Ahshadduppa Gervais!

I'm not sure whether or not to believe this report about Ricky Gervais having a go at Woody Allen. It was on breakingnews.ie this morning so it must be true! They got it from somewhere called starpulse. Is starpulse.com a good source? Maybe not. I'd like to think Gervais is a bit smarter than this. Michael in Prague sent me a link this morning of old Woody Allen interviews from the 70s and watching them earlier I was reminded of just how funny he was back then.. He's still pretty good now - his book of short stories, Mere Anarchy, is the funniest thing I've read this year. Of course some of it isn't funny at all but for the most part he's hitting the mark.

Anyway, apparently Ricky refused to be in Woody Allen's new film because he was unimpressed with the quality of his potential co-stars. According to Ricky, Woody Allen just isn't Woody Allen anymore. Well, now where do we start picking apart something like that. Given the vitriolic nature of Gervias' response to critics this year you'd think he'd have a bit more sense than to attack the funniest film maker of the last 40 years. I know I sometimes throw out comments like this on the blog (Bob Dylan being the most significant artist of the last 50 years is one. Frank Carter from Gallows not being the next is another) but seriously who else is there? Apart from Rob Schneider and Chevy Chase of course.

I went to see Stardust last week. It's as wooly as an Aran sweater factory and as lumpy as a bucket of porridge but I suppose it wasn't terrible. Far too long though (it's about 2 and a half hours, it felt like several days) and clearly under the misapprehension that it was some kind of epic quest when in fact it's a just a dodgy knock-off of the Princess Bride (rocky ground as far as I'm concerned). In the middle of it sat Ricky Gervais. He played some kind of market trader (Ferdy the Fence, I believe) engaged in a spot of bartering with Robert De Niro's cross-dressing air pirate (no, really). Anyway, Ricky did what Ricky always does but in the middle of it, in response to some nonsense or other, he exclaimed: "Are you having a laugh?". Wouldn't you think that he'd be trying to put as much distance between himself and that catchphrase? He probably thought he was being ironic but really you can only take irony so far, can't you? Funny that for someone who supposedly transformed British comedy by trying to get as far as possible away from the traditional sitcom format, it's starting to look like he's going to be remembered for a daft catchphrase and a silly dance. A bit like Frank Spencer or Manuel from Fawlty Towers. Now, that's irony!

Woody Allen may not be making funny films anymore (and I hear his next one, Cassandra's Dream, is particularly bleak) but at least he's still trying to make good films and doesn't seem to spend his spare time at home counting his awards and sniping about other people. Although given his, ahem, chequered past, perhaps we shouldn't really dwell on what he does at home for very long!