• March 19, 2001
• Vol. 55
• No. 11

A Boy for Bond

Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye Smith Welcome Son 002

Timing is everything. About three weeks before Keely Shaye Smith gave birth to her second son with Pierce Brosnan, the couple attended an Elton John and Billy Joel concert in Los Angeles. "We will name the baby Paris if it's a boy," Smith told Britain's OK! magazine, "but if it arrives tonight, we will name it Elton Billy Brosnan—making sure Elton gets top billing."

As it turns out, Paris Beckett Brosnan won't have to share billing with anyone, having made his solo debut at 9 lbs. 5 ozs. early on Feb. 27 at L.A.'s Cedars Sinai Medical Center, where big brother Dylan Thomas was born four years ago. "Pierce was so excited," says producer pal Daphna Edwards Ziman, who spoke to him that morning. "He sounded like he was in seventh heaven."

Paris will be the smallest guest of honor when former Entertainment Tonight correspondent Smith, 37, and three-time James Bond portrayer Brosnan, 48, marry this summer. The couple postponed their wedding last May after Sean, now 17, Brosnan's son from his first marriage, to actress Cassandra Harris (who died of ovarian cancer in 1991), was seriously injured in a car accident in April. But for Brosnan and Smith, who met in 1994, the bad times seem to be over. "After this baby was born, he said, 'I'm a rich man,' because that's what wealth means to him, having a large family," said Edwards Ziman, who knows Brosnan through his work with children's charities. "It's nice to see him happy again."