diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 615e507c..182f5607 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+    - fixed bug in smarty_make_timestamp introduced in PHP 4.1.0 (Monte)
     - fixed bug with cached insert debug timing (Monte)
     - added 'script' attribute to {insert..} which specifies the script that
       the insert function can be found in. (Andrei)
diff --git a/Smarty.addons.php b/Smarty.addons.php
index b83b13d0..790090d3 100644
--- a/Smarty.addons.php
+++ b/Smarty.addons.php
@@ -113,6 +113,9 @@ function smarty_mod_date_format($string, $format="%b %e, %Y")
 \*======================================================================*/
 function smarty_make_timestamp($string)
 {
+	if(empty($string)) {
+		$string = "now";
+	}
     $time = strtotime($string);
     if (is_numeric($time) && $time != -1)
         return $time;
@@ -125,7 +128,7 @@ function smarty_make_timestamp($string)
         return $time;
     }
 
-    // can decipher, must be timestamp already?
+    // can't decipher, just return it
     return $string;
 }