Renee covers the bulge

The convention for an actress attending her premiere is glitz and glamour - an outfit crafted to take away the collective breath of the first-night crowd.

In a black Prada frock coat and knee-length boots, Renee Zellweger didn't quite live up to the custom.

But she was quite up front about why.

'I have put weight on and I've got on a really good coat to hide it,' she said as she arrived at the Odeon Kensington for the opening of Down With Love.

The motives for losing her figure are purely artistic, of course. The 34-year-old actress was told to put on four stones in preparation for the follow-up to Bridget Jones's Diary, which she will be filming soon. Her aim has been to transform her frame from a size eight to a size 16 for Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason.

'I've stopped exercising - you certainly won't see me running around Hyde Park,' said Miss Zellweger.

'I'm eating really healthy food but it just has much more fat content. I have someone cook all these delicious meals for me but I don't even think about them - I just eat them.

'This morning for breakfast I had four slices of toast, full fat butter and cream cheese - and that was just for starters.'

Down With Love - a romantic comedy based on Doris Day films - also stars Ewan McGregor, who was not at the premiere.