Un-bearable role for Grant

Before signing on to star in ''Did You Hear About the Morgans?'' (opening today), Hugh Grant and Jessica Parker decided to pull a fast one on Marc Lawrence, the film's writer and director.

''This still makes me laugh, even after all this time," Grant said, calling from New York.






'While Sarah and I knew and liked each other, we had decided we really should have dinner -- just to confirm what I pretty much already knew: That we could do that comedy Ping-Pong thing you need for a film like this.''






So, even though the dinner went ''swimmingly,'' as Grant put it, the duo e-mailed Lawrence separately, ''teasing Marc -- and a few others in Hollywood -- saying the dinner had been a disaster, that I got drunk and rude, made racist comments and even tried to sexually molest Sarah Jessica!''






For Grant, the amazing thing was ''they all believed it! These are people who have known me for years; you'd think they would have gotten the joke!''






That said, the actor claimed he was amused by one aspect of that dinner. ''Even though Sarah and I had worked together a few years ago, she pretended she didn't remember it.






''Maybe it was because I was also a producer on the film and under a lot of pressure on that one -- plus we really didn't spend much time together on that,'' Grant said about filming the thriller ''Extreme Measures.''






Making ''Did You Hear About the Morgans?'' was very different for the Englishman. ''I had never really spent much time -- at all -- in the real American West, so that was a new experience for me.''






While much of the movie is set in Wyoming, the filming actually took place near Santa Fe, N.M., ''which certainly qualifies as the West,'' Grant said.