Traveling Underwear in the UK

There’s a movie–a real chick flick–coming out this summer, called The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It’s an adaptation of a novel by Ann Brashares (who, interestingly, has also written a series of profiles on tech gurus like Jobs and Torvalds), and stars, among others, Alexis Bledel and Bradley Whitford. Here’s the plot summary:

On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them. But Tibby says they’re great. She’d love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they’re fabulous. Lena decides that they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them. Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Even Carmen (who never thinks she looks good in anything) thinks she looks good in the pants. Over a few bags of cheese puffs, they decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants…the next morning, they say good-bye. And then the journey of the pants–and the most memorable summer of their lives–begins.

The point, now that I finally get to it, is that the word ‘pants’ means ‘underwear’ in the UK and Ireland. As you might imagine, the notion of shared undies doesn’t quite cast the same, magical glow of family fun. I’m wondering how they’ll market the movie in Europe. Will they change the name? Will they recognize the irony in ‘traveling pants’? Will they ignore it and just hope for the best?

Presumably the average UK movie-goer is sophisticated enough to ignore the obvious joke. However, in a repressed culture like Britain’s, folks may be disinclined to talk about ‘traveling pants’ around the water cooler. Ultimately, I don’t think this pants thing will have much impact on the bottom line, but it’s an interesting localization conundrum.