mysql bind-address refuses to work

["schnitzelmeister" <schnitzelmeister@gmail.com>]

In my.cnf I have:
 bind-address            = localhost

This does not work. netstat shows the server bound to both the public
and loopback ip addresses.

I'm running "mysql  Ver 14.7 Distrib 4.1.11, for pc-linux-gnu (i386) on
Sarge.

Any ideas? Thanks