People

Paul McCartney’s wife pregnant with couple’s first child

London — Heather Mills, wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney, is pregnant with the couple’s first child, their spokesman said Wednesday.

In a brief statement, the couple said, “We are delighted with this happy news.”

Mills, a 34-year-old former model who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident and raises money for children disabled in war, married McCartney at an Irish castle in June 2002.

The spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the baby was due later this year.

The child will be the first for Mills, who was married briefly in 1989. McCartney, 60, has three adult children, Stella, Mary and James, and a stepdaughter, Heather, from his marriage to his first wife, Linda McCartney, who died in 1998 from breast cancer.

Not much ado about a wedding

London — Actor Kenneth Branagh has married for the second time, wedding Lindsay Brunnock in a small ceremony.

The wedding was last weekend, said his publicist, Lawrence Atkinson.

Atkinson said Branagh wanted to avoid any publicity and wed quietly.

Branagh, 42, met Brunnock, an art director, while working on the television drama “Shackleton.”

The Oscar-nominated star of “Hamlet” and “Henry V” was divorced from his first wife, actress Emma Thompson, in 1996.

Bono, Clapton take part in Pavarotti fund-raiser

Modena, Italy — Luciano Pavarotti has a habit of inviting some friends to spend the evening in song with him. This year’s gang included Ricky Martin, Bono, Queen, Eric Clapton, Andrea Bocelli and Liza Minnelli, all belting out tunes to help Iraqi refugees.

A decade ago, the opera singer began “Pavarotti and Friends,” an annual benefit concert in his hometown of Modena, and the latest edition Tuesday night was organized to help the United Nations deal with the humanitarian emergency in Iraq.

Besides proceeds from ticket sales, money also came from viewers’ pledges. The show was broadcast worldwide.

Houston finds greatest home of all

Jerusalem — Whitney Houston, on an inspirational trip to the Holy Land, met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

“It’s home, it’s home,” she said when Sharon asked her how she felt in Israel.

Houston, who arrived Sunday evening with her husband, Bobby Brown, is being sponsored by the Black Hebrews, a group of nearly 2,000 black Americans who followed a Chicago bus driver to Israel decades ago and believe they’re descendants of a lost tribe of Israelites.

Sharon welcomed Houston and Brown to Jerusalem, which he called “the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years.”