WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• In fact it’s not been a good week for Mat, even before his collapse last night: He left his wallet stuffed with £1,500 in the back of a cab as he headed off to a party after the Teenage Cancer Trust gig at the weekend. He didn't realise his expensive mistake until he needed to use the loo – and had to ask to borrow a pound so he could spend a penny.

• Russell Brand has vowed to give away all his fortune to help combat world poverty. On his website, he wrote: ‘I'm proud to say that after a relatively short period of wealth I now recognise the insufficiency of personal privilege in a world with so much poverty. “Does that mean you're going to give away all your money then?” I imagine someone who dislikes me yet who has mysteriously found their way onto my website saying, and the answer is “Yes.

• But while Russell joined the G20 protestors, Gavin and Stacey star Ruth Jones was on the side of the Establishment, meeting Michelle Obama at the meal hosted by Sarah Brown and prepared by Jamie Oliver on Wednesday night.

• After Piers Morgan got publicity for saying he had banned David Beckham from his chat show – even though he was probably never going to do it anyway – Dave Gorman has decided to jump on the bandwagon. ‘As host of Genius let me tell you that Nelson Mandela is banned from the show,’ he said, ‘as is Bill Clinton. And I'm banning Angelina Jolie from my bedroom too. And Madonna is absolutely 100 per cent forbidden from adopting me.’

• As The Office is remade again, a quick bit of trivia: In the French Canadian version, the David Brent character is called David Gervais.

• Dane Cook Twittered that he had landed a part in the forthcoming Twilight movie this week. But it turned out to be a joke ‘I thought the April Fools of it all would be tipped ...off (by) ...the fact it was April F**King Fools Day!!!!!!’ he wrote eloquently afterwards. You can see why he’s such a successful funnyman with hilarious gags like that.

• A new way to start a comedy routine: Not with jokes, but a long plug for your website…
  

• Catherine Tate decided to go into comedy after being bullied at school ('not physically, but mentally, in the way that only teenage girls can'). She said: ''I realised that if you get yourself labelled as the funny one, people don't look any further. It's controlling: I decide what part of my personality you're seeing. I don't want you to look at me. I don't want you to comment on my clothes, my hair or the way I look...'

• American stand-up Joe Zimmerman rocked up for a gig playing for 500 students in an auditorium at American University in Washington DC as a benefit for the American Cancer Society – but it wasn’t at all what he expected. Turns out he had to play in a gym. Not only that it was *during* a sponsored walk. He was asked to perform at a podium directly in the path of the walkers, and when he pointed out that people would have to walk around him, the ‘stage’ was moved to centre court, in the middle of the walking circle. Only problem with that location – a volleyball game broke out around him. Read his full description of the gig from hell here.

SOURCES: Twitter, Daily Mirror, russellbrand.tv, The Times, davegorman.com, Chortle, Twitter, YouTube, Daily Mail, MySpace

Published: 3 Apr 2009