Ben Stiller must have known when he wrote and directed his upcoming comedy Tropic Thunder that a storm of backlash/boycott could result. Now, after months of online viral marketing for the war film-within-a-film Hollywood spoof, and just days before its release, enough people have seen it to mobilize an offensive of their own. Disability groups, including the National Down Syndrome Congress and the American Association of People with Disabilities, want to lighten Ben Stiller's pockets.

The U.K.’s leading comedian Steve Coogan takes Hollywood by thunderous storm. Here, a cock and bull story about his rise to the top.

"My career is so important. I’m being ironic. Can you put that in quotes: ‘He said, ironically?’” Lacerating the celebrity interview while in the middle of one, Steve Coogan deftly turns irony into art like a chef demonstrating knife skills. In person and in his roles, this British comedic icon has mastered telling the truth yet making it sound like a lie, and vice versa; his laughs stem from the audience nervously trying to figure out which is which. Likewise, he may be the most important English comedy export since Peter Sellers -- and often as star-crossed and complex.

The early noughties were kind to comedian Ben Stiller. He milked cats with Robert De Niro, struck blue steel opposite Will Ferrell in Zoolander, and wore a heavily imitated red tracksuit in one of the best films of 2001. But then there were flops, so many flops, that seemed to position Stiller as, well, an unfunny funnyman. Along came Envy, Polly, and Duplex. There was an abysmal night spent in the museum with Robin Williams. But then Stiller pulled together a husky Tom Cruise, a beminstreled Robert Downey Jr., and a cast of greats to star in the hilarious Tropic Thunder, out later this summer. Then word came today that he would star opposite Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon in an untitled romantic comedy directed by Cameron Crowe. We're still a little worried, however, because Stiller, when things aren't looking so good laughs-wise, tends to retreat into sequels and animated fare. Up next for him? Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian and the pixellated Monsters vs. Aliens. And, as Stiller once said, you can milk almost anything.