Fully Farrell

Speaking to the Irish Voice on Tuesday about the unexpected Irish award Ferrell joked, "I've already lost it. No, I haven't. I've just misplaced it.

"Actually I was over in Ireland with my dad and my brother - the three of us had taken a trip in 2007 - and that time we explored parts of the country that we hadn't seen before. We always love going back to kick around. The James Joyce award happened when the kids at UCD took a wild stab and invited me, and since it turned out we were going to be there anyway we thought why not?"

Asked if he was an admirer of James Joyce's work Ferrell deadpanned, "I have always been a fan of his films like Titanic and Terminator. But I think they're always too long."

Seriously, Ferrell admits he was flattered to be asked by UCD to accept the honor, regardless of the fact that there was - he says - no reason to have selected him. On the trip he made an extended visit to Dublin, Connemara and Donegal and was so taken with it that he vows to return again later this year.

At the UCD ceremony, to which he wore a full Irish rugby kit, Ferrell delighted the audience by telling them, "In my library at home, when I peruse my leather bound volumes of Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a lot of feelings ran across my mind. Like, 'Damn, I should have read these books,'" he joked.

At the Ritz Carlton on Central Park West this week for interviews to promote Semi-Pro, a wall of paparazzi stood waiting to catch a glimpse of Ferrell's arrival with his co-stars Woody Harrelson and Andre Benjamin.

Camped out on the red carpet, the photographers shivered in the frigid February air as they waited for the stars to arrive. Inside the legendary hotel a crew of handlers stage-managed the event seamlessly.

Semi-Pro, the hilarious and surprisingly sweet natured new comedy, is set in the early 1970's, when there were two basketball leagues in America. The NBA ruled the professional sport, and the ABA defined its outlaw flair and sensational showmanship.

In the new comedy Ferrell plays the one hit wonder Jackie Moon, the singing sensation behind "Love Me Sexy," the hilariously pornographic track that Barry White never recorded.

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Nster.com