Meg booed at premiere

Meg Ryan was booed after ignoring fans who had waited two hours in the cold for a glimpse of her on the red carpet.

The film star, 41, rushed past a crowd of 200 at the London Film Festival, and later surrounded herself with an entourage of eight people to make sure no-one approached without permission.

Ryan was in town last night to promote her raunchy thriller, In The Cut. It has been more than a decade since her biggest hits, When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless In Seattle, and in recent years she has been more famous for her failed romance with Gladiator star Russell Crowe.

The actress, recently mocked for her swollen lips which some claim are the result of collagen injections, arrived more than half an hour late at the Odeon Leicester Square and also refused to speak to journalists.

The fans' screams of: "We want Meg," soon turned to a chorus of boos and hisses as she rushed across the red carpet into the cinema.

When the bank of photographers took her picture, she appeared uneasy and flinched from side to side.

Ryan, wearing a floor-length black gown, also turned down the opportunity to introduce the movie to the audience, as celebrities often do at premieres.

Instead she made a brief appearance with her co-stars. She then refused to sit through the film, leaving early by a side-door. At the after-show party at the Saatchi Gallery on the South Bank, she was guarded by her entourage who made sure no one approached without prior consent, while photographers were barred.

The actress didn't take off her coat and left after less than an hour.

Ryan has denied having collagen injections, laughing off the rumours in a magazine interview this week. She said: "It's so boring. I don't read anything about myself."

Explaining the actress's behaviour last night, Ryan's publicist, Annette Wolfe, said: "Meg did nothing wrong tonight. She shouldn't have been booed. We can't do anything about the reception the crowd gave her. She has nothing to say."