No red carpet for Keira Knightley and Eva Mendes

Actresses Keira Knightley and Eva Mendes had to forsake a red carpet appearance at the Italian premiere of their film Last Night yesterday when actors, directors and screenwriters used the opening of the Rome Film Festival to demonstrate against Silvio Berlusconi's proposed cuts to arts funding.

As several hundred Italian film industry workers joined the protest, the two actresses and their director, the American-Iranian Massy Tadjedin, entered the Parco Della Musica auditorium by a side entrance.

Contrary to a fortissimo report in the Daily Mail which claimed the trio were "forced" off the red carpet by a "storm" of protestors, the three women had actually expressed solidarity with the strikers. After giving paparazzi a quick twirl in their gowns (above) they were happy with the arrangement .

"We are pleased to renounce the red carpet and support you," said Tadjedin.

Last Night is a story of cheating couples. Knightley, more commonly seen in period dramas, plays Joanna, a young Manhattan woman who becomes jealous when she meets her husband's gorgeous new work colleague, Eva Mendes.

But when he (played by the Avatar star Sam Worthington) and Mendes go on a business trip together, Joanna bumps into her former boyfriend (Frenchman Guillaume Canet).

The film's UK release date is yet to be confirmed. ·