Steely Dan's beef with Owen Wilson

Fox 411 points out the "Open Letter to the Great Comic Actor, Luke Wilson" that appeared earlier this week on Steely Dan's Web site. It seems Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are none too pleased with what they see as an all-too convenient similarity between their Grammy-winning song "Cousin Dupree" and the premise of Owen Wilson's new movie, "You, Me and Dupree," and they're writing to brother Luke to appeal for his help in setting the record straight. Both the song and film feature a moocher named Dupree living on a borrowed couch and getting up to no good, or as Becker and Fagen put it in their letter: "They, like, took our character, this real dog sleeping on the couch and all and put him in the middle of some hokey 'Down and Out in Beverly Hills' ripoff story and then, when it came time to change the character's name or whatever so people wouldn't know what a rip the whole thing was, THEY DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO THINK UP A NEW FUCKING NAME FOR THE GUY!" They're hoping Luke can convince Owen to drop by one of their shows and apologize for the whole thing -- and if not, they've got a very large and angry-sounding Russian friend with whom they'd like to arrange an introduction. Read the letter in its hilarious (and lengthy!) entirety here.

-- Scott Lamb