Lindsay Lohan escapes injury after major car crash

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Lindsay Lohan escaped injury in a major car crash on Friday after her Porsche collided with andump truck on a Southern California highway.

Police said Lohan was driving her black Porsche with an unidentified male passenger on the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica on her way to the set of her latest movie project, and collided with a dump truck.

The actress and her passenger were taken to the hospital as a precaution, and released shortly after. Neither Lohan or the driver of the truck were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, police said.

"Lindsay was involved in an automobile accident today on her way to the set....She is fine and was released less than two hours later and is already headed back to the set to resume work. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured in the accident," Lohan's publicist, Steve Honig, said in a statement.

Celebrity news website TMZ posted pictures of Lohan's Porsche following the incident, showing a crushed front and smashed windows.

Lohan, 26, is forging ahead with a comeback after a string of legal and personal troubles since 2007, including stints in jail, rehab and court. She was released in March from almost five years of formal probation stemming from a 2007 drunken driving and cocaine possession arrest.

The actress is currently playing late screen legend Elizabeth Taylor for a Lifetime TV movie "Liz & Dick," based on Taylor's love affair with actor Richard Burton.

Rapper Lil Phat, a member of Trill Entertainment whose roster includes Lil Boosie and Webbie, was shot and killed Thusday night outside an Atlanta hospital. Police Capt. Steve Rose confirmed to WXIA-TV, the local NBC affiliate, that 19-year-old Melvin Vernell III, who went by Lil Phat, was shot several times on the parking deck near the entrance of Northside Hospital Women's Center and was pronounced dead later that night. Authorities are searching for two men who were spotted fleeing the scene following the shooting. Vernell was an up-and-coming member of Trill, a hip-hop imprint started in Baton Rouge, La. On its website, the label calls him "the underdog ready to bust to the front line with his consistent street anthems and hustler music lyrics." The rapper was featured on Webbie's hit single "Independent," which reached No. 9 on the Hot 100 in 2008. On Twitter, Webbie wrote, "RIP to my lil brother Phat! Life so f--ked up! TRILL4LIFE." Watch the video for "Independent," costarring labelmate Lil' Boosie, who was recently acquitted of first degree murder in Baton Rouge.

Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist and singer Bob Welch has been found dead in Nashville of an apparent suicide, according to the Nashville Police Department. The musician, who worked with the band in the early 1970s and later had hit solo songs such as "Ebony Eyes," was 66 years old. Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said in a statement, "The police department responded to his address at 12:18 p.m., where Mr. Welch was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest." Aaron added that Welch's wife indicated that he had been suffering with health issues. A suicide note was found in the home. Welch was a member of Fleetwood Mac as the band was transitioning away from being a British blues rock band and into the 1970s powerhouse that it became. As a singer and guitarist, Welch was lesser known than the pair who replaced him -- lead vocalist Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham -- but his work with fellow band mates including Mick Fleetwood and John and Christie McVie prior to Nicks' arrival on albums "Future Games," "Bare Trees" and "Heroes are Hard to Find," among others, set the tone for what was to come. Welch left the band amid the chaos of the McVie divorce, just prior to mainstream success with the 1975 album "Fleetwood Mac" and then "Rumors," Fleetwood Mac's acclaimed 1977 hit album. The singer went solo, and scored a massive hit with "Ebony Eyes" in 1977. The album from which it was culled, "French Kiss," featured a number of former Fleetwood Mac members, as well as a rendition of "Sentimental Lady," a song originally recorded with Mac but reworked by Welch. Welch was born in Los Angeles in 1945, the son of successful Hollywood movie producer Robert Welch, best known for his work with Bob Hope on a series of "Paleface" films. A full obituary will appear in the L.A. Times.