– Pippa heats up Daily Mail with party photosWOODSTOCK, N.Y. – Levon Helm, a former member of The Band, is nearing the end of his long fight against cancer.

A message posted Tuesday on the 71-year-old musician’s website by his family says “Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer.”

Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998 and the illness reduced his voice to a whisper. But he still continued to sing on albums and at rollicking concerts at his Woodstock home.

Helm was a key member of The Band and lent his distinctive Southern voice to classics like “The Weight” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

Original members of The Band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.LONDON – The Parisian costume party featured a man in a dog collar, a dwarf, a nearly naked nun and a rather well-known guest named Pippa Middleton, younger sister of the Duchess of Cambridge.

Middleton, 28, was in the headlines Tuesday, with photographs of her appearance at a friend’s decadent birthday party splashed across the Daily Mail tabloid.

The pictures are striking: women in revealing, low-cut period costumes from the 18th-century shown with men in fancy clothes and spiky leather collars and bracelets.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment, but the racy coverage was likely not well received by Britain’s royal family, which has been enjoying a popularity boost since the former Kate Middleton’s fairy-tale wedding to Prince William last year.

Pippa Middleton holds no royal title, but her life has been subject to intense scrutiny since the wedding.

— From news service reportsLOS ANGELES – Kim Kardashian for mayor in 2017?

In a new video clip from E!’s “Khloe and Lamar,” the reality TV star said she is “for real” about plans to run for office and will even enlist her friend Noelle Keshishian to help with the campaign.

“I decided I’m going to run for the mayor of Glendale,” Kardashian said, later clarifying that “it’s going to be in, like, five years.”

Kardashian, who is currently a registered voter in the city of Los Angeles, said she would choose to run for office in Glendale “because it’s, like, Armenian town.” She said she needs to obtain residency in the city in order to run for the mayorship, adding that she and Keshishian are “looking into all the requirements.”

Glendale officials Tuesday laid out the requirements for the Los Angeles Times.

City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian clarified that a candidate must be a registered voter in Glendale, residing in the city 90 days prior to the election. He said there was no requirement on a candidate’s length of residency and said anyone seeking elected office must collect 100 endorsement signatures.

Glendale spokesman Tom Lorenz said he was aware of Kardashian’s video clip and sought to clarify another point.

“No. 1, you don’t run for mayor in the city of Glendale,” Lorenz said. “It is not an elected position in the city. The elected positions are five City Council people, a city clerk and treasurer.”

The city does have a sitting mayor, Lorenz added, but like many cities, the mayorship rotates based on the majority vote of the council. The mayorship changes in odd years every April, so based on her self-imposed timeline, Kardashian’s best chance may arrive in 2017.

“Does the position give you any more power or authority?” Lorenz said of the mayorship. “The answer is no.”

Lorenz suggested that interested candidates visit the city’s website and contact Kassakhian with questions. Kassakhian said that the city has yet to receive any inquiries for the 2013, 2015 or 2017 city elections.

Two current Glendale city councilors have already thrown support behind Kardashian.