"Serendipity at its finest "

By LOUIS B. HOBSON - Calgary Sun: October 3, 2001

Kate Beckinsale's real life relationship parallels new film

HOLLYWOOD -- Kate Beckinsale knows that love at first sight doesn't just happen in the movies.

In the romantic comedy Serendipity, Beckinsale plays Sara Thomas, a woman who falls in love with Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) a stranger she meets while doing some last-minute Christmas shopping in New York.

Sara and Jonathan are actually buying gifts for their significant others, so they know how foolish their instant attraction seems.

They make a pact, part and go on with their separate lives, but they never really forget one another. Ten years later, fate intervenes and they find themselves searching their hearts and New York City for each other.

In real life, Beckinsale has been living with British actor Michael Sheen for the last seven years. Their daughter Lily is two-and-a-half years old.

"Our relationship has serendipity written all over it," says Beckinsale. "We met when we were cast together in a (stage) production of The Seagull.

"Michael was this hugely popular and respected British stage actor so I really didn't want to do a play with him. I'd never met him, but my mother talked incessantly about his talent," recalls Beckinsale, whose mother, Judy Loe, is a stage actress and casting director for the BBC.

At her mother's urging, Kate relented and agreed to star in The Seagull.

"It really was love at first sight. We discovered we actually lived on the same street in Paris. We became lovers and moved in together very quickly and have been together ever since."

Beckinsale pauses and qualifies her remark.

"We share an apartment, but we've spent a great deal of time apart because of our work. In those seven years together we never managed to have a vacation together; that's how hectic our careers have been."

The birth of their daughter and a little movie called Pearl Harbor changed all that.

"When I was in Hawaii promoting Pearl Harbor I fell in love with the islands and the people, but I didn't have time to enjoy myself. Michael and I vowed we'd come back and just be tourists, which we did. We brought all the grandparents along so they could enjoy being with Lily."

Beckinsale is still stinging from the critical lambasting Pearl Harbor received.

"There were very few sensible reviews of the film. It was mostly rabid, vicious attacks because there had been so much hype on the film. All of us on the film hoped otherwise, but we felt it was inevitable that we'd get trashed."

Beckinsale says she was a bit surprised Cusack agreed to have her as his leading lady for Serendipity.

"I had met John when he was casting for High Fidelity. I was gigantically pregnant at the time and sailed in like a ship," she recalls.

"I gained 65 lbs when I was pregnant with Lily. People assumed I was having twins. At five months, people were convinced I was due any day."

Beckinsale was 25 when she was pregnant but says she "looked like an 11-year-old girl. When Michael would come to the clinic with me for my check ups, the hospital staff would look at me with pity and at him with contempt and disdain.

"It was a humiliating experience for both of us. I'm going to draw on it for a character some day."

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