Bruce Willis was in Paris yesterday to accept one of France's most prestigious cultural honours. The Die Hard star was presented with the Order of Arts and Letters from the nation's culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. And if anyone was baffled as to why the brawny Hollywood action hero was being granted such a lofty honour, de Vabres had a swift explanation. Willis was Order-worthy, he asserted, because he epitomised "the power of US cinema" and the "mythical properties of its characters". For good measure, he told Willis that "your roles cannot be reduced down to the fight between good and evil ... even if you have killed a lot of villains."

Joaquin Phoenix has checked into an unnamed clinic to combat an ongoing alcohol problem. The Gladiator star - whose elder brother, River, died of a drugs overdose in 1993 - entered the rehab clinic a fortnight ago, said his publicist Susan Patricola. "He was uncomfortable with the way he was living his life and found the courage to deal with the disease." Once clean and sober, Phoenix is due to begin filming a long-awaited biopic of hard-living country legend Johnny Cash. His bout with the bottle will presumably prove to be good research.

Forest Whitaker will play the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in a film of Giles Foden's novel The Last King of Scotland. The book tells the story of a Scottish doctor, played by James McAvoy, who finds himself serving as Amin's personal physician. Kevin MacDonald (Touching the Void) is directing the film, which is expected to start shooting in June, in Uganda and the UK.