•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

A little piece of Beatlemania came to Hollywood Paul McCartney was honored with a star on Tinseltown's storied Walk of Fame, watched by hundreds of screaming and jostling fans.

Police blocked off Vine Street near the intersection with Hollywood Boulevard, as the crowds swelled across the broad boulevard in front of the iconic cylinder-shaped Capitol Records building.

McCartney, in Los Angeles ahead of the annual Grammy awards show this weekend, paid tribute to the "three boys" -- John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr -- who helped make him famous.

"Way back in history, in Liverpool when we were kids and we were listening to Buddy Holly and all the rock 'n' roll greats, I would have never thought... the day would come when I'd be getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"That was like an impossible thing to happen. But here we are today, and it's happening. But I couldn't have done it without, certainly, three boys -- so I want to say thanks to those guys, John, George and Ringo," he said.

And he added: "I couldn't have done it without them, so I want to thank those guys and bless them for being in my life."

McCartney, who has just released his latest album "Kisses on the Bottom," was joined by fellow ageing rocker Neil Young outside the Capitol Records building, where staff lined the balcony to watch the star-unveiling ceremony.

Young said McCartney, 69, was "at the top of his game, he said, adding: "Like Charlie Chaplin was a great actor, that's how I look at Paul.

"Yet even with all of that craft that he has and his ability to put melodies and chords and feelings together, it's the soul that comes out of his music that makes me feel so good and so happy to be here with him ..today," he said.

McCartney's star, which joins those of his band mates, is the 2,460th on the Walk of Fame, a long stretch of Hollywood Boulevard and adjoining sidewalk which celebrates entertainment stars from over the decades.

Fans had gathered for hours for good viewing spots at the ceremony, although many had to strain to see anything as the crowd swelled out across the street for the early-afternoon event.

Meanwhile, McCartney's former wife has told a British inquiry that voicemail messages from the Beatles singer were hacked, slamming suggestions she had leaked them to journalists herself.

Heather Mills told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics that she had never given a journalist permission to listen to her messages.

Piers Morgan, a former editor of Britain's News of the World and Daily Mirror tabloids, had told the London inquiry in December that he had listened to a voicemail left to Mills by McCartney.

Morgan, now a CNN host, had refused to say when or where he had heard it because he wanted to protect a "source".

Mills, 44, on Thursday angrily denied any suggestion she had played Morgan the recording herself or authorised anyone to access her phone. She said police have told her they have evidence her phone was hacked.

"I couldn't quite believe that (Morgan) would even try to insinuate -- a man that has written nothing but awful things about me for years -- ... (that) I had played a voicemail message to him," she said.

Mills said that in early 2001, McCartney had left her a string of voice messages after they had argued about a trip she was planning to India.

"In the morning, when I woke up, there were many messages, but they were all saved messages which I did not quite understand," she said. "I thought I must have pressed a wrong button."

She was later called by a former employee of Trinity Mirror, the Daily Mirror's parent company, who said they had heard the recording.

"I said, 'there's no way that you could know that unless you have been listening to my messages'," she told the inquiry. The caller was not a Mirror journalist or anyone working under Morgan.

Mills, a former glamour model, said she had threatened to take legal action if the story was published, and it was not at the time.

But Morgan referred to having heard the message in a piece for the Daily Mail tabloid in 2006.

Mills divorced McCartney in 2008 after six years of marriage. The former Beatle, 69, married New York heiress Nancy Shevell in October.

The Leveson Inquiry was set up by Prime Minister David Cameron in July after the hacking scandal engulfed the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World, forcing it to close after 168 years.

AFP