Benedict Cumberbatch has an ‘impressive collection’ of toy birds & bird cages

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This is easily one of the funniest Benedict Cumberbatch stories ever. It’s just really, really random. Which means that I sort of believe it. It’s now pretty much confirmed that Benedict and Sophie bought a new townhouse in London for £2.7 million. Some of the Cumberbitches believe that the townhouse isn’t really big enough for a whole Cumberbrood, and that Benedict will still be keeping his bachelor pad (which he had previously shared with his long-time girlfriend Olivia). The theory was that Sophie made him buy a new place because she didn’t want to live in the same place he had lived with Olivia. But what if Sophie just wanted to find a way to get Benedict to edit his massive collection of bird paraphernalia?

When Benedict Cumberbatch and his heavily pregnant wife Sophie Hunter move into their new house in North London, they may find their biggest obstacle is not logistics, but the meaning of the word ‘nesting’.

Because while theatre director Sophie, 37, is no doubt keen to adapt their £2.7 million property to family life, the 38-year-old Sherlock star will also be planning for another arrival.

I hear he has a secret fascination with birds — the winged variety, of course — and plans to transfer the impressive collection of toy birds and gold bird cages that he has amassed in his Hampstead bachelor pad.

[From The Daily Mail]

Granted, a bird fascination isn’t as funny as a fascination with otters. Or lizards. Or aliens. Or whatever else you want to call Benedict. Is Benedict a closeted bird-obsessive? Is that a dealbreaker? The thing is… of all of the obsessions and interests to have, I kind of think this is harmless. So he digs toy birds and bird cages. It’s a thing. And it’s sort of cute. But I can imagine Sophie is trying to get rid of all that stuff. It doesn’t go with her amazing, operatic, intellectual artiste lifestyle.

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Photos courtesy of WENN.

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65 Responses to “Benedict Cumberbatch has an ‘impressive collection’ of toy birds & bird cages”

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  1. Lindy79 says:

    HAHAHA

    Where does stuff like this even come from??

  2. Sixer says:

    What’s he been doing? Running round London nicking all the little wooden cuckoos out of clocks? Who sells toy BIRDS?

    ETA: Oh my lordy lordy lordy. I want it to be these ones: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2488400.htm. Look: “they sing, chirp and tweet! When the bird is very happy, it will whistle a special tune. Speak to the Little Live Pets Bird to hear it tweet back to you”.

    Please, please, let it be Little Live Pets birds!

    ETA x 2: You can buy cages for them! Ha. Henceforth, I shall only refer to Benny as the Little Live Pets Lover.

  3. Kiddo says:

    She looks like she is about to barf in every photo.

  4. PunkyMomma says:

    FINALLY! The missing link between the Cumberbatches and Almalooneys:
    Porcelain Cockatoos!

  5. Miss Jupitero says:

    I’ll take this over the Duggars or various TV rape scenes any day. Bring on the birds….

    There are videos on line of singing toy birds. Pretty demented.

  6. kri says:

    She needs to drop that thun-thun already. Must be exhausting

  7. GingerCrunch says:

    I have to laugh at this as I also have a collection. Who’d a thunk it? But mine are all lovely vintage creatures and I stopped when I filled one bird cage. Random is right. But it is fun collecting, especially if you travel.

    • Lola says:

      So, your bird collection is more like birds from the world? -I’m not messing, just curious, I don’t tend to buy things when I travel. –

      • GingerCrunch says:

        Small, old decorative birds I’ve found mostly at estate sales and thrift shops. They look pretty cool in the banged-up cage they’re in!

        When I travel I LOVE a good thrift shop excursion.

      • Lola says:

        So they have a story. Cool.

  8. Mieke says:

    Just wow.

    Do we already know the brand of toilet paper they will be using there? And what kind of nappies? I mean bamboo is really wonderful if you don’t want to go for disposables. Just saying.

  9. Tiffany says:

    So I watched Ken Burns Prohibition over the weekend and I discovered Benny’s doppelganger, legal scholar Noel Feldman. Look him up and prepare to be amazed.

  10. Beth says:

    As random and comic as this story is, I find Kaiser’s choice of photos even funnier. 😀

  11. InvaderTak says:

    Well at least people know what to get him for Christmas.

  12. JLo says:

    If she hasn’t popped yet, does this mean she didn’t get pregnant straight away when they began dating, as everyone assumed? I can’t recall the speculated timeline.

    • Lurker says:

      I was coming here to say the same thing. It’s now June and everyone was saying she was due in April (of course because she trapped him). Interesting…if she was due today, that means she got pregnant in early September.

      • Timbuktu says:

        Um, no, not really, I had a baby on May 30, and I got pregnant in early August.

      • Lurker says:

        I was just using a calculator online. Clearly due dates can be way off. However, the claptrap about her being due in April was wrong.

      • NUTBALLS says:

        She’s past her due date if it was indeed around the 23rd as was reported, but still within the 42 week window before inducement or C-section would be scheduled.

        Perhaps she’s given birth and they haven’t announced it yet. Keira managed to have her baby without anyone knowing about it until she started walking out and about with her newborn.

      • Kate says:

        It’s possible she’s already had the baby. They won’t be able to hide it forever, between records and wanting to leave your house, but I wish them good luck!

  13. Mia4S says:

    This is hilarious! I must say if this is the most story the Daily Fail can make up….err…come up with? He must overall be a pretty decent guy. And possibly a bit dull..bless. 😉

  14. Johnboy says:

    They were dating for months (since early 2014, maybe 2013) before the relationship started to become public last summer. It’s only the stans who can’t deal with Cumberbatch having a relationship who insist that his wife must have somehow sprung into existence the first time she was publicly named as his girlfriend and not a minute earlier.

    • Absolutely says:

      Ha. I wonder if all those other chicks he was pictured with knew he was in a relationship? It just must have been uber, uber, uber private. Like the lemon sorbet filled wedding.

    • Phoebe says:

      In early 2014, and therefore certainly in 2013, she was living in NYC and he was seen with various women so Absolutely is absolutely right. Maybe he was secretly flying to NYC in his invisible uber private jet he bought for privacy? Miss shy flower didn’t want to go with him to the Met Ball in May 2014 because…why? He had lunch the next day with a young starlet and not her because of secrets?

      I’m sure a psychiatrist could have a field day on why a grown man like Benedict would collect toy birds and birdcages…

    • Gwendy says:

      Lady Kinvara and the various blondes he was seen with until Summer 2014 would certainly disagree with you.

      • EN says:

        Oh, do we have to drag this out again? BC did spend quite a lot of time in the US in 2014-2014. So, nobody knows.
        As for Kinvara, I don’t think she was anything given that he wanted children badly.

        The bottom line is, he married SH and that is that. Man and wife are the same devil as they say in Russia. You judge one, you judge the other. If you think SH is so bad then BC is too.

      • cheryl says:

        Man and wife are the same devil…I really think that’s an amazing saying…have never heard it!

      • Phoebe says:

        @EN- Seriously? Are you implying that a man and woman don’t have their own identities and personalities anymore after they get married? If a husband cheats on his wife, she is at fault too? I can’t judge SH as seeming cold and distant separate from BC? Sure, he married her, that doesn’t mean he IS HER. That’s messed up, dude. Rethink your philosophies.

      • NUTBALLS says:

        I took it more to mean something akin to the meaning of the saying “water seeks its own level”. If people criticize one, they’re basically criticizing the other for choosing to be associated with said person.

      • Jill says:

        Probably, Nutballs (Ha!). That’s an iffy one too. Not that I have anything against her, but I married my near polar opposite. Challenging sometimes but a lot of fun 😉

      • NUTBALLS says:

        Jill, no way in a million years would I want to live with someone with my personality profile! Opposites have a way of helping each other toward a balanced middle. My huz has strengths I don’t have and vice versa, but we still roll our eyes at each other after nearly 11 years together. I get what your saying. What I meant was what people see as character flaws. Some are convinced SH has plenty, despite having no personal experience of knowing her. Impressions, good or bad, are not necessarily what’s true about someone. Even if the worst things speculated were correct (which I doubt), it says just as much about BC for choosing her as it does about her.

        I’ve come full circle in thinking they seemed like a good match, wondering what the hell is going on with the way he talked about her and the way they acted publicly to returning to my original opinion that they’re probably a good match and may even stay together more than a few years.

  15. Lola says:

    Do we know if the birds have names? Can you imagine, naming birds with the names of play writes, authors? For some reason, I would so believe that.

    • EN says:

      That would be hilarious – Mr. Bernanrd Shaw and Mr. Hemingway and Mrs. Agatha Christie and Billy Shakespeare.
      You could tell a lot about the person by the names.

  16. EN says:

    People call him lizard and otter but he actually likes birds. BC is so misunderstood, lol.
    I personally think it is charming, if it is true.
    My dad collects bells. And you would never be able to tell if you didn’t know.

    • Chica says:

      They only call him Lizard and Otter bc those are creatures he resembles.

      • EN says:

        Well, I know but I actually don’t think he does. Maybe people should investigate the birds kingdom for look alikes?

        I personally think BC resembles a dolphin, he has the same playful innocence about him.

    • Green Girl says:

      “My dad collects bells. And you would never be able to tell if you didn’t know. ”

      Thank you for the chuckle! I am now going to look at everyone I meet and think “I bet he collects….toy lambs!” or “She looks like a pottery collector to me!”

  17. kukoo kardas says:

    What a creep. Cages and birds don’t mix!

  18. chaine says:

    his facial expression in the picture says, “who is this woman, and is there an alien about to rip its way out of her tummy? I better stay a safe distance back.”

  19. Lilacflowers says:

    Well, this gives a whole new spin to his comments about “nesting.”

  20. Abby_J says:

    I think it is perfectly fine if he wants to collect birds and cages, and I still wish them both well.

    That said, all I can think of is a specific Criminal Minds episode this past season involving a guy who was obsessed with birds. One of the most creepy episodes of the season, and that is saying something. 🙂

  21. seesittellsit says:

    Oh. Well, maybe Hunter really is a beard, then.

  22. K says:

    When I clicked onto Page 2, all I could see of this story at first was, “Benedict Cumberbatch has an ‘impressive …”.

    Scrolling down didn’t make the story any less weird than anticipated, really. Just more SFW.

  23. Green Girl says:

    I think the collection sounds adorable, but I wouldn’t want to live in a house filled with the stuff, either.

    I have a friend who has a collection of giraffes. They’re on coffee mugs, clocks, a blanket, you name it. She hasn’t bought any pieces of her collection on her own. It started as a joke, and then everyone just sort of kept buying things for her.

    • NUTBALLS says:

      I know people that have made a casual comment about liking something (frogs, lighthouses, eggplants) and people get them something related to it for every birthday and Christmas. Next thing you know they look like a candidate for “Hoarders: Kitschy Gifts Edition”.

  24. cailin_dana says:

    He’s going to be inundated with bird gifts now lol