Jerry Lewis briefly hospitalised in Sydney

Veteran entertainer Jerry Lewis cancelled a benefit show near Sydney and was briefly hospitalised, but is now back to his normal routine, his publicist said.

Lewis, 85, arrived in Australia on Monday for a two-week fund-raising tour for the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation of Australia. But a sold-out show scheduled for Friday at the Rooty Hill RSL, an entertainment and dining club in the Sydney suburbs, was canceled because of "poor health," the foundation said in a statement on its website.

Candi Cazau, the entertainer's Las Vegas-based publicist, said Lewis was "just feeling a little under the weather" on Friday night, possibly as a result of the 17-hour time difference between Sydney and Los Angeles.

"He went to the hospital but was released shortly thereafter," she added.

"He's back at his hotel and back to his normal routine."

She called the whole episode "nothing serious."

Although beset for years by numerous ailments, including heart attacks, an inflammatory lung disorder and chronic back pain caused by pratfalls earlier in his career, Lewis remains highly vigorous for his age, Cazau said.

"I don't know where he gets the energy," she said. "He's nonstop."

The zany comic-actor, a veteran of over 45 films during a career spanning five decades, is due back in the United States on July 4, she said.

Lewis announced in May that he was retiring this year as host of the annual Labour Day holiday telethon for the US-based Muscular Dystrophy Association, of which he remains national chairman. The group is separate from the Australian foundation.

He is slated to make what he said would be a final appearance on that show in September.