THE clock is ticking down in Johnny Vegas's Comic Relief auction for a Russell Crowe-inspired t-shirt - and the St Helens funnyman appears to be encouraging the Hollywood superstar to make a late bid of his own.

Vegas wore the top on last week's Graham Norton show to mark Crowe's visit to St Helens to watch the South Sydney team he co-owns play at Langtree Park, rather than attending the Oscars.

A headline which appeared in the Daily Mirror, which read 'The Oscars? Nah, I'd rather be in St Helens!', went down a storm in the town in the build-up to the game.

Vegas who labelled it his favourite headline of all time before duly having a t-shirt made sporting those words.

Vegas informed his Twitter followers that the top would be auctioned on eBay and Crowe later retweeted the message to his 1.69million followers. He also retweeted updates on how the bids were progressing.

With just hours left to bid, Vegas appeared to give the Gladiator a nudge to make a bid of his own.

He wrote this morning: "Surely @russellcrowe this was always destined for your wardrobe. Not long left...@rednoseday"