divorced after three years of marriage.

Simpson, who designs a line of clothing and accessories, also appears on the TV fashion contest show, "Fashion Stars" and is a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers.

Johnson, 33, played for the San Francisco 49ers and the New Orleans Saints.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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Singer Carla Bruni to tour France, U.S. to promote new album

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Singer George Michael gets medical treatment after car crash

LONDON (Reuters) - British singer George Michael has received medical treatment after a car crash on Thursday, his publicist said.

The 49-year-old former Wham! frontman was being treated for "minor cuts and bruises" after the accident, Michael's spokeswoman said.

"George Michael was a passenger in a vehicle involved in a traffic accident yesterday evening, no third party was involved," a spokeswoman said on Friday. "He is being treated for superficial cuts and bruises but is fine."

British media reported that the accident occurred just outside London on a motorway during rush hour.

The "Careless Whisper" singer has suffered a string of accidents and health scares recently.

Last year he canceled his tour of Australia due to "major anxiety" brought on by a 2011 battle with severe pneumonia in Vienna, where he was treated in intensive care for a month for a life-threatening illness.

Michael has sold an estimated 100 million records over his career, but has hit headlines in recent years for his personal life more often than for his music.

In 1998 he was arrested in California for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet and also had a number of run-ins with British police for possession of narcotics. He served a term in jail for driving under the influence of cannabis.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Mike Collett-White)

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Singer and Piaf songwriter Georges Moustaki dies at 79

PARIS (Reuters) - French singer and songwriter Georges Moustaki, beloved in France for his songs celebrating liberty and collaborations with Edith Piaf, died on Thursday after a long illness. He was 79.

The Greek-born singer grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and arrived in Paris in 1951, where he began to play guitar at nightclubs and met some of the period's best-known singers.

He was introduced to Edith Piaf in the late 1950s and started to write songs for the Parisian star, the most famous of which was "Milord" about a lower-class girl who falls in love with an upper-class British traveler.

Developing a reputation as a singer in his own right in the mid-1960s, the hirsute and heavily bearded Moustaki achieved fame with songs including the immigrant ballad "Le Meteque" and "Ma Liberte", a hymn to the 1960s free-living spirit.

Moustaki, a life-long advocate of left-wing causes, ended his singing career in 2009, later telling newspaper La Croix that he was suffering from an irreversible bronchial illness that made it impossible to carry on.

French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti hailed an "artist with convictions who conveyed humanist values... and a great poet", and Twitter was flooded with tributes to a singer who many said had defined their childhoods.

(Reporting By Marine Pennetier and Elizabeth Pineau; Writing Nicholas Vinocur, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Singer and Piaf songwriter Georges Moustaki dies at 79

PARIS (Reuters) - French singer and songwriter Georges Moustaki, beloved in France for his songs celebrating liberty and collaborations with Edith Piaf, died on Thursday after a long illness. He was 79.

The Greek-born singer grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and arrived in Paris in 1951, where he began to play guitar at nightclubs and met some of the period's best-known singers.

He was introduced to Edith Piaf in the late 1950s and started to write songs for the Parisian star, the most famous of which was "Milord" about a lower-class girl who falls in love with an upper-class British traveler.

Developing a reputation as a singer in his own right in the mid-1960s, the hirsute and heavily bearded Moustaki achieved fame with songs including the immigrant ballad "Le Meteque" and "Ma Liberte", a hymn to the 1960s free-living spirit.

Moustaki, a life-long advocate of left-wing causes, ended his singing career in 2009, later telling newspaper La Croix that he was suffering from an irreversible bronchial illness that made it impossible to carry on.

French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti hailed an "artist with convictions who conveyed humanist values... and a great poet", and Twitter was flooded with tributes to a singer who many said had defined their childhoods.

(Reporting By Marine Pennetier and Elizabeth Pineau; Writing Nicholas Vinocur, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Singer George Michael gets medical treatment after car crash

LONDON (Reuters) - British singer George Michael has received medical treatment after a car crash on Thursday, his publicist said.

The 49-year-old former Wham! frontman was being treated for "minor cuts and bruises" after the accident, Michael's spokeswoman said.

"George Michael was a passenger in a vehicle involved in a traffic accident yesterday evening, no third party was involved," a spokeswoman said on Friday. "He is being treated for superficial cuts and bruises but is fine."

British media reported that the accident occurred just outside London on a motorway during rush hour.

The "Careless Whisper" singer has suffered a string of accidents and health scares recently.

Last year he canceled his tour of Australia due to "major anxiety" brought on by a 2011 battle with severe pneumonia in Vienna, where he was treated in intensive care for a month for a life-threatening illness.

Michael has sold an estimated 100 million records over his career, but has hit headlines in recent years for his personal life more often than for his music.

In 1998 he was arrested in California for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet and also had a number of run-ins with British police for possession of narcotics. He served a term in jail for driving under the influence of cannabis.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Mike Collett-White)

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Singer and Piaf songwriter Georges Moustaki dies at 79

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