Hollywood glamour girls return

In the Forties and Fifties, they were the alluring sirens of the silver screen.

Now the glamour of Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner is being brought back to the movies by Cate Blanchett and Kate Beckinsale.

They play the Hollywood legends in a forthcoming film called The Aviator, about the early life of the billionaire industrial magnate, adventurer and movie producer Howard Hughes, played by Leonardo Di Caprio.

On the set in Los Angeles, Miss Blanchett looked the double of the cool and elegant Miss Hepburn, with whom Hughes had a secret affair.

She perfectly captured the Forties style with a mustard yellow couture gown - cinched at the waist - and her hair pinned back in soft waves.

In a plunging halter neck sequinned gown with striped skirt, Miss Beckinsale equally embodied the sexier look of Miss Gardner, who had a stormy 20-year relationship with Hughes.

However, despite oozing confidence, 30-year-old Miss Beckinsale admits she has never been comfortable with her glamorous image. She says she went through an 'ugly duckling' childhood phase that has affected her.

'I do get into a complete flap every time I feel I am going to have people look at me. I still feel like the very unfortunate child with the big head. I hate having my picture taken.'

Miss Beckinsale is to marry her fiance, director Len Wiseman, after he directed her in the vampire thriller Underworld. She has a four-year-old daughter Lily with her former partner Michael Sheen.

Miss Blanchett, 34, who is pregnant with her second child, said: 'As an actor, I understand how your public image bears little resemblance to your private life. So I'm not impersonating Katherine Hepburn - I am merely recreating an aspect of her life.'

An eccentric, Hughes shunned publicity while embarking on affairs with several leading ladies. The Aviator, directed by Martin Scorsese, is mainly set around the period he was directing his 1930 movie Hell's Angels, about First World War fliers.