I'm not sure if Graydon Carter considers himself a hypocrite for having started out savagely mocking the glitteratti with his Spy magazine and then making love to it as editor of Vanity Fair.
I am pretty sure he'd be happy with the casting choice of Jeff Bridges to play the guy who's obviously him in How To Lose Friends And Alienate People.
The film, taken from a spleen-venting book by disgruntled ex-employee Toby Young, somehow morphs into a slightly tart romantic comedy en route to the screen.
And Bridges manages to inject some sympathy into what is otherwise the depiction of a monomaniacal, pretentious and borderline sociopath magazine editor (this movie wants to be to Vanity Fair and Carter what The Devil Wears Prada is to Vogue and Anna Wintour).
But it's the protagonist, Sidney Young, who gets the biggest softening.
As played by the reliably hilarious Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz), Young manages to be both an insulting boor and someone to cheer for as he makes his way through a world where Hollywood agents get to vet articles in "respectable" magazines.
When we meet Sidney, he's slaving away at an entertainment supermaket weekly in London when a social disaster he causes brings him to the attention of the legendary Clayton Harding (Bridges), who offers him a job in New York, sight-unseen.
Sidney hits New York feeling he's "arrived," but is soon apprised of his peon status by Harding (in a pompous "seven doors" speech that sounds real).
What is described in caustic asides in a book is related in social-gaffe slapstick by Pegg, up to and including his accidental killing of the pet of a "hot" young ingenue movie star Sophie Maes (Megan Fox), who is tagged for stardom after being cast as a glam, young Mother Teresa.
The real transgressions, however, are his affronts to Hollywood uber-publicist Eleanor Johnson (Gillian Anderson), who effectively decides who is interviewed by Clayton's magazine and who gets to do the interviews.
It's a fairly transparent depiction of onetime Hollywood "suppress agent" Pat Kingsley, who prided herself on being able to crush the careers of entertainment journalists.
Sidney's crisis-of-the-soul comes when he must interview a twit young director as quid pro quo for his dream interview with Sophie.
Sitting in disapproval is copy editor Alison (Kirsten Dunst), who is disgusted by Sidney when he's a boorish arriviste, and even more disgusted when he sells his soul to open those seven doors.
Anybody you hate this much, you just know you're going to be in love with by the third act.
How To Lose Friends And Alienate People is not better than the sum of its parts -- but the parts, particularly Pegg and Bridges, act with every muscle in their bodies.
It also boasts some funny moments and enough spot-on slapstick to make up for any missing social commentary.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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