Teen beauty makes the waves

She is just 18 years old and still lives at home with her parents.

But last night British actress Keira Knightley showed why she's taken Hollywood by storm.

She made a show- stopping appearance at the UK premiere of her latest film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

The swashbuckling film, which also stars Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom, is the surprise hit of the summer, going straight to the top of the American box office over the weekend.

It has knocked the eagerly awaited Terminator 3: The Rise of

the Machine from the top spot and is also likely to make an international star out of Miss Knightley.

The actress wore £500,000 worth of Asprey diamonds and a black Alexander McQueen corset to the premiere.

More than 3,000 screaming fans greeted her and her co- star Mr Bloom outside the Odeon, Leicester Square.

Miss Knightley said: 'This is my first big London premiere and it's amazing - I can't believe the reception.

'I just want to have a good time tonight. I got all dressed up - I know people would be surprised but I wore a corset again after all the similar outfits I wore for this film. But I just couldn't resist.'

Also at the premiere were George Best's son Calum, supermodel Helena Christensen and girl band Atomic Kitten.

Ms Knightley came to public attention as tomboy footballer Jules Paxton in last year's surprise hit Bend It Like Beckham.

This coincided with her being picked to play the key role of Lara in ITV's £7million remake of Doctor Zhivago - the part made famous in the 1960s by Julie Christie.

That required Miss Knightley's first nude scene. She said at the

time: 'It's like a dream come true but I am not caught up with the hype surrounding it.

'I have always loved the film and Julie Christie was great but, nearly four decades on, it deserves another take.'

Before last year, her biggest role had been appearing opposite Natalie Portman in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace when she was 12.

In Pirates of the Caribbean she plays the daughter of a colonial governor kidnapped by pirates who, it emerges, are cursed to remain trapped between the living and the dead.

Miss Knightley, who lives in Richmond, South-West London, has just finished working on Richard Curtis's latest film Love Actually, alongside Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson and Martine McCutcheon. She will shortly start work on the role of Guinevere in King Arthur.

She had been due to return to college near her home after completing GCSEs while filming Bend It Like Beckham.

But, after a hectic few months of filming, she decided against continuing her education. She said: 'I did expect to go back to school but then two films came along and I decided I shouldn't.

'The opportunities are not going to last forever so you have to make the most of them.

'I will go back to my education when I have got this acting lark out of my system. 'When I finally decided to drop out it was incredible. It was like a boulder was lifted off my shoulders.'

It would seem acting was an obvious choice for Miss Knightley. Her mother, Sharman Macdonald, is an actress turned playright while her father, Will Knightley, played Mr Glegg in the BBC adaptation of The Mill On The Floss.