'I can handle Russell Brand'
Comedy awards: Backstage gossip
'I can handle Russell Brand'
Ramon Estrada
http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2008/12/07/7942/i_can_handle_russell_brand * A slightly worse-for-wear Alan Carr joked that he would like to donate his award for best comedy entertainment personality to Karen Matthews. 'I'm obsessed with her - I think she's a gay icon. Why? Well, people like a bit of rough don't they?' he said. Carr said he really didn't expect to pick up the award. 'Did you hear my speech?! When I won best stand-up last year, there was a whisper that it was me so I had a little something up my sleeve. But this was televised live so I look a complete twat!' Even if he had prepared a speech, it wouldn't have been anything controversial, he said. 'I'd have been talking about Matalan or something. I'm just happy to be here and not working in a call centre.' Asked where his Sunday Night Project partner Justin Lee Collins was, Carr explained he was tied up 'wrestling a transsexual Mexican wrestler for a Sky One show'. Future Sunday Night Project guests include Tom Jones, Catherine Tate and Simon Pegg, he said, plus there will be a Christmas Celebrity Ding Dong with Barbara Windsor and Joe Pasquale. 'It's very camp!' he added.