Comedian mistaken for Ben Stiller by hotel

(L-R) Ben Miller and Ben Stiller. The identity mix-up took place at the Cannes Film Festival. Photo / Getty Images

He's a star in his own right but not quite an internationally-renowned Hollywood actor.

However, Death in Paradise actor Ben Miller ended up staying in a "lavish" five star hotel after he was mistaken for the very similarly-named Ben Stiller at the Cannes Film Festival.

Miller, who is best known as one half of comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, was allocated the room intended for the Zoolander and There's Something About Mary actor - and stayed in it for three days.

The hilarious mix-up was revealed to Alan Davies during filming for the next series of his chat show on the comedy channel Dave.

Davies said: "He went to the Cannes Film Festival, he was involved in a movie, he got met, he got taken to a hotel and he had been mistaken for Ben Stiller.

"He got shown into Ben Stiller's suite which had a lavish smorgasbord of culinary delights from around the world and mountains of champagne and all that, realised the mistake and invited all his friends that were there and stayed in the suite for three days.

"When Ben Stiller eventually turned up, the hotel were too embarrassed to throw Ben Miller out."

The Miller-Stiller incident is not the first case of a celebrity identity mix-up.

Meryl Streep has previously said is often confused with Glenn Close. Streep was reportedly given freebies by a store in Los Angeles when she was pregnant with her last child - before being told she was great in Fatal Attraction.

And Daniel Radcliffe said he was once asked by a Japanese fan to sign a picture of Elijah Wood. He told GQ magazine: "I couldn't say it in Japanese so I wrote, 'I'm not Elijah Wood but thanks anyway, Daniel Radcliffe'."

- Independent