First The Beckhams, Now This. Brit Comedy "Geniuses" Hate America.

I thought the Revolution gave us the right to steal British sitcom ideas without remorse."The Office" is one of my favorite shows - you understand I mean the American version, right? I didn't even mind when Ricky Gervais, creator of the Brit version, got himself an HBO show and even wrote himself a part on "The Simpsons." But now he's in the middle of a trans-Atlantic pissing match with one of our local papers up here in Massachusetts. He's coming to Lowell to shoot a movie, but he mocked the paper's mildly starstruck item about his plans via videoblog before he even arrived to shoot his new movie. Way to warm up the locals, dude. The folks were all excited that their town is going to be a movie location, with stars like Jennifer Garner in the streets. They were even excited that you were coming. Now, maybe not so much. I thought the British were supposed to be gracious, reserved people. (Alas, the video's not imbeddable.)

Meanwhile, Simon Pegg, Brit star of "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead," is pissed off that his Brit-sitcom "Spaced" is being remade for American TV and that he and his director and co-star (different people) weren't even consulted. A flagrant snub, sez Pegg. Referring to Variety magazine's summary of the show 'Single-cam half-hour revolves around a young man and woman who pose as a couple in order to rent a cheap apartment', (Director David Wright) adds: 'It pains me to see it reduced to this.' All the time I've spent around TV people, there's still nothing funnier than sitcom creators whining about their artistic integrity.