I have a love/hate relationship with TMZ. I watch it a lot because they’re funny, but I also think what they do is a bit weasly. One of my justifications to the wife on why I have it on, is because they sometimes show celebrities signing autographs, and it might possibly be fodder for one of these blogs. A perfect example of that was with actor Tom Hardy yesterday. He’s one of the most interesting actors working today; his list of movies include Locke, Mad Max, The Drop, This Means War, Legend, Revenant, Dark Knight Rises, Inception, and my favorite of the bunch -- Bronson.

What I found interesting about him signing autographs with fans (errrr….autograph dealers), is how happy and upbeat he was. You see, when he does the press junkets for his latest movies, he’s been notoriously grumpy. He’s made some reporters wait for hours. He’s often refused to answer questions (even when they’re not bad questions). It’s like pulling teeth. So to see him with the crowd, laughing, and being playfull...was something surprising.

The TMZ “reporter” asked him if anybody has ever told him that his autograph looks like a penis. Hardy smiled and said, “You have!” He then said, “You need to see a doctor.”

As another person ran over with a hat for him to autograph, the reporter said, “Draw a penis on it!”

He did his usual signature, but perhaps made it a bit more phallic to appease the guy.

It was a weird observation from the guy at TMZ.

A few times I had gotten Michael Jordan’s autograph (he was never friendly about it), and it was always just two big initials. One of those times, he wrote his huge “M.J.” over Dominique Wilkins, which kind of bumbed me out. Later, I was talking to a well-known sportscaster who told me Jordan told him, that he always makes the “M.J.” look like his number “23.” That reminded me of how The Simpson’s creator would make his initials “M.G” look like the ear and hair of Homer Simpson.

So, people have been known to do things like that, but I seriously doubt Hardy ever purposely tried to make his signature look like a penis, and what looked like one….was the TMZ reporter bringing that up, simply because he had nothing more creative to say.