Hugh’s a Naughty Boy?

Hugh Grant is in a philosophical mood these days and the various interviews he's conducted for Bridget Jones have revealed his moodier side to the British Press. However this week's Heat Magazine obviously caught Hugh in a sparkier mood with the actor prepared to dish the dirt about being 40, dating actresses and working with Salman Rushdie. First up, the actor confirms rumours that the initial script for Bridget Jones didn't pass muster. 'It was just humdrum,' he says. 'I didn't think they'd managed to get the humour of the book on the page... It seemed a bit dreary.' It took the rewriting skills of Richard Curtis to persuade Grant to sign on. Once on, Hugh admits he was keen to look his best for the film and wasn't above putting one over on Colin Firth to get his way. 'One of the clever things I did... was to persuade the costume designer to have this designer make me five suits which I then nicked from the film. The result was that she had no money at all for the other characters. That's why Colin Firth is in a rather cheap suit.' Once begun, the production seems to have gone swimmingly, with one scene in particular standing out in Grant's mind. 'I got [Salman] to play my favourite game on boring party-scene days which is 'pick an extra' - you have to pick one extra to have sex with. He loved it. I've never known anyone take a game more seriously... We also played 'pick a crew member' and that's really hard with British crews.' Now that he's relatively newly single it seems that every tabloid in town wants to link Grant with a new woman, but the actor's pretty cagey about future prospects. 'I'm not crazy about going out with actresses,' he says. 'They're too mad, too neurotic.' And if it ever seems that fame will turn his head completely - Hugh always has his parents to fall back on - 'They live in that world where people don't give a toss about showbusiness.' Hugh explains. '[A dinner party guest] said to my mother, "I hear you have two sons." And she said; "Yes. One's a merchant banker and the other's a film star." And he said, "How very interesting. Which Bank?".'