huh?

The ubiquitous Alec Baldwin has apparently become a permanent staple of Turner Classic Movies' weekly The Essentials series, which he co-hosts with Turner's house expert, Robert Osborne, and where he makes facile quips with great authority and misguided confidence.

He often seems silly, never more so than after Saturday's screening of Charles Chaplin's 1931 silent gem "City Lights" - "a comedy romance in pantomime" - when he pronounced that Chaplin's modern heirs are two comic actors who have worked with Baldwin. Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller.

Say what?

Osborne looked stricken, with back arched as he clutched the arms of his chair in disbelief - and with an expression on his face resembling something out of an Edvard Munch painting. Much to his credit, the usually deferential Osborne did not let the ridiculous comment slide but actually challenged it.

Given Carrey's penchant for physical comedy, one could almost - almost - see his similarity to Chaplin. It's a stretch. It requires squinting your eyes.

But Ben Stiller! He's an urbane, funny performer, actually the polar opposite of Chaplin.

The sad fact is, there is no modern equivalent to Charlies Chaplin.

Movies have moved on, replacing his sophisticated simplicity with coarse simple-mindedness.

It's rather like comparing Alec Baldwin to ... Cary Grant.