Wedding Crashers

They seem to come round every twenty years. In the Sixties it was The Rat Pack, the Eighties had The Brat Pack and now there's The Frat Pack. Charter member Owen Wilson is not too bothered about the tag.

"I guess it's just a kind of fun label," he tells me when I ask him how he feels about being lumped in with Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Jack Black and Vince Vaughn.

He teams up again with Vaughn in the new buddy comedy Wedding Crashers. It feels like we've seen them together in loads of films but that's not the case.

"We worked together on Starsky and Hutch but I didn't know him that well," says Owen.

"This movie was where we really became friends. We play a couple of characters who crash weddings to pick up girls. We have a whole list of rules and the main one is you blend in by sticking out.

"We're the guys who are giving a toast, dancing and slapping the bride's backside. The theory is that anyone who's acting this much of an idiot has to be invited.

"My character, John, is beginning to wonder if it isn't starting to get a bit pathetic but Jeremy (Vaughn) tries to assure me it isn't and gets me to crash one more wedding, where I meet this girl that I end up falling for."

But it is not just any wedding - it's the society event of the year. The daughter of powerful politician William Cleary is getting married and the girl Owen falls for is her sister. Even worse - their dad is played by Christopher Walken.

"It was fun to play opposite him. I wouldn't say he's scary in real life but he is odd - and I mean that in the best way possible," says Owen.

He also tangles with Mrs Cleary, played by Jane Seymour. In a Mrs Robinson-type scene, which he calls borderline inappropriate he has to fend off her drunken, topless, advances.

"I mean, she's Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and we were all a little nervous about taking her image down such a different street. Vince was very worried that instinct would take over with me and poor Jane might get mauled. He said, 'You don't wave a piece of raw meat in front of a lion.' But she made it out okay, and they sedated me."

The film opened in the blockbuster season but Owen's not stressing about getting crushed by Batman Begins, Fantastic Four and War Of The Worlds.

"That's the risk you run when you come out in the summer. We probably won't do as well as those behemoths but the movie is funny so hopefully it will find an audience."