Simon Pegg and Robert Weide: "Don't buy our DVD!"

After begrudgingly agreeing to cut many scenes from How To Lose Friends and Alienate People for the theatrical release, star Simon Pegg and director Robert B. Weide were soothed by the knowledge that the DVD would boast bonus materials. They were assuaged. They were appeased, mollified—babes with pacifiers, toddlers with crayons, grandfathers with a newspaper from 1945.

And it seemed things were to go as planned with the DVD. Weide told Collider that he had been corresponding with Paramount often. He sent suggestions, approved the art, re-wrote the synopsis on the back of the case. But even though the company was based in L.A. and had been all along calling their project the "International Release," no one reminded Weide (who is American) that, in America, "International" means "not American," and that Paramount was only handing the UK release of the DVD.

Weide finally got in touch with the American distributors, MGM/Fox, and asked for the artwork. Several weeks later, it arrived. He was unimpressed: "It was the artwork of Simon pouring beer on Megan and it looks like he's peeing on her. Except now they had made it even 'funnier' because they had taken off his pants and had him in jockey shorts," he reported. But correspondence with the studio was difficult, and the DVD went into replication without including Pegg or Weide in any decisions—or any of the bonus materials they would have put on the disc.

"That's the frustrating thing about this," Weide said. "It was never a matter of what they could fit or what they could clear. They just screwed up. I was so outraged by this that I did an investigation and called all the different parties involved and said, 'Tell me, from your understanding, what happened?' And I told Simon, 'It's Kafka meets the Keystone Cops.'"

So Pegg and Weide are begging the world only to buy the UK release of the DVD. Pegg posted a press release from Whyaduck Productions that states plainly, "Please DON'T Buy My DVD!" before explaining that buying is actually better than not buying, but buying American, in this case, is not quite right.  No comment from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, who are praying the consumer inclination doesn't carry over from comedy romps to cars. Meanwhile, here's a small, continual reminder from us how worthwhile all this hubbub really is.

Related links:
Review: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
How2LoseFriends.com
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People on IMDb

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