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The mayor of Paris has awarded Jackie Chan (search) an honorary medal from the city, praising the Hong Kong action star for his film career — and his smile.

"It would have been an immense pleasure just to shake your hand," Mayor Bertrand Delanoe (search) told Chan on Tuesday.

Delanoe called the 51-year-old director, actor and stuntman a "master of humor, of the burlesque and of self-deprecation."

"This mayor knows everything about me!" Chan joked.

The "Rush Hour (search)" star was in Paris for a film festival that will honor his work.