...and other dubious stories

Strap in. Here's our weekly GagSlag round-up of comedy gossip from the past seven days

• Jonathan Miller says his Beyond The Fringe co-star Peter Cook had doubts over his sexuality. ‘He had what in fact certain public school boys have, an armour of decorum and of repression and, I suspect, also not quite knowing whether he was gay or not’.

• If.comeddie winner Phil Nichol says he used to be a mess, until flatmate and fellow comic Brendon Burns gave him a wake-up call. ‘I didn’t wash. I’d sit in all day, watching TV, smoking pot. Brendon came home one day and said, “What’s that smell? Smells like chemical fertiliser . . . oh, Phil, that’s you.” He dragged me to the bathtub and put me in it, fully clothed. Chemical fertiliser! That’s what friends are for, I guess.’

• Esther Rantzen apparently arrived at Paramount Comedy's 10th birthday party last week; walked up the red carpet, walked off it again and immediately asked for her car to take her home.

• Kate Winslet says that while filming Extras Ricky Gervais ‘tries to fuck you up. He'll fart in the middle of a scene and won't crack a smile.’

• Peter Kay might be the biggest name in comedy, but it didn’t stop London Lite spelling his surname Kaye this week.

• Michael Palin on John Cleese in their Python days: ‘He is still tense and unrelaxed with people, which compounds his problems. He has more defences than Fort Knox.’

• Another extract from the Palin diaries: ‘A girl comes up and asks me if I'm Kenny Everett. When I tell her I'm Michael Palin she says ''Oh, yes, I meant to say that." Such is fame.’

• We couldn’t go a week without giving Russell Brand amention. But now he’s apparently mending his way, slipping away from the Loaded Laftas party untempted by the tottie. ‘I’ve decided to go celibate,’ he says. ‘It’s difficult, as I was a sexual terrorist.’

• More on those bogus Dara O’Briain IMDB entries from last week. Most the made-up trivia is gone from the movie database, but still on there are his supposed nicknames: Spud Gun, The Bog Monster and The Chortle Monkey.

Sources:Sunday Times, Times, Media Guardian, Mirror, London Lite, Telegraph, Telegraph, Daily Snack, IMDB

Published: 6 Oct 2006