Simon Pegg takes a swipe at Gervais

Simon Pegg (pictured), the star of How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, a film adaptation about British journalist Toby Young's time working for Vanity Fair in New York, appears to be taking the movie's title to heart. While publicising the film, he turned on fellow comic actor Ricky Gervais for some dismissive comments he'd made about British films.

In an interview with Jamie Theakston for the London radio station Heart, Pegg, 38, said: "He said there'd been no good British films since 1950. What an idiot. If you go to LA, you can get sucked into that. He says a lot of things, that man." Pegg, of course, has starred in two highly successful British-made comedies, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Whether How To Lose Friends will enjoy success, however, is debatable: the film received a stinking review on Radio 4's Front Row on Tuesday night.