Kate Beckinsale, Emily Blunt and Colin Firth Attend Stephen Merchant’s Hello Ladies!

The Brits were out in force last night to support funnyman Stephen Merchant (right inset pic) as he brought his hit comedy show, Hello Ladies to Hollywood,

It was also date night for attendees, actresses Kate Beckinsale and Emily Blunt who both had their American hubbies Len Wiseman and John Krasinki in tow.

Actor Colin Firth completed the star-studded gathering, playing third wheel as he walked into the Beverly Hills’ Coronet Theatre with Emily and John.

‘Hello Ladies’ is about Merchant’s lack of success with the women, despite his many awards and critical acclaim. His reasons, according to Merchant include his tightfistedness and his pedantry, and because of his gawky and lanky 6ft 7 inch frame, and, as with his BBC2 sitcom Life’s Too Short, he delivers plenty of funny and very physical material from his unusually ginormous stature.

Some of his battle-of-the-sexes gags wear thin at times; as does his routine on the glibness of text message speak.

However, a finale in which he re-enacts an old GCSE drama play on issues of prejudice is a showstopper, using his unsubtle teenage self as a license to be gleefully un-PC. This hints of a far more mischievous Merchant lying just around the corner… So Hollywood, watch out!

Merchant, known for his collaborations with funnyman Ricky Gervais, who hosted the Golden Globes last Sunday, spoke about the difference between English and American audiences.

Earlier this week he told the Los Angeles Times, “In England, the audience can be quite surly at times,’

‘You can walk on and you get the feeling that they are sitting with their arms crossed sort of, “Yeah, listen. It was raining, we had to park the car, so this better be funny mate.”

He added, “American audiences just seemed much more enthusiastic. like ‘Yay! It’s great, it’ll be fun! Let’s enjoy.”

I give ‘Hello Ladies’ 5 stars and a BIG thumbs up, well done to Merchant, for managing to slap us full-force in the mush with this incredibly original piece of comedy… Go see it!

Tickets available at Ticket Master

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BBC Gives the Thumbs Up to Ricky Gervais’ New Sitcom

One can already hear the cheers from the ‘little people’ in the lands far, far away; excited of the news I’m about to bring them… (Laughs)

Ok, so this is not a fairytale, but the news is joyous…

The BBC has finally given Ricky Gervais‘ sitcom about the day-to-day frustrations of being a dwarf the go ahead.

Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who created The Office, have both written the project and will executive produce.

A 30-minute pilot of Life’s Too Short is to be screened by BBC2 and will star Warwick Davis, who had the lead in the movie Willow, as well as guest appearances in the Harry Potter films.

Gervais said: “We’re having so much fun working with Warwick. Pound for pound he is one of the funniest men I know.”

Ricky’s a bit of a short-ass at 5′ 8″, maybe he should have cast himself as the dwarf… Just a suggestion (RUDE)!

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