DETROIT, MI  [Tuesday Mar.23.2004]  /WMQT.com/ -- A stunt in the South of France has propelled a childhood pal of Andre 3000 into the public eye, and all it took was holding an umbrella. Farnsworth Bentley, former personal assistant to P. Diddy, became a familiar sight following a photo was printed of the two of them in St. Tropez, Bentley shielding Diddy from the sun with a $700 white parasol. Bentley, whose real name is Derek Watkins, is a childhood friend of Outkast's Andre 3000, and appears in the video for "The Way You Move" holding his trademark umbrella. Andre remembers Bentley as a youth in an affluent suburb of Atlanta.

"This is nothing new," said Andre. "He was a prep, so that meant he wore Polo, had all the right clothes, hair perfectly in place."

Bentley has been courted by Fox Broadcasting to star in his own series, he's currently writing a movie script with Andre 3000, is in talks with Courvoisier to be an "ambassador" to the company, performed with Outkast at last weekend's Soul Train Awards, and is starting his own umbrella line this spring.

Commented Andre on his friend's ambitions, "He has a hustler's spirit. He's going to have his hand in a little bit of everything; he's going to be at every party, every photo op."

Bentley says his ultimate dream is to create his own Hollywood empire: a restaurant and a kids' show for Nickelodeon a la "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood."

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