DALLAS - Probably best known for his roles in genre-twisting comedies such as "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz," British actor Simon Pegg is slowly becoming an unlikely leading man. Not that Sidney Young, the character he plays in "How To Lose Friends and Alienate People," is a traditional romantic-comedy lead.

Based on Toby (not Sidney) Young's memoir, "How To Lose Friends" is about a British tabloid journalist lured by a Vanity Fair-type magazine to the U.S., where he's stunned to learn that celebrities are treated like royalty. In the movie, Sidney begins to fall for a colleague (Kirsten Dunst), but his boorish behavior gets in the way of potential romance.

During a recent Dallas stop, the friendly, non-alienating Pegg talked a bit about himself and the movie.

Q. Is it true that Toby Young was kicked off the set because he was interfering?

A. (Chuckles) I think he likes the idea that he was kicked off the set. What actually happened was that he kind of went up to Kirsten on one of the first days and said, "So, are you in love with me yet?" thinking he was being charming when as a matter of fact, Kirsten was just a bit creeped out, because he forgot to introduce himself first …. And then he proceeded to give her a note on her performance. She's not a diva in any way, and she's very polite, but she was asking, "Who's that guy who just told me to do this?" Then he e-mailed (director Robert B. Weide) and said, "Look, I really don't think I'm going to be able to come onto set every day and not interfere." Bob said, "There's a really easy answer to that. Don't come back."

Q. What was the most outrageous thing you'd heard about Toby when researching the role?

A. Just the lengths he would go to for shameless self-publicity … My own personal experience was at Cannes, seeing him on the other side of the red rope being interviewed by journalists that were his peers, and then reading about it in The Spectator, and his account of it was interestingly embellished.

Q. Despite what people think, most entertainment journalists keep themselves in check during interviews. The rudest question I ever want to ask is, "What do you do with all that money?"

A. That's exactly the kind of thing Toby would ask. Of course those questions come to mind. Toby would simply ask them. He doesn't have any mental checkpoint, they just come out of his mouth.

Q. In terms of partying, are you anything like Toby?

A. When I was at Comic-Con this year, I went to a few parties, because it's like a little film festival. I still kinda get starstruck sometime … I bumped into Matthew Fox from "Lost," and I'm a huge fan of "Lost."

Q. You and writing partner Nick Frost are working on "Paul," about two comic-book geeks who road-trip across America. How much does your own experience with America figure into that?

A. Enormously. Weirdly enough, we came up with the idea when we were shooting "Shaun of the Dead"…. I think we were having a hard day and (our producer) said, "What are we going to do next?" and Nick and I just riffed this idea pretty quickly, and it actually sounded pretty good. Universal paid for Nick and I to drive an RV from L.A. through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Denver to research that and see what it was like … Once you're in the interior, going for hundreds of miles without seeing a soul is awe-inspiring. The size of this country - the size of the population, and yet you can go for a long time and not see a single soul on those roads that almost defy physics.

(c) 2008, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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