Simon Pegg has been given the starring role in a film adaptation of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

Toby Young's book, which chronicles his time as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair in New York, focuses on his often disastrous attempts to hob-nob with celebrities and painted an unappealing picture of his editor-in-chief Graydon Carter.

Curb Your Enthusiasm's Robert Weide will direct from Peter Straughan's script, in which the names of the company and the boss have been altered.