No ban on awards host Ricky Gervais from future shows following insults

British comedian Ricky Gervais' representative has said that the star has not been banned from hosting future award shows despite him dishing out insults at the Golden Globe Awards 2011.

Gervais, 49, had disappeared for sometime during the second half of the show, and rumours started that the Hollywood Foreign Press had chastised him for insulting many A-listers in the audience.

But his representative said the rumours were "utter rubbish" fuelled by "Twitter speculation", and Gervais himself reported the mood backstage was "great" and his extended time off-camera was nothing unusual.

"I did every single introduction I was meant to. There just happened to be a long gap," the New York Daily News quoted Gervais as writing in an email.

"This is because I was allowed to choose who I would introduce in advance. I obviously chose presenters who I had the best jokes for. (And who I knew had a good sense of humour).

"Everyone took it well and the atmosphere backstage and at the after show was great," he wrote.

A rep for HFPA confirmed that there was no truth to the rumours that they had chastised the host during the show and that his time on stage "was not altered one iota".