How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is a 2008 British comedy film based upon Toby Young's 2001 memoir of the same name. The film follows a similar storyline, about his five-year struggle to make it in the United States after employment at Sharps Magazine. The names of the magazine and people Young came into contact with during the time were changed for the film adaptation. The film version (adapted by Peter Straughan) is a highly fictionalized account, and differs greatly from the work upon which it was built. It was distributed in the United States by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and in the United Kingdom by Paramount Pictures and Channel Four Films (the former also distributed in Australia).

The film was directed by Robert B. Weide and stars Simon Pegg as Sidney Young, Kirsten Dunst as Alison Olsen, Jeff Bridges as Clayton Harding, Danny Huston as Lawrence Maddox, Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Johnson, and Megan Fox as Sophie Maes. The cast also includes Max Minghella and Margo Stilley. How to Lose Friends & Alienate People was released in both the United States and United Kingdom on 3 October 2008.

Synopsis

Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) is a smalltime, aspiring English journalist who works for a left-wing radical magazine. Following an incident at a party where Sidney accidentally lets a pig loose, he is hired to work for an upscale magazine in New York City. He is hired by Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), editor of Sharps magazine, a man Sidney had previously lampooned in his own magazine.

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