Jackson reveals cocaine hell

Samuel L Jackson has revealed he decided to kick his cocaine and tequila habit after his wife found him lying in a heap under the kitchen table.

Jackson, who plays Jedi Mace Windu in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, got his first role as a crack cocaine addict in Spike Lee's interracial romance Jungle Fever.

He told the Daily Telegraph: "I was tired. I was real tired. I'd tried everything else and I figured the one thing I hadn't tried was sobriety."

The 53-year-old said only his powerful desire to get better saved him from a relapse.

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Peters, Hines host Tonys

Former Tony winners Bernadette Peters and Gregory Hines will host the 2002 awards honouring the best of Broadway.

The three-hour show will be broadcast on 2 June, with concerns continuing about declingin ratings.

Peters won a Tony in 1986 for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance and again in 1999 for the revival of Annie Get Your Gun.

She is expected back on Broadway next season in a production of Gypsy, directed by Britain's Sam Mendes.

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Poet wins prestigious prize

German poet, social critic and children's author Hans Magnus Enzensberger has won the Prince of Asturias Prize for communications after being described as "an exemplary figure of modern humanism".

The jury, which included some of Spain's leading editors and publishers, on Wednesday praised "the depth and the extraordinary variety of an oeuvre that includes poetry, essays, philosophical and scientific thought, drama, reportage, political reflection and narrative".

Enzensberger, born in 1929 in Bavaria, is perhaps Germany's best-known poet, as well as a fierce critic of post-war German society.

The 50,000 euro prize will be presented to the laureate along with a Joan Miro sculpture in a ceremony later this year.

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Eminem takes swipes at Cheney's wife

Eminem has penned a personal insult to the wife of US Vice President Dick Cheney on his forthcoming album.

The controversial star targets Lynne Cheney in a four-letter tirade because of her outspoken views on him and the rap industry.

She has replied to the implications in the song White America by once again condemning his lyrics as a "glorification of violence" against women and homosexuals.

The Eminem Show is a follow-up to the Grammy-winning Marshall Mathers LP, which was revered by fans but vilified by anti-rap campaigners.

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Cinemas to screen World Cup games

Football fans have the option of leaving their armchairs to watch the World Cup inside a cinema.

Five Odeon cinemas in the UK will be screening England games - Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool and Leicester Square, London.

People interested can pick-up scratch cards at the cinemas in the hope of "winning" a seat.

Odeon says spectators will be allowed to shout and cheer their team along but no alcohol will be allowed.

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French actor involved in car crash

French movie star Alain Delon has been involved in a car accident while visiting Greece.

The car the actor was driving in collided with another vehicle while he in the country attending a fashion show.

But police say Delon did not suffer any serious injury and was taken straight back to his hotel.

Delon has appeared in such movies as The Leopard and Rocco and his Brothers in a career that started in 1957.