Those of you hailing from Leatherhead, you will be flattered to learn that the town has been selected - against some pretty stiff competition across the country - to be the basis of a new star-studded film that hits the nation's cinemas this week.

But then, you may not be so puffed up with pride when you learn that it was selected not because of its beauty, but for its cultural significance.

I Want Candy is American Pie done Ealing comedy-style, and stars Hollywood pin-up Carmen Electra, The Office's Mackenzie Crook, comedian Jimmy Carr and EastEnders' Michelle Ryan, with the two lead roles going to relative unknowns Tom Riley and Tom Burke.

They play two young chaps from Leatherhead (woohoo!) who aspire to become movers and shakers in the film business, and pursue their dream by making a porn film for a sleazy gangster.

So Leatherhead provides the backdrop as the normal, humdrum Anytown that secretly holds these young men with big ideas, who move to the bright lights of London.

Sadly, though, there was no cast outing to Sutton for filming. Tom Riley says: "I never got down there, which is a shame. The only filming we did outside was done in Middlesex, I don't think there was anyone in Leatherhead who was willing to give up their house for a week! I feel like I owe it a debt as it has Leatherhead on all the posters and signs and everything.

"We had to make up some of the names of places we talk about because of copyright infringement. We had a kebab shop called Abekebabra but we had to change it as one exists.

"I think it got chosen because people will understand what kind of feel it has to it. I don't mean that as a criticism to Leatherhead but the name of it has this caché of being a very British place in the suburbs, and it creates this incongruous mix with the teen comedy elements."

The town isn't an absolute stranger to the advances of artistic big players. HG Wells mentioned it in War of the Worlds. Charmingly, it gets destroyed by martians, killing everyone except for the narrator's wife, whom he sent there for her safety. In the TV series of The Hitchchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent's house is in Leatherhead. But this is the first time that a major film release has used Leatherhead as its starting point.

As for the cast, it seems they all got on swimmingly. "There was no ego or attention-seeking from Carmen. She realised it was just a low-budget English film and mucked in.

"Mackenzie had just been doing a Pirates of the Carribean where they take eight hours to set up an explosion, so he enjoyed getting to improvise and make up lines again and return to doing a real back-to-basics film."

I Want Candy is out on general release tomorrow (Friday).