WTF: Weekly Trivia File

•'In my quest for authenticity and sincerity, I can be a bit annoying.' Steve Coogan.

• Charlie Chaplin's divorce papers have been discovered after 88 years – and state that he made 'revolting, degrading and offensive' sexual demands of his teenage wife Lita Grey. The 50-page document, discovered in an abandoned bank in Los Angeles, included the claims that Chaplin first seduced the actress when she was 15 and he was 35. After Grey became pregnant the following year and refused Chaplin's demand to have an abortion, her mother allegedly threatened to report him to police for statutory rape unless he married her. Grey goes on to describe the comedian's 'inhumane' treatment of her saying his sexual demands came as 'a shock to her refined sensibilities and repulsive to her moral decency'. On one occasion, he is said to have screamed at her: 'You are my wife and you have to do what I want you to do.'

• The man who threw a banana at Dave Chapelle has apologised, saying there was ‘no racial connotation to that toss’. ‘I’m gypsy joker jester,’ said the tosser in question, Christian Englander.

• Andrew Lawrence has set up a petition to get himself employed as the next presenter of Top Gear 'otherwise, what with their Liberal-bias and obsession with diversity and equality, they'll [the BBC] only go and give the job to a disabled, transgender, asylum-seeking paedophile with Aspergers and a lisp.' It has 88 signatories to date.

• With BBC budgets being squeezed, Inside No 9 is trialling a clever wheeze – flogging props and costumes on eBay after broadcast. Producer Adam Tandy has set up an account as Snook Auditions, with the first item on offer the pink T-shirt Jack Whitehall wore in last week's episode, emblazoned with 'I ❤. Aussie Boys.' But at least one doubter has already emerged … Reece Shearsmith. He tweeted 'Doesn't seem right … but there you go!', to which Tandy responded: 'At least they aren't being chucked in a skip... And they'll all go to appreciative homes.. All legit.' A BBC spokesman said: 'After production, the BBC will sometimes sell props, the proceeds of which go back into the BBC.  This is one such example – through a third party which makes no profit from the sale whatsoever.'

• During last night's leaders' debate, comic Justin Moorhouse noted: 'If you want to know how shit this country is note that #leadersdabate is trending. "Dabate".' Who would use such a misspelling? Step forward Sky News's Kay Burley. 'Reports our heckler was a Green supporter #leadersdabate' she tweeted.

• New Daily Show host Trevor Noah has a friend named Hitler. He revealed the fact in a Daily Show podcast unearthed by Mediaite in which he recalled a conversation with a writer on the show when he casually mentioned 'my friend Hitler.' 'This is not a nickname. We don't call him, aka Hitler,' Noah explained, adding that he was 'very good-looking, young black man [and] charismatic'. Noah said he didn't realise quite how offensive the first name was until he  [Noah] started traveling outside South Africa.

• Jimmy Carr must be flattered by this Google image reverse lookup…

• Ross Noble had an, rem, interesting gig in Gladstone, Australia, last night. He jumped into the audience to wake up a man who was sleeping though the show, while another woman told him 'Some of us here want to kill you' when he started mocking the 'Jesus weekend'. Mind you, he wasn't the only comic to deal with a dozy punter last night… Paul Sinha tweeted: 'Best ever heckle tonight. A woman in front row who slept during the entire 40 minutes set.'

• Well, it's the sort of thing Larry Sanders would have done… Garry Shandling has been accused of being involved in a hit-and-run in Los Angeles after reversing his Porsche into a parked Toyota Prius. TMZ says a witness saw Shandling get out of his car to check the damage and take a photo, before taking off - without leaving his details. Police are now investigating.

• Russell Brand says he's annoyed that Tom Cruise didn't try to convert him to Scientology as they worked on Rock of Ages together. 'He was not interested,' he told listeners to his Audioboom podcast this week. 'He couldn't give a monkeys about trying to sign me up. I was gutted. They thought I was a trouble maker probably. I'm pissed off about that.'

• American comic Jeff Ross recorded his latest stand-up special in a Texan county jail, as he told Jimmy Kimmel this week:

• Tweets of the week
Pixelated Boat (@PixelatedBoat): Neil Armstrong's NASA colleagues resented him for calling the Apollo 11 mission "Escape From The Planet Of The Boring Assholes"
Mat  (@MatCro): [Tailor's] 'Hi. I'd like to buy a cloak.' 'We only sell Plepsi, is that OK?'
Jazmien Hughes (@Jazzedloon): When God closes a window, he opens a tab.

Published: 3 Apr 2015