Jack Nicholson still playing the Joker at 72

Maybe nowadays Jack Nicholson has a bit too much to shake — although this young lady doesn't seem to be complaining.

Life of the party: Jack Nicholson struts his stuff on the dancefloor with a singer

The actor, who is a few spare tyres past his best, was twisting well into the night at a private party on the French Riviera.

Puff daddy: 72-year-old Jack Nicholson draws on a cigarette while floating in the Mediterranean off the South of France

His young companion, a singer clutching a microphone, was more than happy to dance with film star for whom the phrase "ageing lothario" might have been invented. Nicholson was later pictured at the same party chatting with two much younger women, although at Nicholson's age — he is 72 — most women are much younger.

After show: Jack relaxing with two young women and having a calming cigarette at a party

Nicholson has been having a damn fine time while holidaying hard around Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat. One of the greatest actors of his generation, he has not been afraid to show off his bulk while splashing about in the Mediterranean. He has earned such unkind nicknames as "Whaleman" while one report rather harshly spoke of his "sizeable cleavage".

Nicholson has not let it get to him. At the weekend he was photographed lunching with the former Rolling Stones bass guitarist Bill Wyman and later was seen lolling on his back, relaxed and becalmed in the sea with a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

Last night he took to the dance floor at the home of Christian Berhman, described as a Belgian socialite. Whoever knew such folk existed?