Frankie Muniz suffers stroke

Plus: Katy Perry says she wants 'to transform'; Eddie Murphy most overpaid actor; Paul McCartney in last Dandy comic; Anderson Cooper recalls blindness incident.

The former Malcolm in the Middle child star Frankie Muniz said on Tuesday he had suffered a mini-stroke. "I was in the hospital last Friday. I suffered a 'mini stroke', which was not fun at all. Have to start taking care of my body! Getting old!," Muniz, who turned 27 yesterday, posted on Twitter. Muniz put his career on hold six years ago to race cars for a living, and earlier this year he joined a rock band. * Reuters

Katy Perry: I want to transform

Katy Perry is hailed Woman of the Year in this week's Billboard magazine. The singer, who's reprising her role as the voice of the animated Smurfette in The Smurfs 2, says she's looking forward to going under the radar with her film career. "I want do stuff that's a little unrecognisable, the self-deprecation kind of humour where I don't always have to be lit so perfectly," she told Billboard. "I know I can be like the pretty girl, but what I want to do is just kind of transform." Perry is making her Middle East debut on Saturday at Meydan Racecourse, headlining alongside Usher. Visit www.wpcconcert.ae for tickets. * The National staff

Eddie Murphy most overpaid actor

Eddie Murphy now has the dubious honour of being crowned Hollywood's most overpaid actor, according to Forbes magazine. In its annual list, determined by the misalignment between star salaries and their films' box office take, Murphy displaced Drew Barrymore for the top spot. "Murphy's career has just collapsed," Forbes said, citing such recent box office bombs as Imagine That and Meet Dave. Katherine Heigl, Reese Witherspoon and Sandra Bullock made the top five. - Reuters

Paul McCartney in last Dandy comic

Paul McCartney fulfilled a lifelong wish this week when he appeared in the final print edition of Britain's longest-running children's comic The Dandy, his favourite when he was growing up in Liverpool. The comic went digital-only on Tuesday, 75 years after it was first published. McCartney contacted Dandy after the digital switch was first announced in August. In an interview with music magazine NME in 1963 he was asked what his personal ambition was, and he replied that he wanted to appear in The Dandy. "I hope it's not too late!" the 70-year-old wrote in a letter. In the comic, he is seen leading 50 of the comic's most famous characters in a sing-a-long of the Beatles hit Hey Jude. * Reuters

Anderson Cooper recalls blindness incident

Anderson Cooper says a reporting assignment turned into a temporary blindness scare. On his talk show on Tuesday, Cooper said he was in Portugal last week working on a story for 60 Minutes and spent two hours on the water. The newsman says that later, he developed a burning sensation in his eyes and lost sight for 36 hours. Showing a photo he took of himself with an eye patch, Cooper joked it would be his new online dating picture. * AP