The Lowell Sun is presenting a surprisingly thuggy side to an unlikely target--British actor Ricky Gervais, who is making a movie there. Via Pax Arcana, we hear that Gervais did a video about the Sun.

In the video, Gervais comments on some lines in the Lowell paper about his upcoming movie: "LA meets LA--Lowell area, that is." Throughout the clip, Gervais' lip curls in a gesture of distate, and he catches a typo ("scoping" versus "scooping"):

The Lowell Sun responded, "In another video, he attacks assistant Jake with a Nerf gun. These guys must be dying to start shooting. We know we are."

Hence the thug-life element. "We know we are?" Has Gervais sparked a rumble with the good people of Lowell? Are they going to put a horsehead in his bed or light a flaming bag of dog doo in front of his hotel door? Pax Arcana is more generous and suggests the line may be the result of the "white-hot fire of their literary incompetence."

Now that movies have been shooting in Boston, this is the kind of fun we've been waiting for, an old fashioned Hollywood vs. Townie rumble. The Cheezus Crust Incident was nothing compared to how this could turn out.