LOS ANGELES: He has been named “sexiest man alive” and “world’s highest paid film star” — now Dwayne Johnson can celebrate being accepted into the Hollywood establishment with a Walk of Fame star.
The 45-year-old football player turned wrestling pro and then actor sported a sharp black suit and was joined by longtime partner Lauren Hashian and their almost two-year-old daughter Jasmine at the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard.
“I didn’t want to write anything down. I figured this is such a monumental moment and significant time for me it’s probably best I just speak from the heart and from my gut,” the Herculean father-of-two said.
He told cheering fans the 2,624th star on the Walk was the result of years of hard work, voicing gratitude for the opportunities he’d been afforded and the friends and family who’d helped him along the way.
“This moment is so significant because it’s full circle. 2018 will mark 18 years in Hollywood and that is a very long time of blood, sweat and earning respect,” he added.
Johnson announced Monday on Instagram that he and Hashian were expecting a second child, hours before they stepped out for the premiere of his latest movie “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.”
Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, paid tribute to the actor, who has entertained the possibility that he might run for president in 2020.
“Dwayne said he would use me as a bar bell if I didn’t show up,” Rothman joked, before describing his friend as a “global superstar with hundreds of millions of fans and billions of dollars in box office.”
Johnson’s recent work includes “Baywatch,” “The Fate of The Furious,” “Central Intelligence” and “San Andreas,” as well as the HBO comedy “Ballers.”
Reputed to be one of the hardest-working stars in Hollywood, he has been in 14 movies in just four years, including previous installments of the “Fast and Furious” franchise, “Hercules,” “Snitch,” “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” “Empire State,” “Pain and Gain,” and “Moana.”
Born on May 2, 1972, in the San Francisco Bay Area and raised in Hawaii and Pennsylvania, Johnson grew to 196 centimeters and weighs 111 kg.
He played defensive tackle at the University of Miami and went on to a stint on the practice roster of the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League in 1995.
Johnson became a professional wrestler in 1996, following his father, Rocky Johnson, and grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia. He would become an eight-time World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment champion.
Nicknamed “The Rock” due to his strength in the ring and roughhewn features, he was declared “sexiest man alive” by People magazine in November 2016.
It was a good year for the actor, who was also named the world’s highest paid film star by Forbes magazine.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson honored with Hollywood star
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson honored with Hollywood star
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
