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THEY were once so poor that they were forced to share a single bed, but now Simon Pegg and his best pal Nick Frost are two of Britain's most powerful funnymen.

In the past 12 months alone they've made a movie with their idol, Close Encounters director Steven Spielberg, and also written, produced and starred in their first Hollywood film, Paul.

But if you want to spark some brow-furrowing debate between the two self-confessed movie geeks, then ask them about their favourite big-screen alien.

"ET," said Nick. "Or the lovely water aliens from The Abyss."

Simon opts to single out one of the unsung giant beetles from another sci-fi blockbuster.

"Starship Troopers, the scene where they are attacking the base, about five rows back on the left, one of those little... that guy.

"He'd given it more than the others. I never saw him again."

It's the sort of good-natured banter that has helped the pair stay friends from being so poor they had to share a bed, to their current status as millionaire movie moguls.

Paul gave them the chance to work with Seth Rogen and Sigourney Weaver, and a particular thrill was using one of her lines from Aliens in the new movie.

"Probably the most famous line in Aliens is Sigourney's 'Get away from her, you bitch,'" said Simon. "I told her it would be used against her in Paul, and she was like, 'Bring it on!' Nick and I thought all our Christmases had come at once."

But it wasn't all Mr Nice Guy on Paul. One performer was left on the cutting room floor, despite being a close friend of Simon's.

Minnie, his miniature schnauzer, was seen in Simon's last film, Burke & Hare, but got dropped from Paul.

Simon confessed: "She got cut out of Paul because we didn't need her scene in the edit.

"She was sacked from How To Lose Friends And Alienate People too, because she was too boisterous.

"But I'm determined to make her famous. Even Gerard Butler had a few mis-steps before he became massive."

Simon may be tough on dogs but he's delighted to be back in business with his other long-time companion, Nick.

In the comedy Paul, Nick and Simon play two science fiction geeks who go to a comic convention and stumble across a dope-smoking, flatulent, bird-eating alien called Paul, who has been on Earth for 50 years and may have been giving tips to Steven Spielberg.

The director is heard in the movie ringing Paul for advice on how to shoot ET.

It was a favour from Spielberg after Nick and Simon worked on his animated version of Tintin.

Originally Simon was cast to play both of the ultra-English Thompson twins.

He said: "Then they realised it was going to be difficult to do that.

"So, they said, 'Can we get someone else?' and I immediately said, 'Nick Frost'. And Steven said, 'Oh, yeah, that'd be brilliant'."

Nick admitted he had to pinch himself when he found himself in front of his directing hero.

"You'd have to be kind of crazy to think nine years ago I was a waiter and now I'm here, and me and Spielberg are having a laugh."

Simon agreed: "We'd sit with him between takes and he'd just tell us stories about Close Encounters and stuff. And then after he left, we'd shut the door and go 'WOO!'"

Nick and Simon have been friends for almost 20 years.

They met when Nick worked in a Mexican restaurant with Simon's then-girlfriend.

The girlfriend didn't last - but Nick and Simon are pals who have shared nerdy enthusiasms, a flat - and even a bed.

"Actually we shared a single bed," recalled Simon. "I was staying at his place on the floor and that was too uncomfortable, so we slept top-to-tail. That was also uncomfortable, so we ended up sleeping the same way.

"We had a very gradual process into being OK sleeping with a hairy man next to you. I think that infuses a lot of our work too."

Simon was already doing stand-up and acting, and encouraged Nick to have a go too.

When Simon and Jessica Hynes wrote their surreal comedy Spaced, they wrote a role especially for Nick, even though he had never appeared on TV before.

"I always thought he was the funniest guy I knew," said Simon. "He's a very natural talent and funny and we have a really good on-screen relationship, in that we are best friends and can really bounce offeach other."

Nick recalled: "He said I was wasting my life waiting tables, and threatened to cut my nuts off if I didn't do the part.

"I was really embarrassed to begin with. There are a couple of early scenes where you can tell I'm blushing in front of the camera."

Spaced brought Simon and Nick into our living rooms but it was 2004's "romzomcom" movie Shaun Of The Dead that catapulted them to stardom.

They joined forces for Hot Fuzz in 2007 before getting together again to work on Paul.

Along the way, they have inspired other up-and-coming actors.

Simon revealed: "Mat Horne from Gavin & Stacey sent me a letter when he was a student.

"He wanted to get into comedy, so he wrote to me. I wrote back to him and the last line of the letter read, 'Best wishes, maybe we'll work together some day'. And now we have the same agent."

Shaun Of The Dead was a surprise hit on both sides of the Atlantic and grossed more than £60million worldwide.

But making it in freezing British weather sparked the idea for Paul.

Fed up with being cold, or waiting for the rain to stop, Nick and Simon decided to set their next movie somewhere warm.

Simon said: "We thought - let's go somewhere hot and make a film about where something hot is. A desert. Yeah, it's an alien, in Area 51. And these guys help him get home.

"That was it. And I drew a poster of Paul giving the finger and it said, In America, everyone's an alien'.

"And that was the pitch."

That was back in 2003. Now Simon and Nick are no longer housemates and no longer live close enough to drop in on each other without warning.

Both married in the last six years, and each acted as best man for the other.

Nick and his wife Christina live with their dog Kenny and cat Bangers in London's Twickenham.

Simon and his Scots wife Maureen are a few miles away in Crouch End with baby daughter Matilda Bell.

Simon's other movie roles have also created long separations from family and friends.

He's currently filming Mission: Impossible 4, and last February spent his 40th birthday filming the black comedy Burke & Hare.

"The day I turned 40 I filmed my execution, which was so weird," he said. "I was standing on the gallows with a noose round my neck being sung Happy Birthday to by all these peasants, with my friend Bill Bailey about to pull the lever on me."

The relationship between the two geeks in Paul is very much based on Simon and Nick's own friendship.

The night before Simon married Maureen in 2005, he and Nick spent the night in a hotel room, reliving bachelor life by watching videos and chatting until they fell asleep.

Simon said: "We're nerdy but we're higher-functioning nerds than our characters.

"We're married, we don't live alone, our skin's fairly clear and we wouldn't travel in a motorhome - not without a driver.

"There's certainly the relationship between them, there's a great love between them and Nick and I are best friends before we're colleagues, so we channelled a bit of our own romance into it."

Paul is in cinemas from Friday.