NAMES IN THE NEWS : Nicholson Split on Abortion

Abortion is a complicated topic for Jack Nicholson. “I’m pro-choice but against abortion because I’m an illegitimate child myself and it would be hypocritical to take any other position. I’d be dead. I wouldn’t exist,” the star and director of “The Two Jakes” said in a Washington Post interview.

“And I have nothing but total admiration, gratitude and respect for the strength of the women who made the decision they made in my individual case. But as I say, I believe this is the choice of the woman and, you know, I walk it like I talk it.” Nicholson was 38 when he learned that his “mother” was really his grandmother and that the woman he had known as his sister was in fact his mother.