Toby Young's book "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" is one of the most annoying memoirs of all time. It makes sense, of course. If Young could lose friends and alienate people so easily, he'd have to lose and alienate his readers. A paradox sure, but appropriate. Just as fitting would be a movie adaptation that isn't enjoyable to watch. The guy playing Young should be so despicable that he's not even worth watching. He couldn't be like Billy Bob Thornton's amusing curmudgeon type of character. He'd have to be annoying enough to want to throw things at the screen and walk out. At least the movie version, which doesn't come out until next fall, co-stars one of the most irritating actresses, Kirsten Dunst.

Otherwise, though, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People looks too funny. Just look at this new trailer, courtesy of The Sun. First of all, it's impossible for me to hate Simon Pegg. Even less hate-worthy than Billy Bob Thornton's curmudgeons, Pegg is actually one of the most lovable annoying guys ever to grace the screen. He's an enjoyable bad boyfriend, an enjoyable bride-ditcher, an enjoyable pretentious co-worker, etc. Even though the trailer makes How to Lose look like a Ben Stiller comedy, Pegg still makes it seem funnier than that somehow. In addition to starring Pegg, it probably helps the movie's appeal that it's directed by Robert B. Weide, who has a lot of experience with uncomfortably (yet hilariously) offensive people from directing multiple episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and the Oscar-nominated documentary Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth. It also helps that the trailer doesn't show much of Dunst.

[via Empire]

During an in-depth interview with IESB.net on the heels of the release of Spider-Man 3, Kirsten Dunst has revealed that her next role will be opposite Simon Pegg in the adaptation of the book How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. Dunst will play a Vanity Fair writer, but would not confirm whether or not she's the romantic interest of the Toby Young character, although that seems like a fair bet. How to Lose, is of course, the memoir of the British journalist Young who was brought over to work for Vanity Fair and found himself laughably out of place at the mag. The film version, which is being helmed by Robert B. Weide, is scheduled to hit theaters sometime in 2008. At another point during the interview, Dunst re-confirms that she is set to play Debbie Harry in the Blondie biopic, but cuts off discussion of the project by saying that it's too early to get into it.

Is Dunst in the running for the much talked-about remake of Barbarella? "No," she says. "I don't want to wear that oufti. That's too revealing. No, I don't want to be worried about being in a bikini during the entire film." The actress also confirms that Sweet Relief, the story of Marla Ruzicka, hasn't begun production but is still on the horizon. When asked if she views the project as potentially controversial, she responds in part: "It's about a woman, you know. I don't think it's about Iraq. It's about a woman. And, you know, what in this 24 year old, I think she's 24 at the time makes you want to go to Iraq on her own without, you know, security and just be there. And, you know, count bodies, visit orphanages, manipulate soldiers into getting information all on her own accord. You know that takes a very brave and also probably, you know, it's kind of crazy thing to do. I would never put myself in that position. I couldn't imagine doing that, you know. So I think that it'll be, it's more about this woman."

Other topics that emerge include the inevitable reflections on the Spider-Man series, her love of Barack Obama, her dream to work with Roman Polanski, and her thoughts on critics. There's also a nice little exchange in there somewhere that draws out Dunst's famous prickliness, when she mentions "that movie with the vampires" and the interviewer asks "Interview With a Vampire?" to which she responds "No, no, not, like I'm going to reference my own film and act like I don't know what it is. That would be so lame. No, it was called The Lost Boys."