The week's trivia round-up

• ‘Comedy is an angry white man's game. Even if you're Chris Rock or Joan Rivers, you're really an angry white man.’ So says… Joan Rivers

• David Mitchell is worried about the criticism he and Robert Webb have attracted for fronting Apple’s ad campaign, just as they are becoming famous. ‘I’d hate the backlash to start before the lash itself had finished,’ he said.

• Comedy reviewing at its finest from New Zealand magazine Thread: ‘Ed Byrne is an Irish comedian but don’t hold that against him, he isn’t all limericks’ it racistly stated, before adding such insights as: ‘Byrne himself is also easy on the eyes (I barely slept the night before worrying I would be forced to watch a cross between Pauly Shore and Carrot Top all evening)’ (why?) and, ‘there is something in the show for everyone, and a little bit of everyone in the show’ (huh?). So it doesn’t come entirely as a surprise when the reviewer admits: ‘I will admit to being a bit of a comedy dunce…’ Nothing like an expert opinion, then.

• Nicholas Lyndhurst has a bed shaped like a racing car

• Sacha Baron Cohen says accidentally hurled a string of insults at Madonna over the phone. ‘I got a call from someone claiming to be Madonna,’ he said. ‘I thought it was a prank so I proceeded to totally insult the woman on the end of the line.’

• Danny Bhoy kicked a baby out of his Melbourne Comedy Festival show at the weekend – because his dad couldn’t stop his crying.

• Comics got very celebby at A-list birthday bashes this week. Not only did David Walliams rock up at David Beckham’s 32nd birthday with Geri Halliwell in tow, but Ruby Wax celebrated her 54th alongside the likes of Helena Bonham-Carter, Richard E Grant, Ade Edmonson, Alan Rickman and Zoe Wanamaker. Explaining the party balloons emblazoned with ‘Happy 21st’, Wax said: ‘I can't believe people proudly announce their 40th or, oh my God, their 50th birthdays’

• Tim Vine starts each day with a round of darts - 501 and ending on a double.

• Lenny Henry struck a pre-nuptial pact with Dawn French – over DIY. ‘Lenny's rubbish in the house. He wanted it written into our marriage vows that he would never do any DIY,’ she told Graham Norton’s BBC Two show.

SOURCES: Esquire, Sunday Times, Thread, Popbitch, Loaded, Melbourne Herald-Sun, The London Paper/Hello!, The Independent, BBC Two

Published: 4 May 2007