NEWSMAKERS: Elton John, partner become parents

NEWSMAKERS

Elton John, partner become parents

LOS ANGELES

Sir Elton John is holding close a new tiny dancer. The piano man and husband David Furnish have become parents to a 7-pound, 15-ounce baby boy born Christmas Day. The news first was reported Monday night by USMagazine.com and confirmed to The Associated Press by John’s Los Angeles-based publicist.

Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John was born in California via a surrogate, whose identity is being protected by the new parents.

Zachary is 62-year-old John’s first child with the 48-year-old Furnish. The couple married in 2005.

LeAnn Rimes to wed actor Eddie Cibrian

LOS ANGELES

LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian are getting married. Rimes’ publicist, Rhett Usry, confirmed Tuesday that the country singer and the actor “were engaged over the holidays and are very happy.”

Both were married to other people when they fell in love with each other. Rimes, 28, and Cibrian, 37, co-starred in the 2009 Lifetime original TV movie “Northern Lights.”

Cibrian’s divorce from his wife of eight years was finalized in October. Rimes’ husband filed for divorce a year ago.

Irreconcilable differences was listed as the reason for both previous marriages’ ending.

Charged in break-in at Tyler Perry’s home

ATLANTA

An 18-year-old woman has been charged with breaking into the Atlanta home of filmmaker Tyler Perry.

Police said Perry’s bodyguard caught Chloe Ware early Thursday morning, but two others escaped.

A phone listing for Ware could not be found.

She was charged with prowling and criminal trespass, then released.

Police are still searching for two other suspects.

Blue Notes singer Bernie Wilson dies

PHILADELPHIA

Bernie Wilson, a baritone member of the rhythm-and-blues group that produced the 1972 hit “If You Don’t Know Me by Now,” has died. Wilson, 64, died early Sunday at Kresson View Center in Voorhees, N.J., after a stroke and a heart attack, his cousin, Faith Peace-Mazzccua, said Monday.

Philadelphia International Records, the former record company for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, said Wilson’s death leaves Lloyd Parks as the sole surviving member of the group’s lineup at the time. The lineup also featured Teddy Pendergrass and Lawrence Brown.

The group produced a string of R&B hits in the ’70s and helped define the Sound of Philadelphia.

“If You Don’t Know Me by Now” topped the R&B charts and made the top five on the pop charts.

The hits that followed included “I Miss You,” “Bad Luck,” “Wake up Everybody,” and the dance track “The Love I Lost.”

Vindicator wire services