Fiennes holds up premiere

There's late, there's fashionably late, and now there's Ralph Fiennes late.

At the West End premiere of his latest movie The Constant Gardener last night, the star kept everyone waiting as he struggled to get there on time.

And we do mean everyone: the audience, his hosts, his brother Joseph, John Le Carré - the man who wrote the book - and even his own co-star, Rachel Weisz. His excuse? Oh, just the usual. Air traffic. Ordinary traffic. Engine problems (as in jet engine problems). And, of course, the weather.

For Fiennes had, in fact, rushed from LA, where he had ducked out early of another screening to make it to Leicester Square. Given which, it is perhaps a miracle he got there at all.

After delaying the start of the film by half an hour with extended speeches, the organisers of the BFI London Film Festival were about to give up when Fiennes sprinted into the foyer. "I was hoping they might

have parachuted me in a tuxedo but I'm not blond," he said, referring to new 007 Daniel Craig, the first blond James Bond. Fiennes had been among those linked to the role. Sandra Hebron, the festival's artistic director, said: "He was truly heroic."

Fiennes added: "It seems everything was against me - it was the most mad trip. I'm very happy our film is opening the festival so it's great to be here."

Weisz, wearing a Rowland Mouret dress, ignored the rain to dismiss comments by Gwyneth Paltrow that London was dirty and depressing. She said: "London is thrilling. I love being here and it feels great to be back." The pair star as husband and wife in Fernando Meirelles's acclaimed political thriller, which deals with the exploitative activities of big pharmaceutical firms in Africa.

Moved by the plight of the people of Kenya, where the film was set and shot, the cast set up the Constant Gardener Charitable Trust, which has already built schools, medical centres, water tanks and even a bridge in areas of extreme poverty.

Weisz said: "We're not raping and pillaging villages and then leaving. We've had to be very sensitive during filming and we've set up a charity we are all patrons of."

Le Carré said: "The film-makers did me proud. They did themselves proud. It's not the book of the film, it's the film of the film."