10:19am UK, Saturday May 22, 2004

Keira Knightley has signed a big money deal to play a romantic historical heroine.

The Pirates of the Caribbean actress is getting £4.5m to portray feisty Elizabeth Bennett in the big screen adaptation of Jane Austin's classic novel Pride and Prejudice.

Keira Knightley

The lucrative deal makes the 19-year-old, Britain's second highest paid actress after Oscar-winner Catherine Zeta Jones.

Meanwhile, Keira has vowed she will never move to Los Angeles - because she does not look "perfect" enough.

Teen Hollywood quoted the star as saying she could not live in Hollywood because she would feel under too much pressure to be beautiful.

She said: "I love LA, but I couldn't live there. You see all these perfect people and think you have to look like that.

"You have to be really strong-willed to resist the fad diets and the huge breast implants.

"There's so much pressure to be thin, blonde and busty. I'm skinny, but even I couldn't fit into some of the clothes there!"