Knightley sues over illness claim

Keira Knightley has enjoyed global cinema success

Actress Keira Knightley has begun legal action against a newspaper publisher over suggestions she has lied about having an eating disorder.

The Daily Mail published a photograph of the 21-year-old on a beach, with remarks about her weight, in an article about a girl who had died of anorexia.

Ms Knightley claims the article implies she has been dishonest in denying having any such problems.

She rose to fame in films Bend It Like Beckham and Pirates of the Caribbean.

In a statement via her lawyers, Ms Knightley said she would also challenge the suggestion that she is responsible and to blame for the tragic death of the teenage girl by setting a bad example.

The statement also extended the actress's "deepest sympathies" to the girl's family.

She got her first Hollywood role in Star Wars Episode I but it has been the Pirates of the Caribbean series which cemented her high profile.

There has been frequent speculation about her weight but any suggestion of an eating disorder has been consistently denied, most publicly at a press conference for the European launch of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last summer.