He made his name as a martial arts hero with a comic edge, but after 100 films Jackie Chan has announced he is retiring as an action star. The 58-year-old admitted he was “too old” for stunts now and increasing violence in the wider world had put him off. Asked why he had decided to stop making action films he said the physical strain had become too much. He explained he felt “really, really tired”. Speaking at the launch of his new production Chinese Zodiac at the Cannes Film Festival, Chan said it would be his final performance as an action hero. He said: “This is my last action film. I am not young any more. I am really, really tired.” He added that he was no longer happy doing such movies, because he is worried about the increasingly aggressive attitude of people today. Chan explained: “The world is too violent right now. It’s a dilemma — I love fighting. I like action. but I don’t like violence.” He has previously hinted that he would step back from action films, but says now the decision is final. “I want the audience to know I am not just about fighting. I can also act.” The screen legend said he wanted to take on more serious roles and emulate the success of Robert De Niro. He explained: “I don’t just want to be an action star, I want to be a true actor. I want to get rid of my image. I want the audience to know also I’m not only a comedian. I can act. Day by day, year by year, I’m going to show you the real Jackie Chan.” Chan, who was born in Hong Kong, began his career as a stuntman working with Bruce Lee in the films Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon in the early-1970s. His big break was in 1978 film Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow.

— Daily Mail

I guess I messed up pretty bad

It has been four months since her tragic death in a Beverly Hills hotel room. And now Whitney Houston’s ex-husband Bobby Brown has released a new song titled Don’t Let Me Die, a tribute to his former wife. Debuting the track on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, the 43-year-old appeared emotional as he sang through the lyrics, all whilst wearing a pair of sunglasses onstage. In the track he seemingly admits some kind of wrongdoing, singing how he ‘messed up pretty bad’. “I guess I messed up pretty bad … I didn’t know who you were … I didn’t know what we had. Now I’m stuck living in the past …trying to get the pieces back … but I guess now you’re gone,” he sang. “I didn’t realise that every breath I took was from you … You were my air.” The new track will be featured on Brown’s new album The Masterpiece, which will be released on June 5. It is the first album he has recorded since his 1997 LP Forever. It comes after Brown hit back at claims last month that he was responsible for introducing his former wife to the drugs, which played a part in her untimely death. “I didn’t get high before I met Whitney,” Brown told The Today Show’s Matt Lauer. “I smoked weed, I drank the beer, but no, I wasn’t the one that got Whitney on drugs at all.”

— Daily Mail

It’s Sacha Baron Cohen… as himself!

He has been causing a stir around the Cannes Film Festival promoting his new movie The Dictator in full character as General Aladeen. But after weeks of remaining in full costume, Sacha Baron Cohen was seen dropping the act and going clean-shaven as himself as he left the David Letterman Show following an interview about the movie. Father-of-two Cohen looked smart in a black suit, white shirt and a trilby hat as he made his way home from the interview — a far cry from the various outfits the 40-year-old comedian has been sporting as the General. Cohen has been working hard promoting his new movie, which is in cinemas now, but the film hasn’t gone down so well with everybody. The comedian has told of how he was chased by a rock-wielding gang of “Hasidic nutcases” after wearing a camp version of their traditional costume in Jerusalem.

He said: “A bunch of Hasidic Jews ran after me with rocks and I ended up hiding in a bathroom store. Normally in dangerous situations I have a getaway car. But as I ran towards the getaway car it drove away. So I found myself running down the street, running for my life, and being chased by these Hasidic nutcases. I turned round to calm them down, and I shouted in Hebrew ‘I am Jewish’, which apparently is the worst thing ever you can tell Hasidic Jews. It was then they decided that they wanted to really kill me.”

— Daily Mail