Renee's leading men

Along with a little black dress, a goodlooking British co-star is this year's essential accessory if you are a Hollywood actress.

For Oscar nominee Renee Zellweger, the choice was Ewan McGregor at the world premiere of their new romantic comedy Down With Love last night in New York.

Trainspotting star McGregor drops his Glaswegian brogue to play dashing reporter and confirmed bachelor Catcher Block in the new film, which is a tribute to the classic Rock Hudson-Doris Day comedies.

He and Zellweger are following Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes in Maid in Manhattan and Hugh Grant, who paired up with Sandra Bullock in Two Weeks Notice, in the new Hollywood passion for Anglo-American screen partnerships.

Even Colin Firth, who won Zellweger's heart in Bridget Jones's Diary, is replaying the role of a well-bred heart-throb.

In the new hit comedy What A Girl Wants, which opened in the US two weeks ago, he plays a wealthy English aristocrat who discovers he has an American teenage daughter from an earlier affair.

Not since the days of Cary Grant and David Niven have so many cut-glass British accents dominated the US film industry at once. Even Sean Connery, who as James Bond set the standard for sophisticated, tuxedo-clad Brits, will be back in the act later this summer.

He plays Allan Quartermain as the leader of a group of literary superheroes that includes Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Sadly for Zellweger, whose new film opened at the second Tribeca Film Festival in New York, the romance is only in front of the cameras.

The Chicago star is said to have burst into tears recently at a dinner party in Los Angeles saying she was "desperate for love''.

Texan Zellweger, 34, who split with Jim Carrey three years ago, is said to have complained that she could not find a boyfriend, adding: "I feel like I'm going to grow old alone." Fellow guest Demi Moore is reported to have consoled her, promising to take her out on the town to look for a man.