Ha, I bet you thought we could go one day without a Benedict Cumberbatch post. YOU WERE WRONG!! In my defense, today isn’t a crazy-busy gossip day and for the past month, whenever there’s a gossip lull, I do check out the Cumbernews to see if there’s anything worth covering. So let’s get to it! I missed this story yesterday but that didn’t stop dozens of Cumberladies from freaking out about these quotes:

Benedict Cumberbatch will have to work twice as hard to make his 2015 great. “The Imitation Game” star, 38, called his engagement to Sophie Hunter the biggest moment of his year.

“I’ve obviously had the most important news of my life as far as my life goes,” the “Sherlock” actor told The Sun at the British Independent Film Awards. “But that’s also sort of private, I don’t want to talk about that too much, but my engagement to the woman I love is obviously the most important thing of 2014 for me.”

[From Page Six]

Good lord. I mean, I guess we should stop bitching about it. We complained when he was vague about his feelings for Sophie and now we’re complaining when he gushes about “the woman I love.” I actually do think he’s trying to speak directly to his fans, like he’s saying “Seriously, I love this woman. It’s not just part of an Oscar campaign. I LOVE HER.”

Here’s another story I found… The Batch and the Curious Case of The Cumbergum.

He is hailed as the most suave actor of his generation and is the epitome of gentlemanly sophistication, as exemplified by his engagement announcement last month in the Times. But Benedict Cumberbatch threatened to lose all his kudos after becoming involved in a sticky situation at the Moet British Independent Film Awards on Sunday evening. Faced with a phalanx of television cameras on the red carpet, the actor panicked over how to dispose of a mangled piece of chewing gum he had just removed from his perfectly formed mouth.

‘Oh God, what do I do?’ he moaned as a throng of fans — known collectively as ‘Cumberbitches’ — made a lunge for it.

There was no sign of Benedict’s fiancée Sophie Hunter, who accompanied him to the ceremony, but deserted him in his hour of need. Fortunately one of the event organisers spared Cumberbatch further embarrassment by stepping forward with paper torn from a programme in which he wrapped the offending gum.

All offers of safe removal were then declined as Benedict popped it in his designer trouser pocket — yuk — no doubt depriving eBay of a lucrative sale of the heart-throb’s very own saliva. Such celebrity paraphernalia is not unprecedented on the auction site: in 2004 a piece of Britney Spears’ chewed gum went for £114.

While Benedict managed to discreetly dispose of the gum, etiquette expert Jean Broke-Smith believes he shouldn’t have been chewing it in the first place.
‘I think it’s really bad manners to chew gum,’ she tells me. ‘It’s like a dummy. If you really have to, don’t do it while you’ve got the public eye upon you.’

[From The Daily Mail]

My guess is that much like President Obama, Benedict probably chews Nicorette to help him with his cigarette cravings. Cumby recently said that he quit smoking this year, so despite some claims that it’s “bad manners,” chewing gum is a way that many former smokers deal with their issues. I’d rather see Benedict chewing Nicorette than smoking! As for his refusal to let the Cumberbitches get their hands on his gum… that’s a wise choice. They could get his DNA from the gum. They could figure out a way to clone him. Then we would have an army of Batches descending upon the land.

And finally, Benedict spoke about his casting as Marvel’s Doctor Strange. Bendy said he was “really excited” about playing Strange and “There’s a lot of work to be done and I’m just at the beginning so I don’t want to talk much about it, but it’s a thrilling gig to get. I just can’t wait. Very excited.” Meanwhile, The Daily Beast has an interesting article about the origin of Doctor Strange and whether or not the character is somewhat racist/culturally appropriating. You can read the piece here.

Photos courtesy of WENN.