Alex is new heartbreaker

British film's newest leading man was mobbed by adoring teenage girls at the West End premiere of spy movie Stormbreaker.

Alex Pettyfer, 16, spent over an hour wowing the crowd outside the Vue, Leicester Square.

The teenager plays reluctant 14-year-old spy Alex Rider in the all-British financed production, filmed on the Isle of Man and based on Anthony Horowitz's teen spy novel.

It showcases London sites including the Gherkin, Hyde Park, Hamleys, the Science Museum and Liverpool Street Station.

His parents Richard Pettyfer, who had a small part in BBC1's Bleak House, and Lee Ireland, a former model and TV presenter, are separated but both backed him as he quit £16,000-a-year public school Shiplake College in Oxfordshire to focus on his acting career.

He saw the dividends last night as he stole the show from co-stars Ewan McGregor, Alicia Silverstone and Bill Nighy. Silverstone, 29, declared herself impressed with the schoolboy from Windsor, confessing she would have had a crush on him had she been 10 years younger.

She said: "Watch out girls! He's the kind of guy that I would have totally gone for and then he probably would have been mean to me. He's so cute."

But McGregor said Alex behaved like a model professional on set: "He didn't need any advice. He's got a very wise head on his shoulders." Of the female attention coming Alex's way, director Geoffrey Sax said: "It's going to hit him like a steam hammer."

Alex professed himself overawed. He said: "What surprised me was the screams of girls."

Co-star Mickey Rourke missed the premiere, citing "prior commitments" - though another reason may have been the fact his pet Chihuahua, Loki, has been banned from the Dorchester hotel for ruining two rugs worth a total of £10,000 while Rourke was filming Stormbreaker at Pinewood.