Editing Hugh Grant (section)

===2000–2009: Continued romantic comedy roles===
[[File:Hugh Grant Brussels '08.jpg|thumb|left|256x256px|Grant in [[Brussels]], October 2008]]
While promoting [[Woody Allen]]'s ''[[Small Time Crooks]]'' (2000) on NBC's ''[[Today (American TV program)|The Today Show]]'' in 2000, Grant told host [[Matt Lauer]], "It's my millennium of bastards".<ref>{{cite episode|series=[[Today (NBC program)|The Today Show]]|credits= Presenter: [[Matt Lauer]]|title=Hugh Grant discusses his new film, 'Small Time Crooks'|network=[[NBC]]|air-date=17 May 2000}}</ref> ''Small Time Crooks'' starred Grant, in the words of film critic [[Andrew Sarris]], as "a petty, petulant, faux-Pygmalion art dealer, David, [who] is one of the sleaziest and most unsympathetic characters Mr. Allen has ever created".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sarris|first=Andrew|author-link=Andrew Sarris|title =With Woody's Cookie Caper, Some Careers Could Cool Off|date=28 May 2000|access-date=29 September 2007|url=http://www.observer.com/node/42991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014230201/http://www.observer.com/node/42991|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 October 2007|work=[[The New York Observer]]}}</ref> In a role devoid of his comic attributes, ''The New York Times'' wrote: "Mr. Grant deftly imbues his character with exactly a perfect blend of charm and nasty calculation."<ref name="stc nyt">{{Cite news|last=Holden|first=Stephen|author-link= Stephen Holden|title=Film Review: Just Take the Money and Run? Nah, She Wants Class and Culcha|newspaper= The New York Times|date=20 May 2000|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C00E0DD143AF93AA25756C0A9669C8B63}}</ref> In 2000, Grant also joined the supervisory board of [[Intermedia (production company)|IM Internationalmedia AG]], the powerful [[Munich]]-based film and media company.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hugh Grant joins board of IM Internationalmedia AG|url=http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=50370|publisher=PR Newswire Europe Limited|date=8 May 2000|access-date=20 September 2007}}</ref> In 2001, his turn as a charming but womanising book publisher Daniel Cleaver in ''[[Bridget Jones's Diary (film)|Bridget Jones's Diary]]'' was proclaimed by ''Variety'' to be "as sly an overthrow of a star's polished posh – and nice – poster image as any comic turn in memory".<ref>{{cite news|title=Auds Prefer Grant Unattached|last=Robey|first=Tim|pages=A2–A4|work=Variety|date=16 December 2002}}</ref> The film, adapted from [[Helen Fielding]]'s novel of the same name, was an international hit, earning $281&nbsp;million worldwide.<ref name="box office"/> He was, according to ''The Washington Post'', fitting as "a cruel, manipulative cad, hiding behind the male god's countenance that he knows all too well".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Hunter|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Hunter|title=Chaos and Cads
|date=13 April 2001|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/entertainment/movies/reviews/bridgetjonessdiaryhunter.htm|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>

In 2002, Grant starred as the trust-funded womaniser, Will Freeman, in the film adaptation of [[Nick Hornby]]'s best-selling novel ''[[About a Boy (novel)|About a Boy]]''. The BBC thought Grant delivered an "immaculate comic performance",<ref>{{Cite news|last=Dawson|first=Tom|title=Film Review: About a Boy (2002)|work=[[BBC]]|date=22 April 2002|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/03/22/about_a_boy_2002_review.shtml}}</ref> and with an Academy Award-nominated screenplay, ''[[About a Boy (film)|About a Boy]]'' was determined by ''The Washington Post'' to be "that rare romantic comedy that dares to choose messiness over closure, prickly independence over fetishised coupledom, and honesty over typical Hollywood endings".<ref name="aab wp"/> ''Rolling Stone'' wrote, "The acid comedy of Grant's performance carries the film [and he] gives this pleasing heartbreaker the touch of gravity it needs",<ref>{{Cite news|first=Peter|last =Travers|author-link=Peter Travers|title=Reviews: About A Boy|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=6 June 2002|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5947699/review/5947700/about_a_boy|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071118004425/http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5947699/review/5947700/about_a_boy|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 November 2007|publisher=[[Rolling Stone Australia]]}}</ref> while Roger Ebert observed that "the Cary Grant department is understaffed, and Hugh Grant shows here that he is more than a star, he is a resource".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ebert|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|title=Movie Reviews: About A Boy|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|date=17 May 2002|access-date=29 September 2007|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020517/REVIEWS/205170301/1023|archive-date=29 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929110706/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20020517%2FREVIEWS%2F205170301%2F1023|url-status=dead}}</ref> Released a day after the blockbuster ''[[Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones]]'', ''About a Boy'' was a more modest box office grosser than other successful Grant films, making all of $129&nbsp;million globally.<ref name="box office"/> The film earned Grant his third Golden-Globe nomination, while the [[London Film Critics Circle]] named Grant its Best British Actor and ''[[GQ (magazine)|GQ]]'' honoured him as one of the magazine's men of the year 2002.<ref>{{cite news|title=''Hugh Grant'' Film Actor, Comedy|work=[[GQ (magazine)|GQ]]|page=325|date=November 2002}}</ref> "His performance can only be described as revelatory", wrote critic Ann Hornaday, adding that "Grant lends the shoals layer upon layer of desire, terror, ambivalence and self-awareness."<ref name="aab wp">{{Cite news|last=Hornaday|first=Ann|title='About a Boy': A Rake's Amusingly Slow Progress|date=17 May 2002|page=C01|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2002/05/17/AR2005033116336.html|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> ''[[The New York Observer]]'' concluded: "[The film] gets most of its laughs from the evolved expertise of Hugh Grant in playing characters that audiences enjoy seeing taken down a peg or two as a punishment for philandering and womanising and simply being too handsome for words-and with an English accent besides. In the end, the film comes over as a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sarris|first=Andrew|author-link=Andrew Sarris|title=Old Dog Loves New Trick, A Ploy for Seducing Singletons|newspaper=[[The New York Observer]]|date=26 May 2002|access-date=29 September 2007|url=http://www.observer.com/node/46050|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713001236/http://www.observer.com/node/46050|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 July 2007}}</ref>

[[File:Richard Curtis (26657630142).jpg|thumb|right|170px|Grant has starred in numerous [[Richard Curtis]] films including ''[[Love Actually]]'' (2003).]]

''About a Boy'' also marked a notable change in his boyish look. Now 41, he had lost weight and also abandoned his trademark floppy hair. ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'''s [[Owen Gleiberman]] took note of Grant's maturation in his review, saying he looked noticeably older and that it "looked good on him".<ref name="EWBoy">{{Cite news|last= Gleiberman|first=Owen|author-link=Owen Gleiberman|title=Review: About A Boy|newspaper=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|date=15 May 2002|access-date=7 December 2012|url=https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,237958,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070118014400/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,237958,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 January 2007}}</ref> He added that Grant's "pillowy cheeks are flatter and a bit drawn, and the eyes that used to peer with 'love me' cuteness now betray a shark's casual cunning. Everything about him is leaner and spikier (including his hair, which has been shorn and moussed into a Eurochic bed-head mess), but it's not just his surface that's more virile; the nervousness is gone, too. Hugh Grant has grown up, holding on to his lightness and witty cynicism but losing the stuttering sherry-club mannerisms that were once his signature. In doing so, he has blossomed into the rare actor who can play a silver-tongued sleaze with a hidden inner decency."<ref name=EWBoy/>

He was paired with [[Sandra Bullock]] in [[Warner Bros.]]'s ''[[Two Weeks Notice]]'' (2002), which made $199&nbsp;million internationally but received poor reviews.<ref name="box office"/> ''The Village Voice'' concluded that Grant's creation of a spoiled billionaire fronting a real estate business was "little more than a Britishism machine".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Park|first=Ed|title=Working Weak|newspaper=[[The Village Voice]]|date=25 December 2002|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0252,park,40780,20.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071210115738/http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0252%2Cpark%2C40780%2C20.html|archive-date=10 December 2007}}</ref> ''Two Weeks Notice'' was followed by the 2003 ensemble comedy, ''[[Love Actually]]'', headlined by Grant as the British [[Prime Minister]]. A Christmas release by Working Title Films, the film was promoted as "the ultimate romantic comedy" and accumulated $246&nbsp;million at the international box office.<ref name="box office"/> It marked the directorial debut of [[Richard Curtis]], who told ''[[The New York Times]]'' that Grant adamantly tempered the characterisation of the role to make his character more authoritative and less haplessly charming than earlier Curtis incarnations.<ref>{{cite news|first=Sara|last=Lyall|title=Four Comedies and a Collaboration|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06EFD71F31F931A35752C1A9659C8B63|work=The New York Times|date=3 November 2003|access-date=30 March 2008}}</ref> [[Roger Ebert]] claimed that "Grant has flowered into an absolutely splendid romantic comedian" and has "so much self-confidence that he plays the British prime minister as if he took the role to be a good sport".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ebert|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|title=Movie Reviews: Love Actually|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|date=7 November 2003|access-date=29 September 2007|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031107/REVIEWS/311070304/1023|archive-date=11 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011194857/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031107/REVIEWS/311070304/1023|url-status=dead}}</ref> Film critic [[Rex Reed]], on the contrary, called his performance "an oversexed bachelor spin on Tony Blair" as the star "flirted with himself in the paroxysm of self-love that has become his acting style".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Reed|first=Rex|author-link=Rex Reed|title=Lovesick Brits Ooze Treacle|newspaper=The New York Observer|date=9 November 2003|access-date=29 September 2007|url=http://www.observer.com/node/48296|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071123023004/http://www.observer.com/node/48296|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 November 2007|publisher=[[New York Observer]]}}</ref>

In 2004, he reprised his role as Daniel Cleaver for a small part in ''[[Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (film)|Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason]]'', which, like its predecessor, made more than $262&nbsp;million commercially.<ref name="box office"/> Gone from the screen for two years, Grant next re-teamed with [[Paul Weitz (filmmaker)|Paul Weitz]] (''About a Boy'') for the [[black comedy]] ''[[American Dreamz]]'' (2006). Grant starred as the acerbic host of an ''[[American Idol]]''-like reality show where, according to [[Caryn James]] of ''The New York Times'', "nothing is real ... except the black hole at the centre of the host's heart, as Mr. Grant takes Mr. Cowell's villainous act to its limit".<ref>{{Cite news|last=James|first=Caryn|title=Pop Beats Politics in the Race For Laughs|newspaper=The New York Times|date=26 April 2006|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E2D8123FF935A15757C0A9609C8B63}}</ref> ''American Dreamz'' failed financially but Grant was generously praised. He played his self-aggrandising character, an amalgam of [[Simon Cowell]] and [[Ryan Seacrest]], with smarmy self-loathing. ''The Boston Globe'' proposed that this "just may be the great comic role that has always eluded Hugh Grant",<ref>{{Cite news|last=Burr|first=Ty|title=American Dreamz Movie Review|newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]]|date=21 April 2006|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://www.boston.com/movies/display?display=movie&id=8601}}</ref> and critic Carina Chocano said, "He is twice as enjoyable as the preening bad guy as he was as the bumbling good guy."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Chocano|first=Carina|title=Movie Review: 'American Dreamz'|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=21 April 2006|url=http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/chocano/cl-et-americandreamz21apr21,0,5775553.story|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024032044/http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/chocano/cl-et-americandreamz21apr21%2C0%2C5775553.story|archive-date=24 October 2007}}</ref>

In 2007, he starred opposite [[Drew Barrymore]] in a parody of pop culture and the music industry called ''[[Music and Lyrics]]''. The [[Associated Press]] described it as "a weird little hybrid of a romantic comedy that's simultaneously too fluffy and not whimsical enough".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lemire|first=Christy|title=Review: 'Music and Lyrics' an Odd Combo|agency=Associated Press|date=13 February 2007|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/12/entertainment/e143605S25.DTL|work=San Francisco Chronicle|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231181347/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fn%2Fa%2F2007%2F02%2F12%2Fentertainment%2Fe143605S25.DTL|archive-date=31 December 2007}}</ref> Though he neither listens to music nor owns any CDs,<ref name="grants views"/> Grant learned to sing, play the piano, dance (a few mannered steps) and studied the mannerisms of prominent musicians to prepare for his role as a has-been pop singer, based loosely on [[Andrew Ridgeley]], member of 1980s pop duo [[Wham!]].<ref name="reluctant romeo"/> The film, with its revenues totalling $145&nbsp;million, allowed him to mock disposable pop stardom and fleeting celebrity through its washed-up lead character. According to the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', "Grant strikes precisely the right note with regard to Alex's career: He's too intelligent not to be a little embarrassed, but he's far too brazen to feel anything like shame."<ref>{{Cite news|last=LaSalle|first=Mike|title=When cute couple write pop songs, they may find love|newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|date=14 February 2007|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/REVIEW-When-cute-couple-write-pop-songs-they-2617670.php}}</ref> In 2009, he starred opposite [[Sarah Jessica Parker]] in the [[Marc Lawrence (filmmaker)|Marc Lawrence]]'s romantic comedy ''[[Did You Hear About the Morgans?]]'', which was a critical failure and box office disappointment.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=grantparker09.htm|title=Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009)|website=[[Box Office Mojo]]|access-date=28 January 2010}}</ref>