“How to Lose Friends & Alienate People” is not a bad title for a book. You may actually take it for one of those best-selling manuals that teach you how to act properly (or not) and how to get over one thing or another. However, turning such a book into a film is not a good idea, as the title may come back at you and shout: “The movie I’m depicting is so bad that it may actually show you once and for all how you lose all moviegoers and alienate even the most laid-back critics.” The new production directed by Robert B. Weide may even top the “Don’t” how-to-make-a-movie list.

Based on Toby Young’s 2001 funnier eponymous memoir, “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People” portrays a “Devil Wears Prada”-like plot for men, only that Vogue magazine is replaced with Vanity Fair. That should do it. Barely. In the first place, Simon Pegg, who did a memorable great job in “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” should not have been the one to fill the shoes of journalist Sidney Young, as the adorable baby-face of the actor, as well as his much-developed humorous side don’t quite match the self-absorbed obliviousness of his character.

The British writer receives an incredible offer he just can’t say “no” to, in spite of the fact that he has to leave London so as to work for Sharps magazine, an evident substitute for the book’s glossy Vanity Fair. Thus, Sidney Young travels across the world and moves to New York. As part of his new appealing job, Sidney has to write celebrity profiles, under the surveillance of his editor/chief Graydon Carter, impersonated by Jeff Bridges.

It is very important to say that Graydon Carter was the one who made Young the offer after they met at a BAFTA awards ceremony, where the journalist allowed a pig to run loose and urinate on a woman’s feet. Now you can imagine what kind of boss Mr. Carter makes.

In the midst of several somber, not at all humorous and shallow colleagues, Sidney Young is ill-mannered and totally uncool. And he is not desperate to integrate either. He does not care whether a celebrity is gay, ill or Jewish, he does not take advantage of other people’s influence and he dislikes to flatter publicists so as to get his hands on an exclusive interview with a wannabe starlet.

Therefore, no one can stand Sidney. No one except for his immediate supervisor Alison Olsen, played by Kirsten Dunst, of course, who initially hated Young, but gradually started liking him.

Okay, so there’s a bit of Megan Fox, too, who plays Sophie Maes, a harebrained actress who has no problem in drawing public attention, though, and some Gillian Anderson for the road, who impersonates Eleanor Johnson, the usual publicist who pulls all the strings.

Predictably or not, Sidney lets go of his principles for a promotion and falls for Alison (who wouldn’t?).

The movie lacks humor, while the portrayal of a couple of silly models, a playful transsexual and some superficial members of the upper money-making class doesn’t help it much either.

“How to Lose Friends & Alienate People” may kick off as a lampoon, but it actually ends more like an over-cooked romantic comedy which lost its funny side somewhere between the protagonists’ first and third encounter.