Here's how the thieves almost got away with £200,000 from his bank account: They created a fake passport in Gervais' name.

Gervais said that he was phoned first by concerned bank staff and later visited by police after the crooks were caught trying to convert his cash into gold.

"How did they think they were going to get away with it?" Gervais asked the officer?

"He said, 'They normally get a passport from either a dead man or steal one and replace it with your details and your picture.' The CID man started smirking, so I went, 'What?' And he showed me this passport.

"I tell you what, we were laughing for ten minutes. All they did was cut out the picture on the first series of 'The Office' DVD! So it's a picture of David Brent sitting at a desk with that little smug look on his face!"

Tattbits

* Their respective reps are denying it, but Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal are reportedly calling it quits.

Showbiz.spy.com said that a Gyllenhaal assistant was seen removing the star's luggage from Witherspoon's house.

So either Gyllenhaal needs some clothes or Witherspoon has been hit by a very clever burglar.

* Kelsey Grammer is coming out of

the closet.

Following back-to-back TV flops after the smash successes of "Cheers" and "Frasier," Grammer is set to star on Broadway this spring in "La Cage aux Folles."

Producer Sonia Friedman says that a revival of the 1983 Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical will open April 18 at the Longacre Theatre. It's based on the current hit London production and will feature that show's British star, Douglas Hodge. The director is Terry Johnson.

"La Cage" concerns the loving relationship between a nightclub owner (Grammer) and its drag star (Hodge).

* Stephenie Meyer's publisher, the Hachette Group, is the latest book company to announce a broad range of environmental goals. The new policy features promises to cut greenhouse- gas emissions by 20 percent by the end of the next decade and, by 2012, to increase tenfold - to 30 percent - the amount of recycled fiber.

"It is imperative that our industry be mindful of our impact on the planet, and we believe that our progressive policy will encourage other publishers to be equally focused on these important issues," Hachette CEO David Young said yesterday in a statement.

According to

Hachette and the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit that consults with publishers on the environment, Hachette's plan will save more than 267,000 trees.

A year? Forever?

No matter. The current poor market for books will save a lot more trees than that.

* Chelsea Clinton, the 29-year-old daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, has become engaged to her longtime, locally tied boyfriend, investment banker Marc Mezvinsky.

The couple sent an e-mail to friends Friday announcing the news. They said that they were looking at a possible wedding in the summer. Matt McKenna, a spokesman for the former president, confirmed the engagement yesterday.

Mezvinsky is a son of former congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who represented parts of Northeast Philadelphia and Montgomery County in the 13th district, and former Iowa Rep. Ed Mezvinsky, longtime friends of the Clintons. Ed Mezvinsky was released from federal prison last year after serving time for bank and wire fraud.

Chelsea and Marc became friends as teenagers in Washington and both attended Stanford. They now live in New York, where he works at G3 Capital, a Manhattan hedge fund, and she attends graduate school at Columbia University's School of Public Health.

Marc is Jewish. Chelsea grew up attending Methodist Church with her mother. Bill Clinton is Southern Baptist.

* With all the fuss over the Tiger Woods car accident, not much play was given to the fender bender involving Hulk Hogan's son, Nick Hogan.

Nick, you may recall, was previously involved in a car accident that left his best friend in need of 24-hour medical care.

This time, there were no injuries.

TMZ.com reports - and we're not making this up - that Nick was returning home from a charity event to raise money for an organization that teaches safe driving.

* Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes offer up another reason why Tattle is for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken too seriously.

In Touch Weekly (Dec. 7, 2009): "Katie Moves Out: After Tom Embarrasses Katie in Front of Her Co-Stars, a Heated Argument Ends with Katie Packing Her Bags."

OK! (Dec. 7, 2009): "Tom & Katie: We've Never been Happier."

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

E-mail gensleh@phillynews.com