Dark days for Charlize

She has become known for her blonde statuesque good looks. But dark days are ahead for fans of Oscar-winner Charlize Theron.

The South African actress showed off a radical makeover as she left a restaurant in Malibu chewing on a toothpick.

Her fair hair had been chopped into a severe brunette bob and her choice of casual top, jeans and sandals did

nothing to lift the look. Miss Theron, who turns 29 on Saturday, was dining with her Irish boyfriend Stuart Townsend, who costars with her in a new film called Head in the Clouds.

The hairstyle was adopted for her role in the film, in which she plays a photographer living in Paris between the wars who is separated from her friends when they go off to fight against Fascism in the Spanish Civil War.

It is not the first time that she has worked with 31-year-old Townsend.

The couple, who are reported to be planning their wedding, met on the set of Trapped two years ago. Miss Theron won an Oscar earlier this year for her gripping portrayal of killer prostitute Aileen Carol Wuornos in Monster.