Keira Knightley Not Happy About Comparison To Princess Diana

 

Keira Knightley is not happy about her charater being compared to Princess Diana in her latest movie. 

The trailer for The Duchess, a film about the aristocrat Georgiana Spencer and her adulterous life, shows a clip of Princess Diana side by side with Keira’s character while accompanied by the words: “The two were related by ancestry and united by destiny“. A voice over adds: “History repeats itself.”

Knightley, 23, who plays the Duchess of Devonshire, said:

“I am Georgiana. I am not Diana. The film is not about Diana.”

The duchess, an 18th-century beauty, was the great-great-great-great aunt of Diana. Both women were born Spencers and married important men who then took mistresses. Georgian’s husband, the Duke of Devonshire, had an affair with Lady Elizabeth Foster.

Georgiana then formed a relationship with Earl Grey, the politician after whom the tea is named. She was an active political campaigner.

But neither the biography on which the film is based or the film itself make any reference to the former Princess.

Amanda Foreman, who wrote the biography, said:

“There is absolutely no reason to have done this trailer, which is a bad joke.

“The marketing people probably thought the only way they could get young popcorn-eating brigade to see this film was if they made some comparison with Diana. But they did not need to and should not have done it.”

She also said that the “united by destiny” tag is inaccurate.

“I don’t actually think that Georgiana died in a carriage crash.”

The film opens on September 5 in the UK.