Hugh Laurie hits pay jackpot with House"   Posted by: "Cyane"
cyane12@... northernlightspaintedsky   Date: Fri Jul 21, 2006
2:36 pm (PDT)
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1821108,00.html?gusrc=rss
Hugh Laurie hits pay jackpot with House
Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Saturday July 15, 2006
The Guardian
Hugh Laurie, still best known in the UK for playing characters with
quintessentially English reserve, has been less than retiring when
renegotiating his pay deal to play Dr Gregory House, the eponymous star
of the blockbuster US TV drama.
His acclaimed portrayal of the misanthropic but brilliant doctor will be
rewarded with a new deal worth a reported $300,000 (Ł163,000) an
episode when the programme returns to US screens for a third season this
year.
The deal catapults the man who fell into acting by accident while at
Cambridge into the US TV premier league. When he landed the role he was
estimated to be receiving "in the mid-five figures" for each episode.
The role earned him a Golden Globe but he surprisingly missed out on an
Emmy nomination this month.
He still has some way to go to match Jane Leeves, the British actor who
played Daphne Moon in the long-running comedy Frasier. She was getting
$440,000 an episode by the time the series ended.
Since its debut last year, House has consistently rated among the top 10
shows on US TV and has been a critical and ratings hit. It was broadcast
in the UK by digital channel Living and Five. Laurie's performance was
lauded as "perilously close to perfection" by the Washington Post.
In contrast to Bertie Wooster's genial bumbling or his shambling comic
turns alongside Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder, Dr House is a hardbitten
doctor who leads a team of medics investigating cases no one else can
cure.
His longtime acting partner Stephen Fry said of his role. "One of Hugh's
great achievements as Gregory House is that you really believe how smart
this character is."