Charlize picks Britt as date

Charlize will arrive at the Cannes premiere of the Peter Sellers biopic arm-in-arm with the character she plays ... Britt Ekland.

Ekland - who was married to the comic genius for four years in the Sixties - was reportedly furious about the movie, The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers.

She even threatened to block its release because it is based on a book of the same name in which she came across rather badly. However, now it appears Ekland, 61, has buried the hatchet after discovering the marriage would be portrayed more in line with how it came across in her autobiography.

In Cannes today, Theron, 28, hot from picking up the best actress Oscar for Monster, said: "Britt is going to be my date on the red carpet tonight." Of the role, she said: "If you think about playing a real-life person on film, it is a lot of pressure. You can never be 100 per cent accurate but I did a huge amount of reading and research to get as close as I could."

Sellers is played by Geoffrey Rush in the film. Director Stephen Hopkins said: "Britt did not like the book on which the film was based, but she has not seen the film and I hope she will like it."