TORONTO -- Keira Knightley's role in "The Duchess" sees her playing a fashion icon beloved by the English -- a vibrant young woman married to a much older nobleman who lets her down enormously in the Prince Charming department when he fails to show her any affection.
Some 200 years after Lady Georgiana Spencer endured a loveless marriage, her direct descendant Lady Diana Spencer would marry Prince Charles and eventually become the so-called people's princess.
Parallels in the lives of the two women have been drawn before, notably when the book on which "The Duchess" is based was published in 1998 -- the year after Diana's death.
But those parallels aren't particularly welcomed by Knightley or her director, Saul Dibb.
In fact, it seemed a bit of a sore point as they promoted "The Duchess" at the Toronto International Film Festival.
"We did very definitely intend to make a film about Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, not Diana," Knightley said.
"I didn't look into (Diana) as any sort of, I suppose, inspiration for the character, partly because we were basing it on such a wonderful biography. All the information we had was right there."
While there's no reason not to believe in the 23-year-old actor's sincerity, the publicity package handed to reporters certainly pulled no punches in the Diana department.
"If this story sounds decidedly contemporary, that might be in part because the Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Spencer, seems to have shared a twin destiny of fame and adoration, as well as adultery and controversy, with an ancestor who lived 200 years later: Lady Diana, the Princess of Wales," the package reads.
"The similarities between the two are striking."
It seems Knightley and Dibb aren't amused, to say the least, about how their film is being sold to the masses.
"Yeah, I thought you might ask about that," said Dibb, an affable Englishman who sounded more than a little weary as he fielded the question.
The fear is that people will think they approached the project "trying to make a coded film about Diana, which we absolutely did not," he said.
"All we want to kind of put forward against that is the film is strong enough to be judged on its own terms. We're confident that the film (will) ... live on its own terms and not be reduced to a parallel."
It turns out Knightley, born and bred in London, England, doesn't know all that much about Diana anyway.
"I think I was about 11 when she died. You know, I'm very aware of the images but not really aware of exactly what her story is and certainly not enough to draw direct parallels," she said.
"There you see the difference between marketing people and the people that made the film."
At any rate, it would seem to be much ado about nothing.
Anyone who gave a wit about Diana's story would more than likely be enthralled by Georgiana's -- and vice versa. It's a lavish period piece that plays out in grand English manors and, of course, everyone's costuming is elaborate and regal.
Georgiana is wed to the Duke of Devonshire after her mother assures him that the girl is well equipped to provide the male heir he so desperately needs. When the illusions of a fairy-tale marriage are cast aside, the duchess turns to gambling and politics. She eventually grows close to an up-and-coming politician who will become the love of her life.
"I thought that she was fabulous, that she was a fascinating character," said Knightley.
"The idea of this women who's politically so influential and a huge fashion icon and such a force of nature and yet privately is somebody who is so intensely vulnerable and incredibly lonely.
"I thought the combination of those two things was fascinating."
"The Duchess" opens in theatres Oct. 3.
