The Duchess tells the story of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who lived and loved during the late 18th century (and into the 19th century). She was the Princess Diana of her day, probably considering the duchy of Devonshire was one of the most powerful seats in all of England. I rented the film a few weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it. Keira Knightley is very good in it, and Ralph Fiennes is at his smarmy best. The weakest point of the film was the sub-par acting of Dominic Cooper, who played a young politician who has a torrid affair with Georgiana.

There are several sex scenes in the film, most of them between Keira and Dominic. They left me cold, and I doubt I was alone. Keira has just revealed that she couldn’t stop laughing at Dominic as they were filming. Keira claims Dominic had to wear a “nappy” for the scenes, basically flesh-colored underpants. In my opinion, Dominic is rather Hobbit-esque, so I would probably laugh too.

Keira Knightley has revealed she had fits of giggles while filming steamy scenes for The Duchess.

The gorgeous star, who turned 24 yesterday, said she fell about laughing when her co-star Dominic Cooper, 30, had to act in a nappy.

She revealed: “During the sex scene I was luckily fully clothed, but he had to wear this skin-coloured nappy.”

“Sex scenes are never the easiest and you’re meant to be very supportive of each other, but I just completely lost it.”

“The director had to tell me, ‘Pull yourself together’.”

[From The Sun]

Keira had a few sex scenes with Ralph Fiennes too, and those were just… disturbing. But well-acted. Notice Keira isn’t talking about Ralph’s “nappy”, probably because if you got the chance to have a sex scene with Ralph Fiennes, you wouldn’t be laughing.

I’ve read that for some American films, the producers or costume people give the actors what amounts to a g-string with a cod piece. Flesh-colored nappies are probably a more secure bet.

Here’s Keira Knightley relaxing and sipping a late at Calgary International Airport yesterday. Images thanks to BauerGriffinOnline.