Eddie Murphy has a warning for United States President Barack Obama - he has a crush on his wife!

The Beverly Hills Cop funny man and father-of-eight says of the First Lady: "I've been married before and for me to get married again, someone is going to have to be really exceptional.

"An extremely exceptional lady is going to have to come around ... a Michelle Obama-type.

"Ok, she's taken but Barack, you better act right!"

Murphy was talking during a media conference to promote his latest movie, Imagine That and also joked that he had made his 7-year-old co-star Yara Shahidi cry.

He quipped: "I grabbed her and I said 'Look, don't you think just because you're so cute that you're going to be running things.' Then she started crying and I knew I had the set in control."

On a serious note, Murphy says Yara had impressed him greatly. "You get 3,000 adorable 7-year-olds and it's just impossible to pick somebody," he said. "They went through all the process until they got to the best little actors. She was the best all-round solid, natural actress and had all the stuff that you can't teach a person."

(China Daily/Agencies June 5, 2009)