British actor pegs career on comic fodder

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In "Run Fatboy Run," Simon Pegg plays a lovable ne'er-do-well who leaves his pregnant fiancee (Thandie Newton) at the altar but eventually regrets his mistake. In order to win her back, he has to prove himself better than the rich American fitness freak (Hank Azaria) she now plans to marry. How else to do that but to run -- and beat his rival -- in the London Marathon? But he has to find a nonprofit charity to sponsor him, and all the good ones are taken.The National Erectile Dysfunction Awareness campaign comes to his rescue.Pegg, for his behind-the-scenes part, came to the rescue of Michael Ian Black's script, rewriting it to add the hilarious character of Mr. Ghoshdashtidar, who trains Pegg for the marathon by slapping him with a spatula.Pegg's writing as well as performing skills have long been evident in productions with his real-life best friend, Nick Frost. They co-starred in the cult TV sitcom "Spaced" (1999-2001), in 2004's film "Shaun of the Dead" and in last year's "Hot Fuzz," a buddy-cop parody involving murder in the British boondocks. Credit Pegg for Frost's best line in that one: When two people's heads are cut off, Frost reports that they were "decaffeinated.""Run's" director is not Edgar Wright (who made "Sean" and "Hot Fuzz") but David Schwimmer, the "Friends" actor-turned-helmsman in his feature debut. "He was perfectly adept," says Pegg, 38. "His empathy for actors is based on his understanding of what it's like to be in front of the camera."Gloucester-born Pegg, at age 16, was a drummer in a band called "God's Third Leg." He's a 1991 graduate of Bristol University in theater, film and television.A huge "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" aficionado, he says he was thrilled to be cast as Scotty in the forthcoming "Trek" movie -- the 11th! -- which just finished shooting last month. (Chris Pine is the young Kirk, Leonard Nimoy himself plays the old Spock and Wynona Ryder is young Spock's mother.)"Secrecy must remain intact because of the auspiciousness of the material," says Pegg, when asked for Trekkie production details. He'll only tell us what we already know -- that Nimoy is "a thoroughly lovely man."Pegg is similarly circumspect about working, potentially, with that good pal Tarantino: "Quentin has such boundless enthusiasm. But I can't quite say, 'When are you going to put me in one of your films?' "(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette film critic Barry Paris can be reached at parispg48(at)aol.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)