PRESIDENT Jacques Chirac yesterday pinned the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour on the lapel of rock star Johnny Hallyday, idolised in France for over 30 years as a Gallic answer to Elvis Presley.
Despite his stage name, Hallyday (real name Jean-Philippe Smet) is French and unknown in the US, where the newspaper USA Today once called him "the biggest rock star you've never heard".
Hallyday (53), who spends increasingly more time in Florida, caused consternation among his fans earlier this month when a newspaper reported he was planning to seek US citizenship. He denied the report.
Pete Townshend's rock-opera Tommy will close on February 8th. The axe will fall despite the musical receiving eight nominations at the Laurence Olivier Awards.
The £2.5 million show, starring Kim Wilde and newcomer Paul Keating (20), will leave London's Shaftesbury Theatre and embark on a two-year British tour in September.
Former US president Jimmy Carter has cancelled his planned visit to the former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley after Manley's doctors advised him against seeing visitors.
Manley, who is battling cancer, wrote to Carter on Thursday saying he hoped to recover sufficiently to see him soon.
Princess Anne has called for sport to keep its sense of fun, despite the spread of professionalism. The princess, a former Olympic-level horsewoman, made her plea in a speech to a sports conference in Dunblanet.