Homina, Homina, Homina: Hugh Laurie

Special to me, cause I saw it the first weekend it was in theatres, and as best I can figure, was my first Hugh sighting. First Hugh sightings are always interesting things. I know I saw 101 Dalmations and Stuart Little when they first came out. We even own one of those little books that came with Stuart Little that tell the story through screenshots from the movie. And yet... had no clue that I was looking at greatness. Although, I must say, when going through Hugh withdrawal, that book is a fantastic read.

I'm only up to the 4th bailey, the Great Plains down to Mexico. When he's sitting in the Aspen ski lodge drinking hot chocolate while others are skiing, it reminded me of his descriptions of himself as a young student not participating in games but looking on from a distance. In some ways, the perennial outsider is our Stephen. But what a hoot he was, looking through the trucker store! Love that guy. Yeah, after a lifetime of dropping in on truckstops, it took someone like Stephen seeing it for the first time to really bring the absurdity of it home. I was trying to guess what he might choose to do in Kansas. I few options ran through my head, but I have to say, hanging out with the hippies in the de-regulated missile bunkers was not one of them. I very much enjoyed the theme from "North by Northwest" playing when Stephen visited Mount Rushmore. (Yet another destination this sad American has never made it to.)

First Hugh sightings are always interesting things. Hee! They are indeed! I'm apparently very thick because I've discovered Hugh any number of times: Wow that guy playing Wooster is hilarious! And very, very attractive. Hmmm. The guy playing the Prince is amazing! Love him! Cute in tights! Jasper is pretty charming and funny, love the beard! Stuart Little's dad is sure played by an interesting guy, very dry, very sweet! This Dr. House is an amazingly raw character, but kinda funny and deep. That actor looks a little familiar! And then OMG all the same guy! How could it be? Of course most of you knew it was the same guy all along, being all smarty pants and stuff, but it was kinda cool to realize a lot of my favorite actors were the same person! OK, that's enough exclamation points. Since you have probably caught my drift, I shall cease snowing.* *Not mine. PG Wodehouse. :-)

Oooh, are we sharing first Hugh sightings? I can remember watching a certain young Laurie in a cop uniform (no idea what they're called over there, sorry), watching it on PBS with my dad. I was either a senior in high school or a freshman in college. It took a heck of a lot to make my dad crack a smile, but I do remember him roaring with laughter over that episode. We watched a lot of British tv as I was growing up (small family connection...hard to explain). Monty Python was big in this house, as was Life of Brian, Time Travelers, ABoF&L and Mr. Bean.

Like you Boffle, I kept seeing him, but not knowing it was that guy again! Quite the chameleon, that Mr. Laurie is. carrie - The police are called "Bobbies".

But the true sign of Hugh nerd-dom is when you can go back and pick out his friends in things you couldn't before. For example... here's how I first found about House, if you must know. My senior year of high school I was on the Academic Decathlon team (because that's what all the cool kids do, of course). The theme for that year was the Renaissance, and for the literature portion of the Decathlon, we read two Shakespearean plays -- Antony & Cleopatra and Much Ado About Nothing. Well, to help study for these plays, we watched their respective films. I recommend Antony & Cleopatra to nobody, but I don't think anyone here would be surprised to learn that we quickly became obsessed with Much Ado. As in we watched it some 14 times in three months. One day, I become curious about the cute guy playing Claudio. I mean, I recognized Emma, Denzel, Keanu, Kate... but not that one guy. So I imdb the movie and then him... Robert Sean Leonard, okay. What's he doing now? Oh, this show called House. Huh, what channel is it on? Fox? Well, that's too bad. (I admit, not the brightest thought of my life) So flash forward three years, and here I am deep in the midst of Hugh love, and I go back to watch Much Ado. Here's my new reaction: "Imelda!! Phylidda!! OMG, it's Ben Elton!!!!!" Nerd.

Hee! Then I am truly a nerd as well, Chippers as my friends can attest when they hear sentences that start with "Stephen said" or "Hugh said" and their eyes glaze over. How much worse must it be for them when it's "Emma's mom is actually" or "That guy was also in Footlights with HL and was also in". It doesn't happen too often, I do try to maintain some semblance of control, but well, can't always help it. Which is why when I watch Harry Potter movies, I see all those people he has worked with and want him there too. (I mean if you can get Lenny Henry in, HL should be in them too.Right?) Oh and bailey excellent catch on the NxNW theme music: do you see Martin Landau in your head when you hear it?

Oh, I know! They should go completely off book and make Ms. Umbridge get married just to complete the Hugh/Imelda screwed-up-marriage trilogy. Which reminds me, am I the only person who, whilst watching Umbridge fire Professor Trelawney in Order of the Phoenix, can't help but think of that one scene in Peter's Friends, "But it was an overreaction."

First Hugh for me was probably Black Adder. But it might have been Jeeves & Wooster. I saw both in the early 90s. I had no idea that the guys from J&W were also in Black Adder. Then again, I didn't make the connection that The Prince and Lt. George were played by the same actor until later. (Not too bright, I know.) If I singled anyone in BA out, it was Rowan Atkinson. I watched Mr. Bean (hated it) and The Thin Blue Line because he was in them. I know I saw Sense & Sensibility in the theater because of Emma and Alan Rickman and thought that Mr. Palmer was sexier than Alan Rickman (no mean feat) and why didn't he have a bigger part. I also saw Peter's Friends on TV around that time and really liked it. So it must have been around 1995 that I finally put all the pieces together and figured out that Bertie, The Prince, Lt. George, Mr. Palmer and Roger were all the same actor and he was really talented and sexy (the later in the last 2 roles at least.) ETA: But House is what pushed me from "interested, keep an eye out for anything he's in other than Stuart Little" to

You want nerdy? How about this? Someone on Twitter mentioned the movie Link (1986), so I looked it up on IMDB. Just browsing through the names I came across cameraman Gayle Tattersall, now director of cinematography for House. Daryl Patterson, who did props on that movie also did props for a bunch of episodes of Jeeves & Wooster. Talk about six degrees of separation, or less. But the guy with the best job on that movie was Ray Berwick. He was the chimp dresser! Hee.

My first Hugh sighting was an ad for Blackadder when it was being shown on some long-gone cable channel. Must have been early 90s. I can't say I paid much attention to him, and I didn't watch the show because the ad made it look dumb. My first official sighting was in J and W, which caused me to seek out Blackadder and find out that *I* was the dumb one for not watching it sooner! Some time mid-90s, I discovered a photo from The Cellar Tapes in a copy of Time Out that I brought back from a trip to England in 1981. To think I was in London while it was playing there, and went to so many plays, and missed it. I could have seen Hugh at 22 in person. Oh well.

I remember seeing the music video for Annie Lennox - Walking On Broken Glass all the time when I watched a lot of VH1 in high school (mid to late 90's). Considering all the English comedy that I was already into it amazes me that I didn't see him in anything else until I started watching House earlier this year. I knew of Blackadder and Jeeves & Wooster and they were on my "ought to see at some point" list, but I hadn't gotten around to them yet. I guess I saw bits and pieces of the Stuart Little movies when my much younger brother was into them, but I didn't pay much attention so I didn't remember anything from them. Seeing the Broken Glass video again was my "ohhhh, THAT guy!" moment, which is always a fun thing to have. The funny thing is that I knew of Stephen Fry, first from his appearance on Whose Line (which I watched religiously on Comedy Central in high school), then from Bright Young Things and a thing he did with Penn & Teller. I finally gave in and watched House when I learned that Robert Sean Leonard was in it, because I had liked him in Dead Poets Society and Swing Kids. It seems like Hugh was just hovering right under my radar for years and years before House had to smack me over the head with his cane and say "HEY! PAY ATTENTION TO ME ALREADY!" Hundreds of dollars and dozens of DVDs later... LOL, I hope I've made up for my past ignorance. :oops:

I have watched ABoFAL when I was in my teens, and liked it, but Hugh did not really make that much of an impression on me. Then I saw Blackadder which, the last series especially, made me more aware of him. It was House which really got me addicted, and when I started reading up on Hugh I remembered mr. Palmer, and how surprised I had been then at seeing Hugh and finding him attractive. I had completely forgotten about that. I would love to watch J&W sometime, because that was never shown here, and is not available on DVD. I suppose I will finally buy it on Amazon this Christmas. I have been looking for the Stuart Little DVDs, for my children of course! No luck so far. And finally I am reading Stephen The Hippopotamus at the moment, which I suppose I would have done anyway, but my Hugh-thing makes it a different experience.

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