HSEAN CONNERY HONORED BY AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE

hSean Connery honored by American Film Institute
LOS ANGELES -- Sean Connery will receive the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, its highest honor for a career in film, the institute announced Thursday.
The award will be presented to the Scottish actor June 8 in Los Angeles.
Howard Stringer, chairman of the AFI Board of Trustees, called Connery "an artist of the highest order."
"Though best remembered for creating one of the great film heroes of all time, his talents transcend typecasting," Stringer said. "His body of work not only stands the test of time, but illuminates a career more extraordinary than James Bond himself."
Connery portrayed agent James Bond in six films from 1962 to 1971. He appeared in "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" in 2003.
Connery is the 34th recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award, which was established in 1973.
Newly discovered speciesnamed after John Cleese
ZURICH, Switzerland -- Most people know him as the Minister for Silly Walks on "Monty Python" or as Q in James Bond films. But John Cleese will also go down in history for another reason: lemurs.
Researchers from the University of Zurich have named a newly discovered species of lemur -- one of the most primitive and endangered primates in the world -- after the British comedian in honor of his work with the animal.
The avahi cleesei, which weights less than 2 pounds and eats leaves, was discovered in Western Madagascar in 1990 by a team led by anthropologist Urs Thalmann and his colleague Thomas Geissman of Zurich University.
The name is a tribute to Cleese's promotion of the plight of lemurs in the movie "Fierce Creatures" and documentary "Operation Lemur with John Cleese," the university said in a statement. A lemur even appears next to Cleese on his Web site.
Today's birthdays
Actress Madeleine Sherwood is 83. Producer-director Garry Marshall is 71. Country singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard is 59. Actor Joe Mantegna is 58. Actress Sheila Frazier is 57. Actress Frances Conroy is 52. Actress-comedian Whoopi Goldberg is 50. Actor Chris Noth is 49. Actress Caroline Goodall is 46. Rock musician Walter Kibby (Fishbone) is 41. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel is 38. Actor Steve Zahn is 37. Rock musician Nikolai Fraiture is 27.