Thanks to her standout performance in the surprising hit “Bend It Like Beckham” (2002), unknown actress Keira Knightley vaulted to the attention of moviegoers outside her native England. Prior to her playing a young semi-pro soccer player who befriends an Indian girl more interested in joining the team than following her parents' traditional ways, Knightley had already amassed a long list of film, television and theater credits, including a famed – albeit brief – appearance in “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” (1999) as Sabe, Natalie Portman’s decoy queen. But it was the juggernaut
In The Duchess, Keira Knightley plays Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire, an 18th-century ancestor of Princess Diana who was a fashion icon, political activist, and target of society gossip mongers. She also saw her life…
