People talk 11/15/02

Singer gives up glasses in favor of laser surgery

LONDON -- Singer Elton John, who claims to own some 4,000 pairs of eyeglasses, says he plans to have laser surgery so that he won't need corrective lenses.

"I'm so fed up with 'Where are they?' I can't see anything, so why wait?" John said in a televised interview Wednesday.

The 55-year-old said he plans to have the procedure in February.

Outrageous eye wear has been part of his flamboyant image, and he once said he had bought 20,000 pairs over the years. They included eyeglasses with wipers, flashing lights and sun visors.

Entertainer explains medicine's side effects

WASHINGTON -- When Jerry Lewis hosted his annual Labor Day Telethon this year, his face and body were bloated and puffy due to steroid medication he takes for pulmonary fibrosis.

"I put on 54 pounds. I look like Orson Welles in heat," he told AP Radio recently.

But the 76-year-old comedian said the weight gain didn't stop him from appearing on the 21 1/2-hour fund-raiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

"I knew I'm going out there. What's my problem? I've got an 11-year-old who's dying. How do I think about how I look like? But my presence there can save him? Come on! If I was ever tested ... to find out if I was real, I did it Labor Day folks."

Lewis had a bout with spinal meningitis two years ago and was later diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, an increase of fibrous tissue in the lungs.

-- From wire reports