Reports that Bernie Mac has died are not true, but he has had a medical crisis. The 50 year-old Ocean’s 11 star is in hospital with pneumonia.

Comedian Bernie Mac was in “very, very critical” condition late Saturday at a Chicago hospital, according to a Chicago Sun-Times source who knows the comedian’s family.

The revelation came after Mac’s publicist told Chicago media Saturday that she had received multiple calls from news outlets regarding “absolutely untrue” rumors of the star’s demise.

“It is a very horrible rumor,” publicist Danica Smith said. “It is absolutely untrue. Nothing has changed from yesterday.”

The 50-year-old south suburban resident’s hospitalization was reported Friday. His publicist said then that the “King of Comedy” was admitted for pneumonia but was responding well to treatment, and should be released soon.

Chicago Sun-Times

Bernie Mac also suffers from sarcoidosis, an auto-immune disorder that inflames your organs, causing failure, and is particularly prone to attack the lungs. Bernie has been in remission since 2005 and is not suffering from this now, according to his publicist. He is expected to make a full recovery from this bout with pneumonia, and his rep asks that we respect his privacy at this time.

Bernie was recently at a democratic fundraiser, where he gave a controversial introduction to Barack Obama.

“I’m proud of him because politics is dirty, especially with Republicans,” he said. “People like rumors. They are going to say things like, you know, ‘You was in the club with Lil’ Kim and you and Kanye West got in a fist fight.’ ”

The comic also offered himself as a running mate, but then added that the campaign might not want him because “I cuss,” which he did.

“Being a president is tough ’cause you’re not just running the country. You got to run your family too,” Mac said. “Having a black first lady is different. You’re still going to have to do the dishes and the laundry and all that … ‘You got to pick up the kids. You didn’t pick up the kids?’ ”

At one point a heckler protested and asked Mac to step down after an irreverent riff with crude jokes. When Obama came on, he thanked several people, including “my great friend, one of the kings of comedy, Bernie Mac.”

Chicago Tribune

Despite thanking him for his introduction, Obama’s spokesperson told media later that “Obama told Mac that he does not condone the statements and believes what was said was inappropriate”. Seems like Obama is trying to separate himself from the celebrities he has been associated with, following his camp shooting down Scarlett Johansson’s suggestion they were email friends, and McCain’s ad campaign comparing him to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

Bernie Mac is shown at the Transformers premiere on 6/37/07. Credit: Juan Rico/Fame pictures

Liz Taylor has had numerous health problems, the latest of which has been a serious bout with pneumonia. The National Enquirer is reporting that the legendary actress was in the hospital being treated for the condition when she suffered congestive heart failure and was placed on life support to help her breathe. The situation was so serious, her close friends and family were called to be at her side in the event that she didn’t make it through the night.

Elizabeth Taylor was put on a life support machine after suffering congestive heart failure, it was reported this evening.

The 76-year-old’s condition was said to have deteriorated after she was initially diagnosed with pneumonia last week.

Her children were at her bedside and doctors warned she might not survive, said the U.S. publication National Enquirer.

But the following day she improved and the dual Oscar winner was breathing without medical help last night.

A source said: ‘The doctors thought they were going to lose her. She’s still very sick, but she’s past the crisis.’

The actress, a mother of three who adopted a fourth child with Richard Burton, was taken to hospital on July 15 when flu turned into pneumonia.

[From The National Enquirer via The Daily Mail]

Taylor’s list of health problems is quite lengthy- everything from back problems to to diabetes and osteoporosis, which is why you often see her in a wheelchair these days. Hopefully she is not in too much pain. It is incredibly horrifying to watch an older family member slowly deteriorate the way Liz has. Sometimes you can’t help but wish they would pass away, in their sleep, rather than being shuttled back and forth to the hospital every other week, subjected to a new, even worse ailment. However, Liz has been seen out and about this year, and she seems as though her mind and spirit are still vital. Get well, Liz!

Liz Taylor is shown out in West Hollywood on 3/20/08 with her dog. Credit: PER/Fame Pictures

55 year-old Patrick Swayze has put on some weight and is looking good as he battles pancreatic cancer. He has undergone experimental “cyberknife” surgery and was thought to be gaunt and just hanging in there but these latest photos may prove the speculation wrong. He seems to be in excellent spirits and not as thin as he was at his last photographed outing at a Lakers playoff game in late May. Swayze gave the paparazzi at LAX this Sunday upbeat answers to their questions about his health despite the fact that he had to take off his belt and boots for security:

When asked how he was feeling the actor said “He was cookin’” and when asked about his health he replied “I’m a miracle dude, I don’t know why.”

[From Splash News photo description]

He looks damn good, and it’s great to hear he’s doing so well. Swayze is filming a new show for A&E called The Beast, in which he plays an FBI agent who takes a new partner under his wing. He was flying off to work on the show.

Swayze lives on a ranch in New Mexico with his wife of 23 years, Lisa Niemi, 52. He gave an update to People Magazine in late May stating he was responding well to treatment at Stanford University Medical Center and that he was enjoying Spring and the baby calves that were being born on his farm. He may see many more seasons and babies if he continues on the path he’s on. You look great, Patrick, and we are so relieved to see you doing well.

Photos from 7/20/08. Credit: Splash News

Singer Natalie Cole, who was last in the news for her comments about drug addict Amy Winehouse’s appearance at the Grammy awards, has been diagnosed with the Hepatitis C virus. Cole’s doctors discovered this during a routine checkup, and she has already begun treatment for the virus, which causes liver damage.

Natalie Cole has been diagnosed with Hepatitis C, according to reports, but she’s doing well, apparently.

She discovered that she had the disease during a routine visit to the doctor. “Natalie has had a terrific response to her medication and is now virus negative,” said her doctor at Cedars. “This gives her an increased chance of cure.”

Doctors think she may have contracted Hep C from past drug usage.

[From TMZ]

The standard treatment for Hep C is a drug called peginterferon. There’s no word on whether that’s the treatment Natalie elected. Hopefully she stays on this positive treatment path and continues to take care of herself. Natalie has been sober for decades. In her 2000 memoir, “Angel on My shoulder,” she spoke candidly about her pot, cocaine, heroin and alcohol use and even revealed that she regularly performed under the influence, was busted for drug possession, and gave men sexual favors in exchange for drugs. This latest news could be a good opportunity for her to speak out about some of the lasting health dangers associated with drug use.

Natalie Cole is shown at the Ebony Pre-Oscar Celebration on 2/21/08. Credit: Adriana M. Barraza / WENN.

Singer Amy Winehouse leads a remarkably open life for someone so famous. Most celebrities keep a passel of security guards and assistants around them at all times. They buy fancy homes in gated communities. They only sign autographs at premieres. Amy is pretty much the opposite of all those things. You rarely see her with any security other than a friend or her dad. From the description in Rolling Stone, she lives in anything but a fancy, gated home. Winehouse’s fans are often photographed going right up to her door, which she answers herself. She’ll chat and sign autographs. I can’t think of any other celebrity that encourages that kind of access.

In a way it’s really cool – and if she had her act more together in terms of her personal affairs, it’d be easy to say Amy was really down to earth and awesome. Unfortunately all of her openness – or maybe it’s just a refusal to hide – has made Winehouse’s every move pretty easy to document. That’s why it came as a surprise to many that she’s been at a hospital clinic for the last ten days, since her release from another hospital after being diagnosed with emphysema-like symptoms.

Though her rep wasn’t clear, it appears Winehouse is being treated for her lung condition and not specifically for her addictions. She was allowed to leave the clinic twice for concert performances this past weekend – and was also photographed buying cigarettes and booze. After ten days she’s being released.

Amy Winehouse has left the hospital, it was confirmed Tuesday. The performer, who had a busy weekend of concerts, was discharged from the clinic where she has been staying for more than 10 days on Monday.

Her representative, Chris Goodman, said, “She has left [the] hospital. She is continuing as an outpatient.” The singer, 24, returned to the facility during rehearsals and between her performances for Nelson Mandela and at the Glastonbury Festival. But she left for good on Monday.

“She will return for regular appointments for check[-up]s,” said Goodman. He adds, “There comes a time when you are ready to leave the hospital, and so she left. No one was trying to keep her there. It was completely up to her – everyone knew she would not stay there forever”… Goodman says Winehouse is “looking great and feeling great.”

[From People]

I really don’t understand how Amy Winehouse is constantly able to convince doctors that she’s fine. She’s always leaving hospitals and rehabs after what seems like relatively short stays – especially considering her myriad of conditions and the ferocity with which her addictions always seem to return. I realize they can’t lock her down… but it’d sure be great if they could.

Amy wasn’t in the hospital secretly, and a few media outlets mentioned it. Maybe it just didn’t get as much press because it doesn’t exactly raise eyebrows anymore.

Despite the “everything is great!” line her PR guy gave, the Daily Mail reported that Amy immediately went out partying.

The troubled star marked her release from hospital by partying until 4.30am amid fears she’ll resume her bad habits. The Rehab singer visited live music venue The Monarch and stopped in at a kebab shop before returning home to carrying on the party with friends.

A source is quoted in The Sun as saying: ‘We feared a taste of the outside would remind her what she’s missing and it would be hard to get her back into life at the clinic. That’s exactly what’s happened. Sunday was like she was on a terrible comedown from the whole thing. She kicked off and threw all her toys out the pram.

‘She told Mitch [her father]: “I’m climbing the walls in here. I need to get out”. She said if he didn’t help her get out, she’d walk out. ‘He realised he had to let her leave, otherwise he’d have no control over where she goes and what she gets up to.’

[From the Daily Mail]

What’ll it take to get her to straighten out? What hasn’t gone wrong for Amy Winehouse? If she hasn’t hit rock bottom yet, I’m truly afraid to see what her version of the bottom looks like.

Here’s Amy Winehouse leaving her Camden home to go for a walk with an inhaler in her hand after she was released from the hospital last night. She produces an ace of hearts playing card which she asks the photographers to get published for her incarcerated husband. Totally normal. Images thanks to WENN.

If someone told you that you would die unless you stopped doing a certain behavior, how long would it take you to give that behavior up? Well, if you’re Amy Winehouse, you don’t give it up. Because nobody tells Amy what to do: not her record company, not her parents, not her doctor, not even Blake Incarcerated. Amy was released from the hospital, where she was diagnosed with emphysema – pretty shocking for a 24-year-old – on Monday. She was immediately photographed smoking a cigarette.

Amy Winehouse was photographed smoking in London on Monday after her father Mitch revealed she is suffering from emphysema.

“The doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won’t just ruin her voice, it will kill her,” Mitch told UK newspaper the Daily Mail.

Winehouse, 24, was taken to the hospital last week for tests after she fainted at home in London.

“With smoking the crack cocaine and the cigarettes her lungs are all gunked up,” Mitch said. “There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She’s got 70 percent lung capacity.”

If she doesn’t get treatment, she could need an oxygen mask to breathe, Mitch told the Daily Mail.

“She’s only 24 yet she has the lungs of an 80-year-old,” David H. Nielson, a thoracic surgeon in San Antonio, tells Usmagazine.com. “She’s going to get fatigued [on stage] and have to rest with supplemental oxygen. It will dramatically effect her career.”

“To have this type of emphysema already will likely shorten her life to about 50 years of age,” says Nielson.

[From Us Weekly]

Meanwhile, Amy’s publicist (who the hell would want that job) denies the reports that the singer has emphysema, saying that she only has the beginning traces of the disease and that Amy’s father “misspoke.”

A discrepancy regarding the health of Amy Winehouse arose Monday after the Grammy-winning singer’s father said she had early stage emphysema brought on by smoking crack cocaine and cigarettes.

A publicist for Winehouse later said he had misspoken “out of his concern for her.”

“She is not diagnosed with full-blown emphysema, but instead has early signs of what could lead to emphysema,” Tracey Miller, her U.S.-based representative, told The Associated Press on Monday.

[From Fox News]

This makes a little more sense than her having full blown emphysema- but either way, wouldn’t it be a good idea for Amy to quit smoking and go to rehab? The girl is either stone cold stupid or she’s got a death wish. At this point, she is becoming less of a tragic figure and more of a cartoon character mess.

Amy Winehouse is shown smoking on 5/12/08, thanks to WENN. The photos of Amy Smoking after her release can be found on Gossip Girls.

In some sad news, Amy Winehouse has emphysema, her father Mitch has told the Sunday Mirror. He says that her doctors claim that Amy will die if she doesn’t quit smoking drugs.

“The doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won’t just ruin her voice, it will kill her,” he was quoted as saying in the Sunday Mirror.

“The doctors have said that if she had continued the way she was going she could have ended up an invalid – she wouldn’t have been able to breathe.”

He added: “She’s got emphysema. It’s in its early stages, but had it gone on for another month they painted a very vivid picture of her sitting there like an old person with a mask on her face struggling to breathe.

“With smoking the crack cocaine and the cigarettes, her lungs are all gunked up. There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She’s got 70 per cent lung capacity.” He added that a spell in hospital last week and renewed treatment for her well-publicised drug addiction had offered a ray of hope for his 24-year-old daughter.

“If she doesn’t go back to drugs, then she can lead this magnificent life,” he said. “We are praying that that’s what Amy really wants. She seems resolute.”

Sydney Morning Herald

I hope this disease is enough to get Amy off drugs, because I think for the first time her livelihood is truly threatened. Obviously Amy needs to have good lungs to sing, and she definitely needs to breathe to live.

Amy Winehouse has an estimated fortune of $20 million, but if she can’t work her money may eventually dry up and instead of being a drug-using rock star she’ll just be a junkie. Which would be a shame because she is so talented.

Her father says in the interview that she abstains from drugs when she’s working – although her recent string of canceled concerts suggests otherwise – and that she should focus on her music.

Amy Winehouse is shown taking out the trash with a cigarette in her mouth on 5/27/08, thanks to WENN.

The Daily News is reporting that Amy Winehouse has been in the hospital since fainting Monday because she has tuberculosis. They’re also saying Amy’s massive weight loss has hindered her recovery – and that she won’t let doctors treat her.

As Amy Winehouse remains in the hospital, it’s being reported that the 24-year-old has a case of tuberculosis.

With a chest infection and the songstress coughing up blood, sources inside the London hospital report her doctors are trying to control her irregular heartbeat.

“She’d been suffering horrible coughing fits and hurling up blood for a while but refused to be examined. Doctors now believe it is tuberculosis and are doing more tests to be certain,” the source told London’s The Sun newspaper.

Winehouse’s massive weight loss since she sky-rocketed to fame in 2004 is also a concern of doctors.

[From the Daily News]

However Amy’s rep officially denied the TB report, stating that Amy has some sort of chest infection, and doing his best to make it sounds like it’s relatively mild.

Amy Winehouse has been tested for tuberculosis during her prolonged hospital stay, her rep tells PEOPLE. “She has a chest infection and she had a routine test for TB, which came back negative,” Chris Goodman tells PEOPLE.

Goodman also denies a report – in U.K. tabloid The Sun – that she has been coughing up blood at the London clinic where she was taken after fainting earlier this week.

The troubled singer, 24, is still undergoing tests and doctors will soon decide whether she is able to keep her upcoming performing commitments. One insider says her chances of performing for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebration in London on June 27 are “50/50.”

“She would really love to do the show – she always wants to do these things,” said Goodman. “But she will listen to her doctors.”

[From People]

Amy Winehouse not showing up to a big performance isn’t exactly newsworthy anymore. Having a legitimate excuse NOT TO be there is definitely newsworthy, at least for her. I think it’d be great if doctors keep her in the hospital as long as possible. It certainly couldn’t make things worse. Though one has to wonder if she’s also going through withdrawals, since presumably she’s not shooting up in the ICU. Though if anybody could figure out a way to get it done, it’s Winehouse.

Here’s Amy and her dad Mitch on the way to the hospital; header of Amy right before she fainted on Monday. Images thanks to WENN.

Amy Winehouse fainted on Monday after signing some autographs at her London home. Her father took her to the hospital, where she’s luckily been ever since. Everyone’s acting like Amy has some mysterious condition – running lots of tests and talking in (internet) whispered voices. You know what illness Winehouse is suffering from? Drugs. I know the next logical smart ass question is “Where’d you get your medical degree JayBird?” From the University of Duh. It was a really rigorous program.

Amy Winehouse’s fainting spell has her doctors stumped. The “Rehab” chanteuse has been hospitalized since blacking out Monday, and doctors at the London facility where she’s being treated are conducting further tests, her rep said today, to get to the bottom of what ails her before she resumes performing later this month.

Winehouse’s father, Mitch, who drove his daughter to the clinic, told London’s Telegraph that his daughter will remain hospitalized “as long as possible” until her physicians determine a proper diagnosis.

“Amy is doing fine,” he added.

Winehouse’s camp denied a report by the Sun tabloid she was suffering from an irregular heartbeat and that she was ordered by doctors to clean up her act and quit drugs or risk dying.

[From E! News]

Something tells me living as hard as Amy Winehouse does can really shorten your life expectancy. At first I assumed she’d overdosed, but perhaps she’s caused herself some serious damage, and that’s what’s caused her to faint. You simply can’t expect that you can snort and shoot everything that doesn’t walk and your body will thank you for it.

Here’s Amy with her dad Mitch leaving her home to go to ‘The Clinic’ in London on Monday. Images thanks to Splash.

When I say that faux punk rocker/great humanitarian Avril Lavigne can’t sing, I’m talking literally and figuratively. The Canadian import, whose music makes anyone over the age of 12 want to shove sharp objects into their eardrums, has been forced to cancel six West coast dates on her tour due to a case of severe laryngitis.

Suffering from acute laryngitis, rocker Avril Lavigne has postponed six dates on her U.S. “Best Damn Tour.”

She had already canceled shows in Phoenix and San Diego this week.

“My sincerest apologies to all of my fans,” she said in a statement to Usmagazine.com. “My intention was to complete the rest of the tour, but tonight at sound check in Anaheim, [Ca.], I realized this wasn’t possible.

“Even though I have been resting my voice for days,” she continued, “when I tried to sing nothing came out.”

Refunds will be available at point of purchase on Monday.

[From Us Weekly]

Oh, come on, Avril, we all know you are lipsyncing on stage- who are you trying to kid? I would probably buy tickets to that sound check before I’d accept free tickets to see her perform. Now THAT would be the “Best Damn Thing.” Maybe I’m evil, but something about the thought of Avril, with her fake little punk rock sneer and pink hair, trying to squeak out one of her annoying songs in vain, brings me great pleasure. Pardon me while I commence cackling maniacally.

Avril Lavigne is shown In Chicago on stage for “The Best Damn Tour 2008″ on 3/21/08, thanks to PRPhotos.