From left, the late Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. Dave M Benett / WireImage / Getty Images
From left, the late Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. Dave M Benett / WireImage / Getty Images

Vin Diesel names baby after Paul Walker



Vin Diesel has named his newborn in honour of his late friend and longtime co-star in the Fast and the Furious films, Paul Walker. The actor announced on the American television show Today that he was calling his daughter Pauline as a tribute to Walker, who died in 2013 at the age of 40 in an off-set car crash while Furious 7 was in production. Diesel also revealed that his participation during the birth was down to advice Walker gave him. Seven years ago, before Diesel, 47, and his long-time partner Paloma Jiménez had their first child, Hania, Walker, who was also a father, offered a bit of wisdom. "Paul [told] me to go into the delivery room and own it and be present and don't shy away from it and cut the umbilical cord. I didn't even know what an umbilical cord was," said Diesel. Jiménez and Diesel also have a son, Vincent, 4. "Seven years later, going into the same delivery room, I couldn't help but have my brain go back and reflect about the best piece of advice that anyone ever gave me," he said. "When I was cutting the umbilical cord and looking at Paloma, I heard his advice." – AP

Jolie has ovaries removed

Angelina Jolie revealed that she has had her ovaries and Fallopian tubes removed over fears of cancer. It follows her double mastectomy two years ago. The actress, who lost her mother, grandmother and aunt to cancer, made the announcement in an op-ed piece in The New York Times. She carries a gene mutation that gives her an 87 per cent risk of deve­loping breast cancer and 50 per cent risk of developing ovarian cancer. She wrote: "I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family ... It is not easy to make these decisions. But it is possible to take control and tackle head-on any health issue." – AFP

Mandela memoir to be published

A memoir by Nelson Mandela, recounting his time as South Africa's first democratically elected president, will be published posthumously next year. Pan Macmillan will release the sequel to Mandela's bestselling autobiography Long Walk to Freedom in Britain, South Africa, India and Australasia. Publication rights for the United States and Canada are yet to be sold. The publisher said the Nelson Mandela Foundation has "a substantial but incomplete, personally written draft" of the book by the statesman, who died in December 2013 at the age of 95. On the wishes of his widow, Graça Machel, the memoir will be completed by a group of Mandela's former advisers. Machel said Mandela began work on the book in 1998, near the end of his five-year presidential term. – AP

Film honour for Shashi Kapoor

The Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoor is to receive the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, the highest honour in Indian cinema. The 77-year-old, part of the legendary family that has dominated the Mumbai-based film industry, has acted in more than 160 films in a career spanning nearly 70 years. He began as a child actor in the mid-1940s and has acted in several English-language films including Heat and Dust and Bombay Talkies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Kapoor as "a fine actor and a stalwart of the film industry". – AP

Akhil Sharma wins literature prize

The Indian-American author Akhil Sharma has won the £40,000 (Dh220,000) Folio Prize for literature with Family Life, the story of an immigrant family floundering in America, which took him 13 years to write. The head of the judging panel, William Fiennes, called the book "deceptively simple ... emotionally rich, incredibly moving" and surprisingly funny. Sharma, 43, said: "I'm glad the book exists. I just wish I hadn't been the guy who wrote it. I started writing this book when I was 30. I really feel like I shattered my youth." The Folio Prize is open to English-language work of fiction published in Britain. – AP

Robbie Williams to perform in Monaco

British pop star Robbie Williams will follow up his gig as Yas Island’s du Arena on April 26 with a star turn at a concert in Monaco to celebrate Prince Albert II’s 10 years on the throne. The event, on July 12, will also feature performances by Lemar and Justin Caldwell, in an exclusive event for the 37,000 residents of the world’s second-smallest state (after the Vatican). Albert is the son of Monaco’s Prince Rainier and the American movie star Grace Kelly. – AFP

Take a selfie with Don Draper

Mad Men fans can now take a selfie with Don Draper, thanks to a bench unveiled on Monday featuring the fictional adman's silhouette as seen in the show's opening titles. Jon Hamm, who plays Draper in the show, posed for photos on the bench, which is outside the Time & Life Building at 1271 Avenue in midtown Manhattan, New York, which is where the fictional ad agency in the show is based. Street signs at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 50th Street were changed to read "Mad Men Av" and "Don Draper Way". The bench is one of a number of attractions in New York City celebrating the final season of the AMC series, which begins on April 5. – AP

The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr to publish a memoir

Johnny Marr, the influential guitarist for The Smiths who has long been in the shadow of Morrissey, will have the chance to tell his own story in a memoir. Following Morrissey's largely well-received autobiography in 2013, Marr said on Monday that he would release his book in the second half of 2016 with publisher Century. "For the past few years as I've been out on tour promoting my solo work fans and journalists have been asking me when I'll write my book," Marr said. "I'm very happy to say that the time has come to tell my story." Marr has been one of modern rock's defining guitarists with his energetic, jangly style that owes both to 1960s pop and punk. But The Smiths' image was widely seen as more about frontman Morrissey, who built an impassioned fan base through his dark wit and bookish perceptions of life's tribulations. In his book published by Penguin Classics, called simply Autobiography, Morrissey was cordial toward Marr but savaged former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce, who sued two decades ago over allegedly unpaid earnings. Morrissey called Joyce "a flea in search of a dog," effectively scotching, again, the possibility of a Smiths reunion. Marr's book will be closely watched for his takes on his former bandmates and whether he shares Morrissey's bleak view of their hometown, Manchester. Since The Smiths broke up in 1987, Morrissey has pursued a successful solo career and Marr has performed with a variety of bands, including Modest Mouse and The The. Marr has more recently pursued a solo career, releasing two albums since 2013 and even singing a number of Smiths songs in concert. – AFP

David Crosby involved in car accident

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Crosby has hit and injured a jogger with his car in California. The California Highway Patrol said that Crosby was driving his Tesla electric car on Sunday at about 55mph (88.5 kph), the posted speed limit on the road in the Santa Barbara area where he lives. The 73-year-old was driving toward the sun with limited vision when he hit 46-year-old Jose Jimenez, who was jogging along the right side of the road. Jimenez was hospitalised with broken bones, cuts and bruises and is expected to survive. Crosby stopped and cooperated with authorities. He wasn’t hurt. The CHP says drugs or alcohol were not factors in the accident. Crosby is in the Rock Hall of Fame as a member of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash. – AP

J Lo launches fashion line in Mexico

The American singer and actress Jennifer Lopez has taken her fashion line outside of the United States for the first time, launching in Mexico. Speaking in Spanish, the star – a New Yorker whose parents are from Puerto Rico – said she wanted to make her designs affordable to low-income women who want some glamour in their lives. “I think that, coming from the Bronx, I have a good urban mix,” Lopez, 45, said. “I’m more interested in doing [designs for working people] instead of luxury.” She inaugurated a store in the capital in cooperation with Mexican retail chain Coppel. Her line — which includes clothing, accessories and suitcases — will be available in more than 1,000 stores in Mexico. – AFP