Needed: new kidney

New York – Steven Cojocaru is looking for another kidney transplant after the first donated kidney had to be removed due to infection.

Cojocaru, a correspondent for syndicated TV shows “Entertainment Tonight” and “The Insider,” received a kidney from a friend in January. That kidney was removed in June after it became infected with a virus that can afflict transplant recipients and lead to eventual loss of the organ.

The red carpet mainstay says the virus is now gone, leaving him in proper shape for a new transplant. He is seeking the right donor match.

“Now I feel 100 percent,” Cojocaru tells Us Weekly magazine in an interview. “I’m alive and kicking and concentrating on buying my fall wardrobe!”

The 40-something fashion commentator suffers from polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary disorder that causes the growth of cysts on the kidney.

After going though “drama detox,” Cojocaru says he’s now ready to return to work. He plans to be back on the red carpet for the MTV Video Music Awards in Miami on Aug. 28.

Cojocaru says he’s “determined” to get another kidney and is trying to “help make donating kidneys the new, trendy, hot thing to do. Hotter than buying a house in Malibu.”

“Kidneys are the new black!” he joked.

‘Bond’ goes out with whimper

New York – A single, surprising phone call and it was over. That’s how Pierce Brosnan says he learned that his services as James Bond would no longer be required.

“One phone call, that’s all it took!” the 52-year-old actor tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its Aug. 19 issue.

Brosnan starred in four Bond films. He says that before they stopped negotiations, the producers had invited him back for a fifth time.

Brosnan starred as 007 in “GoldenEye” (1995), “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997), “The World Is Not Enough” (1999) and “Die Another Day” (2002).

His departure from the role was a “titanic jolt to the system,” says Brosnan, followed by “a great sense of calm.”

“I thought … ‘I can do anything I want to do now. I’m not beholden to them or anyone. I’m not shackled by some contracted image.’ So there was a sense of liberation.”

Brosnan says he’s grateful to have had the role, but adds: “It never felt real to me. I never felt I had complete ownership over Bond. Because you’d have these stupid one-liners – which I loathed – and I always felt phony doing them.”

Britain plans walk of fame

London – Nicole Kidman, Charlie Chaplin, the Rolling Stones and Laurence Olivier will be included on the British equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Television network ITV announced Wednesday it was sponsoring the Avenue of the Stars, dedicated to performers from Britain and the Commonwealth.

The thoroughfare of silver stars will be set within the courtyard of St. Paul’s Church – a 17th-century structure nicknamed “the actors’ church” – in London’s Covent Garden market.

The network said an initial 100 honorees had been chosen for their impact on the world of entertainment in the past 50 years. Sixteen names were announced Wednesday, including Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Rex Harrison, John Cleese and Shirley Bassey.

ITV said the rest of the 100 names, chosen by a panel of television and music figures, would be revealed during a live TV special on Sept. 18.

Nominees must be citizens of Britain or the Commonwealth of former British colonies, and the stars can be awarded posthumously.

Jolie to record ‘Diary’

New York – A trip to Kenya by Angelina Jolie and U.N. adviser and economist Jeffrey Sachs will air Sept. 14 on MTV as part of the cable music network’s “Diary” series.

“The Diary of Angelina Jolie & Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa” will follow their trip to Sauri, a remote group of villages in western Kenya where Sachs’ U.N. Millennium Project team is working to end poverty, hunger and disease, MTV said in a statement Monday.

Jolie recently adopted her daughter, Zahara Marley, from Ethiopia. She has a 4-year-old son, Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia.

“I’m certain the stories in this special will inspire viewers the same way these experiences have inspired me, and I’m hopeful that increased awareness of the issues in Africa will bring about a new wave of progress and activism among young people everywhere,” the 30-year-old actress said in a statement.

Sachs is a special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, director of the U.N. Millennium Project and director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute.