Comedy news: Such Small Portions's news

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The Hackney Empire, one of London's flagship comedy and theatre venues, will close its doors for most of 2010 at the end of the Christmas pantomime season in January.

The announcement has sparked concerns that the closure may be more final than the scheduled nine months, as it has been widely reported that the Empire houses large debts.

However, a theatre spokesman was quoted saying he was confident it would reopen on schedule. 

In additon to the closure, chief executive and artistic director Simon Thomsett has left by "mutual consent" and Claire Middleton has been brought in to replace him.

She told The Stage magazine that the closure would create the time to "stop, take a break and take stock of the way the organisation operates".

In 2004, the theatre underwent a £17m refurbishment but it is not known if further works are to take place before the scheduled reopening next Autumn.

Nor is it known where the annual Hackney Empire New Act Of The Year competition will be held. Previous winners include Stewart Lee and Ardal O'Hanlon. Fergus Craig won the 2009 event back in January.

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Graham Norton has been rapped on the knuckles for a joke which was ruled to be offensive to lesbians.

The BBC Editorial Complaints Unit upheld a solitary complaint made after Norton had made the joke on his BBC Two chat show in March.

Norton was seen to call drawings of a short-haired woman in a jump suit a "lesbian" a number of times during a segment on patent applications.

Guest Ruth Jones commented you cannot tell someone's sexuality from their haircut, asking him: "What does a lesbian look like?"

Norton, who is openly gay himself, replied: "That."

The BBC watchdogs ruled this was sufficient to earn Norton a ticking off.

In the ruling statement, they said: "Although the initial references might have been inoffensive if considered on their own, they prompted an exchange with one of the programme's guests which gave the references the appearance of perpetuating or reinforcing a potentially offensive stereotype.

"The programme team were reminded of the need to avoid any possibility of being seen to endorse offensive sexual stereotypes."

The move is likely to consolidate concerns that the BBC has become terrified to offend since the 'Sachsgate' scandal of 2008, in which Russell Brand lost his job and Jonathan Ross was suspended for three months after making a crude phonecall to actor Andrew Sachs.

Just last week Channel 4 entertainment head Andrew Newman urged the BBC to "ignore" its "psychotic critics" and make comedy it felt appropriate.

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Jon Richardson is to take the host's chair for the pilot of a new Radio 4 panel show.

In the show, It's Debateable, Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Richardson will have to convince the audience that seemingly far-fetched or badly thought-out ideas are actually sensible.

The pilot will be recorded at the Drill Hall in central London next month and marks another step up in the broadcast world for the Lancashire-born comic, who currently presents The Jon Richardson Show on BBC 6 Music every Sunday between 10am and 1pm.

The show is being produced by Open Mike Productions, the sister company of Richardson's agents Off The Kerb.

The OCD-suffering comic was nominated for the main Edinburgh Comedy Award last month for his show This Guy At Night.

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Fock me! Jessica Alba is reported to be deep in talks with producers of the Meet The Fockers to play a role in the third installment of the successful film series.

The Hollywood Reporter claims Alba is in talks to play a sexy pharmaceuticals rep who drives the male cast, thought to definitely still include Ben Stiller, Bobby De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, crazy in 'Little Fockers'.

The story picks up with Gaylord Focker (Stiller) and Pamela Byrnes (Teri Polo) having just become parents to a new baby.

De Niro's Tribeca Productions are producing the film, scheduled to be released at the end of July 2010.

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Plenty of people watch Mock The Week just to see what Frankie Boyle says next.

Well, as tomorrow (1 October) you can hear a whole lot more from the nation's favourite black-hearted comedian with the release of his autobiography, My Shit Life So Far.

In the book, published by HarperCollins, Boyle doesn't shy away from any of the controversial observations which have propelled him to Mock The Week's number one draw as he takes the readers from his childhood in Pollockshaw in Glasgow ('a slap in the face of Childhood') through his time as an orderly in a mental home all the way to his still-recently acquired national fame.

You can still pre-order the book on a number of websites (for as little as £12.99), or just wait another 24 hours and pick up a copy from all good book retailers for £18.99.

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This week saw the annual Broadcast magazine Television Comedy Forum, where channel executives, comedians and writers rub shoulder and swap thoughts, and it was certainly a lively and interesting event. Here SSP runs through the day's main headlines...

• There were mixed messages from channel executives about 2010's comedy output. BBC One will be looking for fresh new shows, but admitted they might not necessarily be comedies. Channel 4 said is looking for comedy shows to help fill the 250 hour void left by the axing of Big Brother. ITV are hoping to commission new one-hour comedies and expect to sign more 'entertainment programmes' like Celebrity Juice (can we consider that a comedy?) and Comedy Central wants new 'glossy' comedy shows.
• Jimmy Carr defended the comedy panel show, asking caustically: "Why are there too many funny shows entertaining the public?" He also said shows like Mock The Week and 8 Out Of 10 Cats often gave emerging stand-ups their first television exposure.
• Channel 4 comedy and entertainment controller Andrew Newman urged the BBC to ignore its "psychotic" critics and continue producing comedy it felt was right. He said the Daily Mail had a "psychotic agenda" against them and wouldn't approve "whatever they do".
• Ben Miller revealed he and Alun Armstrong decided to drop the word 'gypsy' from a sketch in the Armstrong and Miller show after a meeting with BBC executives. He added he was concerned "[newspaper] copywriters are holding a sway over comedy" in the post-Sachsgate climate.
• Harry Enfield divulged that the new series of Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul has been relegated to BBC Two after the second series scored poor viewing figures. He said he didn't understand the decision but was happy on Two "because everyone says that's better for comedy anyways".
• BBC Vision director Jana Bennett called for new investment in TV comedy, saying the economic downturn had turned the genre into a "market failure".

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US comic Will Ferrell has starred in a mock appeal in aid of US private health insurers for US comedy site Funny Or Die.

The sketch, produced by liberal advocacy group Moveon.org, sees Ferrell and a host of others big-name US actors appealing for health insurance executives to stop being given a bad rap, saying "something terrible is happening".

The healthcare debate in America has been raging ever since President Obama announced efforts to reform some aspects of the privatised system. The video was released to add pressure to the argument for a public option.

Ferrell has long been a campaigner for liberal politics. While performing on US skit show Saturday Night Live where he first made his name in the late eighties, he infamously refused to meet former president George H. W. Bush on political grounds.

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Miss London, a twenty year-old student from the capital, has won the Funny Women's Award 2009 at the Comedy Store.

Judges said Miss London (real name Dionne Hughes) deserved the award for her "sharp, savvy black comedy [which] leaves no hostages".

She beat off competition from a strong field of young comediennes which included Eve Webster and character stand-up Jo Selby, who came second and third respectively.

Lynne Parker, founder of the Funny Woman's Awards said: "Dionne, Eve and Jo were the worthy winners as they raised the bar in terms of personal performances."

The charity awards ceremony is held annually with proceeds from this year going to V-Day: Until The Violence Stops, a worldwide campaign group against violence towards women.

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Simon Pegg has said Spaced will never return to our screens, ten years after it first aired on Channel 4.

He made the announcement via Twitter, in a message which read: 'Spaced premiered on Channel 4, ten years ago this month. Happy Daiz [sic] but there will be no more. Time to let it go.'

The cult show shot Pegg to fame, along with fellow cast members Jessica Hynes (then Stevenson) and Nick Frost.

Frost, Pegg and Spaced director Edgar Wright have since collaborated on the feature films Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, which were both huge commercial successes.

The news will come as a major disappointment to Spaced's legions of dedicated fans as speculation about new episodes has has abounded for years.

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Stand-up warfare may be about to erupt after veteran Stewart Lee accused Jack Whitehall of stealing one of his routines.

The claim, made about two weeks ago, revolves around a skit about the walking on the moon which Lee first performed years ago. He claims Whitehall's Edinburgh show used a very similar sketch.

Others also noticed the similarities, with one review in the Metro going as far as to say Whitehall had ripped off Lee's skit "almost verbatim".

Lee made the accusations on his website, in a section called Plagiarist's Corner. The section has since been taken down and the Youtube clip of Whitehall peforming the gag removed.

Whitehall has made a big impression on the stand-up circuit this year and was nominated for Best Newcomer at Edinburgh earlier this month. The show was also given an excellent review by SSP. He is most famous nationally for his role as presenter of Big Brother's Big Mouth.