A gaunt and breathless George Michael tearfully thanked his doctors and fans on Friday (December 23) for seeing him through a "touch and go" battle with pneumonia. A thin and visibly weak Michael told reporters outside his home in north London that he wasn't supposed to speak for very long and was still recovering from a tracheotomy. The 48-year-old former Wham! frontman was taken ill in Vienna, Austria and diagnosed with severe pneumonia last month.
Grammy-winning singer Etta James, who has been deemed terminally ill with leukemia, has been hospitalized in California and placed on a breathing machine. The 73 year old, best known for the blues ballad "At Last," was taken to the hospital near her home in Riverside, east of Los Angeles, earlier this week because she was struggling to breathe. The singer has been in failing health for a number of years and suffers from leukemia, kidney disease and dementia.
Lindsay Lohan has gotten the approval of her estranged father Michael for her Playboy photoshoot. Michael Lohan said on a U.S. TV show that if his daughter is happy, he's happy and added he wasn't going to look at the spread himself. The Lohan issue is reportedly breaking sales records for the magazine.
Lindsay Claiborn, Reuters.