Not surprised, they seem to genuinely make each other happy;  Though I think his parents deserve an honorable mention.

There's Jon Stewart


as well as Youtubers, Jeremy Jahns and Christ Stuckmann.



 

Benedict must have felt beside himself in this round table, he was sitting next to one actor who also played Hawking and across from one who also played Sherlock. The other two actors played different versions on characters in TV shows or films that two of his buddies were in.  Steve Carell was in the US version of The Office-the orginal version had our dear Martin.  Michael Keaton, of course, was Batman.  Benedict's pal Tom Hardy was Bane....ok forget six degrees of Kevin Bacon, I wanna play six degrees of Benedict Cumberbatch.

part of the interview

It's pretty epic, in case any anyone hasn't seen it yet.  Some have questioned whether or not it actually was benedict in the interview, but the aftermath video pretty much confirms it was. 
http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/mfxigz/sign-off---aftermath-of-smaug

Some of the people crying white washing are justm parroting crap other people have said.  There is plenty of racism, sexism, homophobia, ect in this world.  There are plenty of bigots in this world (here in the USA claiming that they are "being persecuted for having a different opinion")  But Benedict has been someone who has consistently spoken out against (whether he was kidding or not, his suggestion about smoking out all of the bigots by making the next two Presidents be a woman and a gay man to smoke out the rest of the bigots was a great idea).  He performed a marriage for a same sex couple.  He's worked to help people with various afflictions.  He even expressed his less than favorable opinion of a certain name for his fans because he doesn't want to use a certain word to describe women.
With so many actual bigots in the world, people don't need to be slamming someone who is clearly the opposite of bigoted like the Batch.  He's a white guy who was cast as a white comic book character.  Sure they could have gone with someone not white and it would be fine, but it's certainly not a disaster that (should he take the part) he'll be great.  If he was a terrible white actor (like Tom Cruise or the cast of the Expendables) who got the part over someone who was a terrific actor who happened to be Hispanic, Oriental, ect then the calls of white washing and racism would be justified.
As far as those who parrot the demand for more diversity everytime they see another white character on screen, why don't they seek out and support films and TV shows that have characters who are not hetro male WASPs as the lead.  They exist, but unfortunately studios don't think there is a demand so the films get art house distribution with little publicity.  Why don't people try seeking out and promoting those films?  They could tweet and tumble links to the websites for the films and they dates they will come to various cities.  That would be showing that there is an actual

There are definately people I'd call "tabloid twits" who have done this to get personal attention-both entertainers and politicians, but most of the people I've seen do really seem to care.  Celebrities like Benedict, Hiddles, Fillion (even though he could have mentioned where people could donate for ALS research and help, as could Cookie Monster and some others, though their intentions were good), Kermit the Frog (the people who make the Muppets, Stan Lee, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Stewart, Ian Mckellan, Chris Pratt, Jimmy Fallon, Anthony Mackie, ect have all been involved in charitable causes for a long time.  I've even seen several personal friends and family members take this challenge and make donations.  There are a lot of good causes out there that a lot of people want to help with, sometimes there just needs to be focus.  This challenge brings focus by getting a lot of people involved, whether they're rich or poor and can't afford to pay for a plate at a black tie fund raiser.  Plenty of people have fun raising money for charity.  People have gotten dunked in dunk tanks and gotten pies thrown at them to raise money for schools.  I used to do a 30 mile horseback ride every year to help children with disabilities.  People do walks for strays (dogs and cats) every years, as well as the March of Dimes, the Crop Walk, the Relay for life (to raise money for cancer research) and all kinds of 5k and 10ks to raise money to fight all kinds of afflictions people suffer.  Idol Gives Back (even though I started hating AI years ago) raised millions to help people in impoverished areas, and there's the Jerry Lewis Telethon to raise money for MD every year.   Getting Lou Gehrig[b]'s disease would be horrible because people lose the ability to move and communicate in any way before it claims their lives.  No one should go through that, so if thise challenge continues until

Great Lakes area.  The Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicago, Comics, ect.

I read it somewhere in one of the articles related to this http://www.contactmusic.com/story/benedict-cumberbatch-shares-notes-with-robert-downey-jr_4033558
but haven't seen anything official.

John needed to be angry at Sherlock for a while, of course he would have "gotten back" with him because they have a very strong friendship.  When he was angry at Sherlock in the scenes following the revelation, he seemed to want Sherlock to simply acknowledge the emotional trauma he (John) had been through.  Sherlock did acknowledge it on the underground tube (which John instantly forgives him, even though he is a bit angry that Sherlock had faked the danger they were in) and Sherlock again acknowledges in during the Best man speech (I hope by now the original poster has seen So3)  He did seem to have a few cuts and scrapes on his face when he goes to see Sherlock at 221B.