THE weather may be appalling in Ireland, but the Hewson family - better known as Bono and brood - are lapping up the sunshine on the French Riviera, where they own a beachfront holiday home which they use every summer.

They're not short for star-studded company, either. Just last week the Hewsons hosted George Clooney, Cindy Crawford and her husband at their place; the threesome just happened to be sailing by in their yacht. Life sure is tough for some!

The U2 frontman also reportedly met up with singer Kelly Rowland, formerly of Destiny's Child, last week for a party in St. Tropez, where Ms. Rowland apparently dropped in the region of $400,000 grand on booze for her 10-hour bash. That kind of cash would most certainly go a long way towards Bono's many pet causes in Africa, but we digress.

As you can see from our photo, Bono's eldest daughter Jordan, 19, is quite a stunner. The whole family - other daughter Eve, and sons Elijah and John - are also enjoying life in France these days, but as U2's new album is due to drop before the end of the year, undoubtedly there's plenty of work lined up in Bono's immediate future.

The Bono begrudgers, though, haven't taken the summer off. Some website called thepoinst.com has a petition to persuade Bono to retire from the public eye, in exchange for money to combat AIDS.

The site's gurus say, "Many involved in the global fight against AIDS worry that (Bono's charity) RED will make it harder to raise funds, and that the oversimplified and disempowered image of Africa that Bono perpetuates, as exemplified in the incredibly condescending lyrics from the Band Aid Christmas song Bono helped create, obscures and undermines the assets African nations must focus on to defeat AIDS and poverty."

What a joke. Bono has arguably done more than anyone to highlight the atrocities visited upon the African people on a daily basis, but as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished.

Oh, and the money the site says will be donated to the AIDS battle? They've raised a few hundred bucks so far. Like we said, what a joke!