William could be a wizard king

Some boys want to be cowboys when they grow up. Others want to be kings.

Not the future king of England. Britain’s Prince William wanted to be a cop.

“I soon learned that probably wasn’t a good idea,” the 26-year-old prince said Wednesday on the BBC’s Newsround program, a current affairs show for children.

While discussing his childhood, the first-born son of the late Princess Diana and Crown Prince Charles (and older brother of Prince Harry) talked about once having to go to the hospital after being hit by a golf club.

“That was for my Harry Potter scar, as I call it,” he said, referring to J.K. Rowling’s fictional hero. “I call it that because it glows sometimes and some people notice it. Other times they don’t notice it at all.”

Even then, though, he knew that bring a future monarch of the realm made him something special. Now William says if he could be invisible for a day he would go into a newspaper office.

“I’d hide in the background and listen to all the stories they talk about me,” he said.

That’s not Harry! That’s … Voldemort?

Even celebrities feel pain

This is not a good time for celebrities. British actress Natasha Richardson, 45, died in New York on Tuesday after a freak Canadian skiing accident. American actor Stacy Keach, 67, was recovering in Los Angeles on Wednesday following an apparent stroke. And Oscar-winning actress Jessica Lange, 59, broke her collarbone while falling Tuesday on the steps of her home near Duluth, Minn.

The past is important

Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss has a new obsession: Civil War battlefields. He’s concerned that they’re being threatened by neglect, land development and overall apathy.

“We are the consequences of that war and the more we know about our past, the better,” Dreyfuss said on Wednesday.

Bush decides to write

Ex-President George W. Bush is writing a book. “Decision Points” is set for a 2010 release. “I want people to understand the environment in which I was making decisions,” Bush said. “I want people to get a sense of how decisions were made, and I want people to understand the options that were placed before me.”

Lee films Kobe bein’ Kobe

Filmmaker Spike Lee loves hoops so much that he made a film about Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant. The film, “Kobe Doin’ Work,” follows the NBA star for a full day. The ESPN TV premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 25, then plays May 16 on ESPN.

Sssshhh: Colbert goes USO

Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” will join a USO tour scheduled to visit American troops overseas. “I’m going to the Persian Gulf,” he said. “I can’t tell you where I’m going, but the fact that I can’t tell you where I’m going should tell you where I’m going.”

The birthday bunch

Producer Carl Reiner is 87. Actor Hal Linden is 78. Actor William Hurt is 59. Director Spike Lee is 52. Actress Theresa Russell is 52. Actress Holly Hunter is 51. Actor David Thewlis is 46. Actor Michael Rapaport is 39.