'What we promote is a Mr Bean lifestyle'

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

Russell Brand on David Beckham: ‘I'm not gay but I would eat food off his body. Preferably something that needs to be mopped up, like egg. I'd eat it off his stomach.’

Tomorrow’s hour-long episode of The Thick Of It revolves around a wide-ranging public inquiry, run along similar lines to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards. But it seems Lord Justice Leveson is very touchy about the subject – as when The Times mentioned the storyline in a brief story this summer, the inquiry wrote to the newspaper’s editor demanding to know why the story had been chosen and why its contents were ‘appropriate’. Maybe the inquiry is going to suggest a clampdown on the media writing about comedy shows...

After tackling his exploits as a sex tourist to Thailand in his last Edinburgh show, stand-up Chris Dangerfield is next going to talk about his addiction to Chinese prostitutes in London – which he reckons cost him more than £200,000 in 18 months. He told blogger John Fleming: ‘I’ve got “yellow fever”– I love Chinese prostitutes; I love Asian prostitutes.’ And he insisted the subject matter for his comedy doesn’t put women off: ‘I get so many comedy groupies,’ he added: ‘They see my show and then they Facebook or Tweet me: “Hello. I saw your show. Would you like to have sex?”’

Al Murray tweeted this week: ‘I gather All Star Mr & Mrs is on. What a show, I particularly liked it when they invited me to take part, mid divorce.’

Stand-up Benny Boot stars in the new video from DJ Yoda featuring Man Like Me.The bad news is the track’s called Idiot:

Remember back in April when Phil Kay had a nightmare gig in Aberdeen, when he ended up crying on stage, grabbing the leg of gig organiser Steph Renshaw and begging her to pay him as the bewildered punters looked on? At the time, promoter Naz Hussein, from Breakneck Comedy, said: ‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard about what had happened. It was a total car crash and we won’t be booking him again.’ Well, guess what? He booked him again in the city this week – but this time made a virtue of Kay’s notoriety, billing the gig as The Meldown Part II and actively encouraging punters to stay away. This time, the venue, Snafu, was a lot happier, posting on Facebook afterwards: ‘Phil Kay...what can I say. Absolutely stormed it at Breakneck Comedy tonight!’

And watch another heckler incident involving cabaret act Penny Arcade at the Pussy Faggot night here

‘I am pleased Dara O Briain has got a science show on TV, but if I'm honest, a bit sad I didn't get a chance,’ tweeted Robin Ince, of Radio 4 science show Infinite Monkey Cage, yesterday. ‘The good thing is that now all the shows I've been putting on for years will be accused of copying a TV thing’

It’s probably not a name that exudes sophistication, but a new chain of coffee shops has opened in China – based on Mr Bean. Chief Tino Wu – who has three stores in Shanghai and one in Wuxi in the Jiangsu province – said: ‘What consumers can expect here is a totally different experience. The global popularity of Mr Bean helps promote our store and makes our branding easy. What we promote is a Mr Bean lifestyle - to have a sense of humour in life, even when you are expecting a rather boring time. I'm sure everyone at some point has a bit of Mr Bean in them..’ The stores, which are properly licensed from rights owners Tiger Aspect, feature a replica of Mr Bean's yellow Mini while the walls display stills from the programme and sell Mr Bean teddy bears.

Would you like to take a guess at how James Corden joked with photographers on set of the Paul Potts biopic in Venice this week? Give up? He only – and prepare yourself for a shock here – flashed his belly at them...