Heard the one about Thandie, the Marmite and the Y-fronts?

Emine Saner
Thursday September 6, 2007
The Guardian
It turns out that Thandie Newton has more in common with Jeremy Beadle than you might at first suspect. While promoting her new film Run Fatboy Run this week, she revealed how she played a series of practical jokes on its star, Simon Pegg. "I put Cellophane over the loo," she reveals. Amateur! But she continues: "I got a king-sized Mars bar, squished it into a turd shape, left it in the loo in his trailer, and then got a pair of Y-fronts and rubbed Marmite skid marks and left that on the floor, so it looked like he'd done his business and left." Hilarious. Newton is 34.

Would it have been less surprising if the scatological prank had been performed by Pegg rather than the demure, poised Newton? There is no reason why women should not partake in practical jokes, but it is just as unfunny when they do. And it is usually men - from Candid Camera's 1940s star Allen Funt to Ashton Kutcher via Noel Edmonds, Beadle and other TV sociopaths. Let's not forget Rio Ferdinand's World Cup Wind-Ups, in which the footballer filmed "jokes" on Wayne Rooney (believing he'd killed a dog - priceless!) and David Beckham (a kidnap attempt - my sides!).