'White chicks' take US by storm

They have all the trappings of the typical Hollywood starlet: flowing platinum-blonde locks, designer wardrobes and flawless make-up.

But there's something different about these two "girls".

For sisters Tiffany and Brittany Wilson are, in fact, black male acting brothers Marlon and Shawn Wayans.

Their remarkable transformation into high-society debutantes for the comedy White Chicks required more than $10,000 worth of make-up, prosthetics, blonde wigs, fake breasts and blue contact lenses. But it has paid off with the film already a hit, making almost $30 million in its first week in the US.

The brothers are following in the footsteps of a string of famous gender-swapping performances, including Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot. But the Wayans's transformation is the most ambitious ever on the big screen, with the brothers also changing their racial appearance.

In the film, out in Britain in November, the pair - who both appeared in the Scary Movie comedies - play disgraced FBI agents Kevin and Marcus Copland, sent undercover to protect two Long Island heiresses from a kidnapping.

Each brother spent five hours

every morning having facial prosthetics applied to cover their top lips, foreheads, chins, cheeks and noses.

Wigs were made to cover the sides of their heads, and they had to take voice training as well as lose up to 30 pounds each to fit into tight tops and mini-skirts.

As well as looking the part, Shawn, 33, and Marlon, 31, also had to convince through their behaviour in the role of typical American

high-society women. They wear glamorous dresses and graciously accept compliments from men as they try to pass themselves off as the real thing to the heiresses' friends.

The characters of Tiffany and Brittany were inspired by heiresses Paris and Nicky Hilton.

Make-up artist Greg Cannom said: "It's hard enough to make male to female. Taking African-American men to white females is extremely difficult."