Pierce Brosnan, the former James Bond actor, has been stopped by airport security as he tried to board a plane in America with a large knife. 
 
 The star had the 10-inch hunting blade confiscated from his hand luggage after it showed up during screening at Burlington International Airport, in Vermont. 
 
 Brosnan, 62, was reportedly left embarassed and angry when the knife was taken away by US Transportation Security Administration agents. 
 
 A ban on knives was introduced following the September 11 terror attacks and rules state that sharp objects must be placed in checked luggage. All knives - apart from rounded or plastic butter knives - are banned in plane cabins. 
 
 Pierce Brosnan was stopped by officials at Burlington International Airport (Rex) 
 
 Brosnan, who appeared as 007 in four of the double agent films including GoldenEye and Die Another Day, was stopped by airport officials on Sunday. 
 
 Lieutenant Shawn Burke, from the Burlington Police Department, said airport authorities told him about Brosnan's encounter with Transportation Security Administration officials. 
 
 He said the Irish actor "was encountered by TSA at one of their checkpoints" and was allowed to continue his journey after the issue was resolved. 
 
 In images showing the incident, Brosnan is seen removing his belt in the security area and speaking to staff. 
 
 The Mrs Doubtfire actor visited Ireland last month and wrote in an Instagram post: "Good bye my sweet home of Ireland that I can call you now after all these years abroad a wandering." 
 
 It just needs a good thatch roof and It will be right as rain .... Fair thee well, till we meet again ...Dalkey days for ever in my heart A photo posted by Pierce Brosnan (@piercebrosnanofficial) on Aug 3, 2015 at 6:26am PDT 
 
 He also posted a series of messages on Twitter: 
 
 It just needs a good thatch roof and It will be right as rain .... Fair thee well, till we meet again? https://t.co/XM5oQaUuSp — Pierce Brosnan (@PierceBrosnan) August 3, 2015 
 
 Soon now soon to long the days with out you soon now soon https://t.co/S24Q5quLet — Pierce Brosnan (@PierceBrosnan) August 3, 2015 
 
 The Associated Press said Brosnan's publicist has not returned messages seeking comment. ||||| Pierce Brosnan Stopped by TSA ... Tried to Board Plane With a Knife 
 
 Exclusive Details 
 
 Pierce Brosnan tried to board a plane Sunday afternoon with a knife in his bag, but 007 couldn't slip it by TSA agents ... who called him out on it. 
 
 A TSA official from the Burlington International Airport in Vermont tells TMZ ... it is unclear if Brosnan knew the knife was in his carry-on bag, but once they saw the weapon ... they pulled the bag aside and called over Brosnan. 
 
 The official says they gave Brosnan the option to surrender the knife, or put it in his checked baggage. He took door #2, and went on his way. 
 
 No arrest. No citation. ||||| My new role brought back agony of watching cancer kill my first wife: Former Bond star Pierce Brosnan admits he 'still thinks about Cassie all the time' - 22 years after her death 
 
 
 
 Pierce Brosnan plays wealthy widower who falls in love with cancer sufferer 
 
 Brosnan's first wife died from cancer in 1991 at the age of 41 
 
 He is now remarried to journalist Keely Shaye Smith 
 
 Pierce Brosnan lost his first wife Cassandra after she died of ovarian cancer in 1991 
 
 Despite the beauty of the setting, on a forested cliff atop the sparkling blue Mediterranean sea at sunset, the final scenes of his latest film bring back the most painful memories of Pierce Brosnan’s life. 
 
 
 
 In Love Is All You Need, a charming romantic comedy set on Italy’s stunning Amalfi Coast, the former James Bond star plays a wealthy widower who falls in love with a hairdresser suffering from cancer and awaiting a letter of final diagnosis from her doctor. 
 
 
 
 Such a predicament is deeply familiar to Brosnan, whose first wife Cassandra lost a four-year battle with ovarian cancer in 1991 and died, aged just 41. 
 
 Her death left him devastated and bringing up their son Sean, then eight, alone. 
 
 
 
 ‘I went through it all, very publicly,’ Brosnan, 59, says. ‘Such things draw a mark across your heart and it’s always a part of your life. To watch someone you love have their life eaten away – bit by bit, by this insidious and horrid disease – becomes an indelible part of your psyche. 
 
 
 
 ‘It certainly did for me and, of course, when I received this script, the challenge of playing this part was not lost on me.’ 
 
 This is the first time since actress Cassie’s death 22 years ago that Brosnan has confronted the issue of cancer on screen. ‘I’ve sat in rooms with doctors and awaited the outcome of examinations, for results to come back. I’ve opened letters with bad news in them. I know what it’s like, I really do.’ 
 
 On screen romance: Pierce Brosnan with Trine Dyrholm take to the Mediterranean in Love Is All You Need 
 
 Brosnan says he never discussed his past sorrow with his co-star in Love Is All You Need, the Danish actress Trine Dyrholm. ‘An actor has to draw on all his life experiences, good and bad. You have to be vulnerable and sensitive to the circumstances in a script which you know will affect everyone. 
 
 ‘So I know the pain and the agony of waiting and being powerless.’ 
 
 
 
 Brosnan fell in love anew in 1994 with journalist Keely Shaye Smith – and the pair have been happily married since 2001. ‘I know what it’s like to be a widower and what it’s like to find love again,’ he adds. 
 
 
 
 Happily remarried: Pierce Brosnan found love again with his second wife Keely Shaye Smith 
 
 ‘So I know there’s hope and that you have to learn to get on with it. Ups and downs are what life is all about. But the memory of Cassie and her fight against cancer is never forgotten. 
 
 ‘Keely has always been kind and compassionate and encouraged me to mourn Cassie. I think of Cassie all the time – my son Sean is also her son, of course, and he’s 29 now. 
 
 
 
 ‘Cancer is a very sad thing but you can always take something from every experience. This film is proof of that. I’ve always been a positive thinker. I suppose Keely is my North Star, always looking out for me. 
 
 
 
 ‘And I guess that makes me more thankful and more up for it, up for taking on whatever life throws at me and whatever parts my career now puts my way.’ 
 
 I first saw Love Is All You Need last year when I reviewed it for The Mail on Sunday from the Venice Film Festival. I found it funny and sweet yet always classy; it could be a big hit. 
 
 
 
 Made with Danish money and a Danish-influence cast, it has the rather more comic title in Danish of The Bald-Headed Hairdresser. 
 
 
 
 That is because it concerns hard-working, suburban hairdresser Ida who is recovering from severe chemotherapy for breast cancer and reeling from the discovery of that her husband (Kim Bodnia from The Killing) is having an affair with a bimbo secretary. 
 
 
 
 Wearing a blonde wig, Ida travels to Sorrento to attend the hastily announced wedding of her daughter to the son of a wealthy fruit importer, Philip (Brosnan). While there, Ida’s pragmatism and serenity appeal to the buttoned-down, bereaved workaholic Philip. 
 
 
 
 Susanne Bier, director of Love Is All You Need, says that when she approached the actor to be her unlikely star, she had no idea about the ghosts of cancer that lurked in Brosnan’s past. 
 
 
 
 ‘It was his James Bond past that I was interested in,’ she recalls. ‘I wanted some of that suave elegance, the way he sort of always keeps a bit of himself back as an actor, a bit of distance. He has humour and grace. 
 
 Quintessential Bond: Pierce Brosnan in 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies 
 
 ‘But I soon learned about Cassie after I’d sent him the script, and I was really worried he’d think I was exploiting the cancer element of his history. I was so nervous when he called me, that he’d be insulted or just find it too emotional and close to live through on screen. 
 
 
 
 ‘But, no, he said because the film treats cancer in a light-hearted way, and with humour, he would do it.’ Ms Bier, who won an Oscar for her film In A Better World, says Brosnan was a pleasure to have on the set and that he would talk openly to her and his fellow performers about his experience. 
 
 
 
 ‘Cancer is common to a lot of people in that it has touched them somehow, caused them some kind of pain, directly or indirectly. Pierce just cared that we addressed it with hope and light. 
 
 ‘Many actors are not happy people and they escape their pain through their art. But not Pierce. He is a happy human being and he enjoys life.’ 
 
 
 
 Ms Bier says she was looking for a happy ending to the journey for her lead character of a woman living with cancer. ‘Maybe I cast Pierce because I could sense some pain beneath his graceful exterior? I don’t know. Maybe I just thought a woman who has been through pain deserves a happy end – and what happier end could a woman wish for than to fall in love with the man who played James Bond?’ 
 
 
 
 For many viewers, the sight of Brosnan back in a sunlit Mediterranean setting will recall the film Mamma Mia! – in which he played one of three men who could be the father of a child for their former lover, played by Meryl Streep. The film, based on the songs of Abba, became notorious for Brosnan’s attempt at singing. 
 
 
 
 ‘The thing is, I had a lot of lessons to sing like that,’ he laughs. ‘In fact, some people think my singing is superb. But they’re mainly on strong medication and not allowed out much.’ 
 
 
 
 He recalls the experience with affection. ‘You go out there and try these things. I didn’t care as we were having such a good time. When I was offered the job, I’d never even seen the stage play so I went out that night to see it with my daughter. She said, “Daddy, which one are you going to play?” and I said, “You know, I forgot to ask and I honestly don’t know – I could be the gay one.” 
 
 
 
 ‘I lay in bed that night, sweating, just saying to myself, “Meryl Streep’s doing it, Meryl Streep’s doing it.” ’ 
 
 
 
 Brosnan turns 60 later this year. Does he approach the milestone with fear? ‘No, with relish,’ he says, quickly. ‘I realise how precious life is, probably because I’ve seen how it can be taken away. So I embrace it and feel lucky enough to enjoy it. 
 
 
 
 ‘We’ve just finished building a new house in Malibu. It’s been hellish but Keely has seen it all through. I guess it is my home. I went out there [to LA] for two weeks, and I seem to have stayed 30 years.’ It was Cassie who persuaded Brosnan to chance his luck in Hollywood, following the success of a 1981 mini-series called The Manions Of America. 
 
 
 
 Suave: Pierce Brosnan as James Bond with signature car, the Aston Martin Vanquish 
 
 ‘We’d just bought a nice house in Wimbledon – which I still own,’ he says. ‘Cassie had done For Your Eyes Only and I’d done this mini-series, so that bought us the house, but we were pretty skint otherwise. 
 
 
 
 She was very ambitious for me and when the series was a hit on ABC, she practically pushed me out there. I flew to LA, got an agent and the first interview he got me was for a detective show called Remington Steele. And that was it: America.’ 
 
 
 
 After Love Is All You Need, Brosnan will be seen in Love Punch, a romantic comedy set in Paris and starring Emma Thompson, and an adaptation of Nick Hornby’s London-set novel A Long Way Down, with Toni Collette. Then he’s off to Thailand to film The Coup, an action movie with Owen Wilson. 
 
 
 
 ‘I’m very busy,’ he agrees, ‘but I work hard at finding all this work. At the moment, I seem to be travelling, ever the gipsy. Shooting in Paris, I just had the strongest desire to maybe move there. I told Keely and she groaned that we’d just finished this house in Malibu. 
 
 International blockbuster: Pierce Brosnan with Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard in Mamma Mia! from 2008 
 
 Part of me regrets never coming back to Europe. You just never know what life will throw at you, but you must always take it head on, surprise it before it surprises you.’ 
 
 
 
 It’s clear that a new phase in Brosnan’s life and career is beginning, post-Bond. Of the film, he says: ‘Cancer is a sad thing to deal with but you can take something out of it. This film and my life proves that. Memories of Cassie are with me every day and I never deny that. That’s how I deal with it – others may be different. 
 
 
 
 ‘It depends on your outlook. I’ve always been a positive thinker and I take what comes.’ 
 
 Love Is All You Need is released on April 19. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Losing Bond to Daniel Craig 'hurt like hell' 
 
 Runaway success: Fans loved 2012's Skyfall with Daniel Craig as James Bond 
 
 Brosnan's Bond has now been overshadowed by the success of Daniel Craig – particularly with the recent hit movie Skyfall. 
 
 
 
 Brosnan’s career as 007 was cut short after four films – GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day – when the franchise’s producers decided they needed a change of direction. 
 
 
 
 ‘It hurt like hell, taking that phone call,’ he recalls. ‘I just said, “OK,” put the phone down and that was it. I wasn’t Bond any more. But the experience of Bond was an amazing one, a turning point in my career. 
 
 
 
 ‘It’s the gift that keeps on giving for me – the stature it gives you. It’s amazing and it’s up to you what you do with it, how you use it to your advantage.’ 
 
 
 
 Brosnan’s stint as Bond was commercially very successful. But he says he can’t bear to watch any of the four films. 
 
 
 
 ‘My sons call me in to the room to see them but I have to leave. I laugh at some of the things we did in the later movies – like driving an invisible car or snowboarding down a glacier on a parachute.’ 
 
 He even giggles an infectious, almost childish cackle, at the recollection of such stunts. 
 
 
 
 ‘It was getting ridiculous. I just can’t look at them. So I’m glad they revamped it. I didn’t see the first two of Daniel’s films either, but Skyfall is different. We saw that as a whole family.’ 
 
 
 
 Brosnan says he knew his time as the secret agent was up when he saw the breathless action of the Bourne films. 
 
 
 
 ‘I looked at those and thought, “Oh God, they’re going to want me to do all that running again.” 
 
 ‘But gyms are so bloody boring. I couldn’t face it again. 
 
 
 
 ‘I look at photos of Daniel now and I think, “Crikey he’s fit.” He’s got the presence and the voice and he’s a tremendous actor, so he’ll be just dandy.’ 
 
 
 
 Brosnan had been forced to wait for the coveted role of Bond. 
 
 
 
 His work on Remington Steele had caught the eye of legendary Bond producer Cubby Broccoli – and when it became clear Roger Moore’s time as 007 was up, Brosnan was his first choice. 
 
 
 
 Popular: Daniel Craig's performance as James Bond on a mission with the Queen was a highlight of the Olympics Opening Ceremony last year 
 
 ‘But we had a problem with my Remington Steele contract, a big problem,’ Brosnan recalls. ‘I was signed up for seven series and I was just hoping they wouldn’t renew it.’ 
 
 
 
 The show was cancelled by the NBC network in America in 1986 – but the publicity around it, and rumours that Brosnan was now going to be Bond, meant ratings for the TV show’s summer reruns put it back at the top of the charts. 
 
 
 
 ‘NBC had 60 days’ ownership option over me,’ Brosnan recalls. ‘I couldn’t sign on to anything else until that time was up. 
 
 
 
 ‘On that 60th morning, I was out of the door on my way to a press conference to announce, officially, that I was James Bond. I had champagne on ice. But NBC then decided to renew Remington Steele. 
 
 ‘And if I broke the contract, they could sue me for $20 million.’ 
 
 
 
 Timothy Dalton became Bond instead. It was another nine years before Brosnan took the Bond role. 
 
 ‘Even then, I wasn’t sure of anything,’ Pierce recalls. ‘I’d even signed on to do a different film and was packing my bags, to go to New Guinea, I think it was, to play Robinson Crusoe.
– Let's just say this wouldn’t have happened to the real James Bond. Pierce Brosnan, who played the iconic 007 agent in four flicks, was stopped at Vermont’s Burlington International Airport on Sunday attempting to carry a 10-inch hunting knife on board a flight, police say. TSA agents found the bone-handled blade stashed in his carry-on luggage and seized it, apparently to Brosnan's chagrin and anger, reports the Telegraph. A source says Brosnan—traveling with his 14-year-old son, Paris—had to remove his belt for a pat-down, then was screened in a private area. He apparently told his son, "I can't believe they're doing this." TMZ reports officials asked Brosnan to surrender the knife or put it in his checked luggage; he chose the latter. The Burlington Police Department says officials then let the actor board a flight. Or as the Mail puts it, they chose to "live and let fly."