QUOTING WITTGENSTEIN, IT’S AIRY-FAIRY FIRTH

SORRY, ladies, in real life Mr Firth is drearily earnest. For a start, there’s his quintessential luvvie-speak when talking about his work — or ‘art’, as he describes it.

In an interview, he once said: ‘I know this will sound incredibly airy-fairy as a reference, but [the philosopher] Wittgenstein said . . . ’ Other interviews are equally baffling.

Haven’t we come a long way since Peter O’Toole chirpily described his chosen profession as ‘farting about in costumes’.

Firth supports Fair Trade, Amnesty International and the rights of migrants in Britain. Appropriately, his character in Love Actually was a would-be novelist who falls for his Portuguese housekeeper.

Ensuring his environmental credentials are polished, he also became a partner in his wife Livia’s (pictured with Colin) eco consultancy business, Eco-Age, whose la-di-da motto is ‘Managing ethics and aesthetics’.

This grew out of the eco shop she used to run in Chiswick, West London — which once sold organic jeans starting at £95.

Firth once commissioned a telling scientific study when he was a guest editor on Radio 4’s Today programme. He said: ‘I decided to find out what was biologically wrong with people who don’t agree with me and see what scientists had to say about it and they actually came up with something.’

The study found that Conservatives are more motivated by ‘fear and anxiety’, while Liberals — nice people like Firth himself — are notable for having much greater ‘optimism and courage’.

Clever boy! LUVVIE RATING: 9/10