Hugh Grant dumbs down literary awards

For actor Hugh Grant, picking the winner of one of Britain's leading literary awards was as difficult as choosing who should land a top dog-show prize.

Grant, whose only literary claim to fame had been playing a bookseller in the movie Notting Hill, confessed that he felt like a student back at Oxford University when put under pressure to read the finalists for the Whitbread Book of the Year award.

Asked if he felt insulted by critics who argue it is dumbing down to choose celebrity judges for big literary awards, he said: "It is not insulting to me. I am very dumb, as everyone knows."