WTF: Weekly Triva File

• What’s going on between Steve Coogan and Paddy McGuinness? In an interview the Max & Paddy star was talking about his comedy heroes when he said: ‘Steve Coogan live – that was the only gig I ever paid to see when I was younger. Then I met Steve Coogan, and you know they say you should never meet your hero. I did and, well, that was that. He was a bit of a let-down. We’ll just leave that one there I think.’

• Paul Merton married fellow Comedy Store Player Suki Webster in a low-key London ceremony earlier this week.

• Can you do anything without causing offence these days? Paul Whitehouse is currently starring as a Plymouth Argyle football fan in an advert for Aviva insurance – but locals are upset that he put on a broad ‘yokel’ accent for the part. Resident Anne Davies fumed: ‘This advert makes me sick. I live in Plymouth and we don’t even sound like that.’

• Even before this year’s Fringe ended, American stand-up Lewis Schaffer had already drawn up flyers for his 2010 show. In an attempt to boost audiences, he’s decided on the title: Jimmy Carr Live.

• Ricky Gervais is getting so tubby he can’t face wearing trousers, saying: ‘I’m at the point where I’m so fat that I don't want to bother trying to do a belt up. I just want to wear jogging bottoms or pyjamas. I eat and drink far too much.’

• Jon Thoday and Richard Allen-Turner, the two owners of comedy giant Avalon, which manages Al Murray, Frank Skinner and Harry Hill among others, paid themselves almost £4million last year, the Sunday Times reports. Their company, which spans management, TV and live production and publicity, made £2.8million profit on £29million turnover.

• You Tube clip of the week:
  

• Alan Carr has posed naked save for a big plastic bag to promote an appeal for more donations to British Heart Foundation charity shops.

• Carr also switches on the Blackpool Illuminations tonight. Hopefully the crowds will forgive what he wrote about their town in is memoirs Look Who It Is! ‘The one thing that does spoil the whole Blackpool experience, apart from the architecture, food, cleanliness and quality of entertainment, is the weather.’

• Hirsute Robin Williams shaved his body hair for a scene in his new film World's Greatest Dad in which he bared all to jump into a swimming pool. ‘I shaved because if you don’t, it’s like animal rights issues,’ he said. But the shot did impress director Bobcat Goldthwaite – yes the Police Academy guy – but not necessarily for his acing abilities. Goldthwaite said: ‘I spent the whole day with Robin... He's bottomless for the whole day on the set and I was like, “Why are you insecure...?” If I was hung like him I wouldn't have pants on right now. Honestly, if that was me, I'd just be, like, walking around, “How do you like me now, bitches?’

SOURCES: Sunday Mirror, The Mirror, Daily Star, Chortle, The Sun, Sunday Times, YouTube, Press Association, Blackpool Gazette, Daily Express/Female First

Published: 4 Sep 2009