  We investigate the mass loss from a rotationally distorted envelope following
the early, rapid in-spiral of a companion star inside a common envelope. For
initially wide, massive binaries (M_1+M_2=20M_{\odot}, P\sim 10 yr), the
primary has a convective envelope at the onset of mass transfer and is able to
store much of the available orbital angular momentum in its expanded envelope.
Three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics calculations show that mass
loss is enhanced at mid-latitudes due to shock reflection from a torus-shaped
outer envelope. Mass ejection in the equatorial plane is completely suppressed
if the shock wave is too weak to penetrate the outer envelope in the equatorial
direction (typically when the energy deposited in the star is less than about
one-third of the binding energy of the envelope). We present a parameter study
to show how the geometry of the ejecta depends on the angular momentum and the
energy deposited in the envelope during a merging event. Applications to the
nearly axisymmetric, but very non-spherical nebulae around SN1987A and Sheridan
25 are discussed, as well as possible links to RY Scuti and the Small
Magellanic Cloud object R4.
