You, Me, Dupree -- and O.C.

You won’t recognize anything about Newport Beach in the comedy “You, Me and Dupree,” which opens in theaters today, but the brains behind the movie’s marriage of angst and bathroom jokes are homegrown.

Corona del Mar High School graduates Mike Le Sieur, 33, and Sean Perrone, 32, helped create the movie starring Owen Wilson. Le Sieur wrote the script, and Perrone was an executive producer.

The two have been friends since childhood, but neither was a film buff in younger years. Le Sieur didn’t even realize script writing was a real career and initially wanted to be a novelist or a history professor.

But once he graduated college, he started writing movie scripts, and his third try got him into the USC film school.

Perrone moved to Los Angeles after college and worked as a temp and an intern, eventually landing a job at United Talent Agency. Soon, he and his partner decided to chuck it and start their own agency.

“We were both 25, single, and weren’t really making any money as assistants and kind of didn’t have anything to lose,” Perrone said in a phone interview this week. “It wasn’t really a well-thought-out business plan, having no business experience and no office space.”

“Dupree” is the first big success for both men. Perrone pitched the idea to Le Sieur, who wrote it in five weeks with collaboration from Owen Wilson.

The title character is that guy ? everyone knows one ? who sees his friends grow up and get married, and he’s still acting like he’s in college.

“Maybe when you’re all in your early 20s, he was kind of fun to have around,” Le Sieur said in an interview at his Dover Shores home. “It’s sort of a thin line between lovable and loathe-able.”

He and Wilson are represented by the same agency, so Le Sieur was able to get the star on board. That helped a lot, Le Sieur said.

He’s already sold two scripts that haven’t been made, and the business is generally hit or miss.

“I think having a big star like that attached helps guide you through the pitfalls of the studio system, because a lot of times studios are looking for reasons not to make a movie,” Le Sieur said.

Tonight Perrone’s parents ? who still live in Newport ? and their friends will see the movie.

“Do I know if they’re going to like it? I don’t know; I certainly hope so,” Perrone said. dpt.14-dupree-CPhotoInfoJ11SU4CM20060714j2dakyncCredit: MARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT Caption: (LA)Corona del Mar High School graduates Sean Perrone, left, and Mike LeSieur, right, collaborated on “You, Me and Dupree.”