In 2004, Keira Knightley worked on three film sets - The Jacket, Pride & Prejudice and Domino - and there was plenty of news and media from each one. In 2005, however, Keira could be found on just one film set - the Pirates sequels - and a closed set at that. Very little information or images have trickled out, but the year was no less busy for Keira news. Personally she split from her boyfriend of two years, professionally she received her best ever reviews on a highly-acclaimed movie, while another was shot down in flames. She continued to be high-profile in magazines and was seen to be more active in charity campaigns and more relaxed and confident in interviews. The year ended with her highest accolade yet - a Golden Globe Award nomination.

KeiraWeb.com had its best year yet, with widespread linkage to, and massive downloads of, its video clips for Pride & Prejudice and Domino. Official media companies for both movies chose KeiraWeb among very few fan sites to promote exclusive video clips and movie material. Contributors exceeded themselves with press material and links wihch helped provide a solid three months of promotions for both movies.
KeiraWeb remains the primary source of Keira video clips on the Internet, and premiered New Year's Eve, When Keira Met Johnny and clips from Pure, and the site broke two exclusive announcements about Keira's filmography. One from the past - 1999's Villette radio play, and one for the future - Alessandro Baricco's Silk.
 
 

January

- Promotional material started to appear for Domino and especially The Jacket, which is the first Keira movie of the year to be released.
- The Jacket's public premiere was revealed to be the Sundance Film Festival in Utah this month, and Keira attended along with co-stars Adrien Brody and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
- Keira was nominated for Best Actress at the Empire Film Awards and Best Female Action Movie Star at the People's Choice Awards.
 

February

- On the 17th Keira was one of many stylish ladies to honour fashion designer Matthew Williamson at the Moet et Chandon Fashion Tribute award show at the Old Billingsgate Market in London's East End. An after-show party was held at the Kabaret Prophet Club in Mayfair.
- Keira's mother Sharman Macdonald stepped into the limelight this month as her new play The Girl With Red Hair opened in Edinburgh before transferring to London. Several interviews were published in the broadsheets and Keira joined her mum at the opening night in Edinburgh on the 19th.
- Tabloid gossip suggested Domino Harvey was unhappy with the movie's portrayal of her life, which she rubbished a week later, saying she was heavily involved in the screenplay and soundtrack.
- The first release date for Domino was announced this month, a date which was to change countless times before its final release.
- On the 23rd, while in LA promoting The Jacket, Keira attended a launch party for the new footwear range from Taryn Rose, held at the Soho House Oscar Village in West Hollywood.
- The official US premiere of The Jacket took place on the 28th at the Pacific Arclight Theatre in LA, with an after-show party held at the nearby Falcon Club.
 

March

- Early in the month Keira and the rest of the Pirates of the Caribbean cast and crew knuckled down to start the long haul of filming not one but two sequels to one of the biggest movies of 2003. Secretly-snapped photos sneaked out from the set in the first week of filming showed Keira in what appeared to be a wedding dress.
- In the run-up to Britain's annual charity campaign Comic Relief, The Sun newspaper had a report on Keira's and Richard Curtis' trip to Ethiopia.
- In the early hours of the 12th Keira and TV presenter Johnny Vaughan rounded off the BBC's coverage of Comic Relief night with a 90-minute comedy clip compilation show called When Johnny Met Keira. It featured Keira in bed in her pyjamas (except for a short scene in a football strip) and was the first time she'd done such a long straight-to-camera stint at TV presenting.
- On the 21st Disney announced they were entering a Pirates of the Caribbean 2 boat in the Volvo round-the-world yacht race, and the movie's stars would attend in-port promotions at various legs of the trip, Keira's being in the UK.
- Keira left her teenage years behind her on the 26th when she spent her 20th birthday at home with family and friends.
 

April

- The first ever pics of Keira in a bikini emerged on the 6th. Keira and Jamie were snapped on the beach and in the sea off St. Vincent in the Caribbean.
- The BBC's annual Essential Top 50 was broadcast on the 22nd, listing all the people and places to keep an eye on in UK culture this year. Keira rose to No.10 this year, from last year's No.39.
- KeiraWeb uncovered a previously-unknown Keira performance on the 28th, a 1999 BBC radio adaptation of the Charlotte Bronte novel Villette. Keira played a character called Polly.
- A brand new magazine focussing on the British film industry was launched on the 29th, with Keira gracing its debut edition.
 

May

- A second Japanese TV commercial for Lux Styling mousse featuring Keira appeared online on the 6th. Called Timeless Princess, it was recorded in Los Angeles in 2004.
- The UK premiere of The Jacket took place in London on the 9th with a private showing at the Rex cinema in Soho. Director John Maybury and co-star Daniel Craig showed up for the low-key event with Keira.
- The UK papers seemed to have more press about Domino this month than Keira's upcoming movie The Jacket, but the film debuted at No.8 in the UK after its release on the 13th.
- A survey of celebrity music tastes by RealRhapsody revealed Keira to be a fan of both recent and 80s music, from Morrissey, The Smiths, The Cure and Tori Amos to Coldplay, Maroon 5, Supergrass and The White Stripes.
- Domino Harvey was arrested on possession of a banned drug and bailed to appear before magistrates in Gulfport, Mississippi at a later date.
- On the 24th a new DVD compilation of short films came to light called Stories Of Lost Souls. One of the films featured on the disc was New Year's Eve, the 2002 short by Colin Spector and starring Keira and Stephen Mangan. The collection of films was aired at the Cannes Film Festival this month and was only brought to Keira fans' attention when someone in Cannes spotted a promotional poster for it. It was soon discovered that the DVD was already in bargain bins in the US, and quickly appeared on eBay shortly after.
- Keira's first Pirates 2 related interview was conducted by ABC's Good Morning America and was broadcast live from the Caribbean on the 25th. Orlando Bloom shared the questions.
 

June

- Keira is nominated for Best Actress: Action/Adventure in King Arthur at the Teen Choice Awards, it was announced on the 11th.
- Filming of the Pirates sequels was on hiatus from mid-June, and Keira returned home. She was seen at the Wyndham Theatre opening night of As You Like It, starring Sienna Miller.
- Keira and Jamie visited the Glastonbury music festival on the last weekend of June, and were photographed in very muddy wellies. Newspaper reports stated they were heckled by a bunch of drunken louts and had to leave earlier than planned.
- On the 27th Domino Harvey was found dead in her bathtub at her West Hollywood home. She had died from a heart attack at the age of 32. Director Tony Scott, writer Richard Kelly and producer Samuel Hadida all paid tribute in the following days. The press had untrue speculation that the ending of the film would now be changed and again that Domino was unhappy with the movie portrayal.
 

July

- On July 7th London's underground tube train system was attacked by four suicide bombers, killing 41 people on the subway and 15 on a bus in Tavistock Square. Keira was in London on that day and joined the resilient Londoners by deliberately taking a tube journey in the days that followed.
- Pride & Prejudice would premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, it was announced on the 12th.
- On July 13th Keira and her mother were photographed in New York on a shopping trip, but on the 14th Keira was photographed in London's Trafalgar Square at noon for the two minutes silence to remember the victims of the London bombings exactly one week before.
- Keira travelled to Hamburg, Germany on the 25th for the first in a busy promotional push for Pride & Prejudice.
 

August

- Jamie Dornan's agency spokesman issued a statement on the 8th confirming that Keira and Jamie had split up as lovers, but would remain friends: "Keira and Jamie have decided to call a halt to their relationship in its current phase but they remain completely committed to each other as friends and will continue to see each other in this capacity."
- A new Asprey photoshoot was revealed, with Keira being compared to 1960s model Jean Shrimpton, as the image was a very Sixties look, including one with Keira nude, her modesty covered only by a leather handbag.
- Keira's promotional interviews for Pride & Prejudice started to appear in the UK press, with many cover photos in the Sunday glossy mags and interviews in newspapers. Magazines including FilmReview, Hello! and Empire had features with Keira and shots from the film. Video clips also started to appear online. Meanwhile, the Sunday Times of the 21st revealed that two different endings had been filmed, and Europe would be getting the novel's ending with Mr. Bennet, but North America would be getting a post-marriage kiss.
- Keira returned to the Caribbean at the end of the month to resume filming of the Pirates sequels.
- The Sunday Mirror on the 28th exclusively announced that Keira was secretly dating Australian DJ and half of duo Bodyrockers Kaz James. They were said to be trying to keep their relationship under wraps. On the 28th Keira was in Hollywood conducting a Q&A session with members of the Screen Actors Guild following a presentation screening of Pride & Prejudice.
 

September

- Hollywood coroners released details stating that Domino Harvey had died from an accidental overdose of a drug called fentanyl.
- The 5th saw the world premiere of Pride & Prejudice in London's Leicester Square, which I was fortunate to attend. Keira and other cast members were staying at the Dorchester Hotel for interview and photocall purposes. Keira was interviewed by GMTV among other networks, then travelled to BBC Radio 1 for a chat with Jo Whiley on her lunchtime show. At 6pm Keira arrived at the Odeon with her brother Caleb and her PA. She wore a stunning purple and gold Matthew Williamson dress. She handled the press line and their tactfully posed questions about Kaz James with her usual expert diplomacy and later appeared on stage in the theatre with the rest of the cast and Working Title's founders. Kaz James himself arrived at the premiere, but Keira enjoyed the premiere party with Jamie instead.
- UK papers were full of premiere pics the next day and continued rumours about Keira and Kaz. In a telephone interview for Friday 9th's Daily Mail however, Keira rubbished the rumours and revealed that she'd never even met the man, and that he "...sounds such a sad loser" for making the claims about their apparent relationship.
- The Toronto Film Festival premiered Pride & Prejudice on the 12th, with Keira dazzling the crowds in a figure-hugging outfit.
- Photos from October's issue of Esquire were released today, including Keira's first bare breast photograph, the exposure of which she later denied being aware of during the shoot.
- Following earlier rumours that Keira would play Audrey Hepburn in a biopic and tragic Iraqi-based US journalist Maria Ruzicka, another rumour emerged in September, namely she is to play Agent Joanna Dark in a movie version of the computer game Perfect Dark. None of the rumours were true.
- Towards the end of the month promotions stepped up for Domino, and the media hung on to the story about Keira's bum double Taryn Miles who was brought in for the lapdancing scene.
- From the 19th filming on Pirates moved to Grand Bahama island in The Bahamas for an 80-day shoot.
- Pride & Prejudice debuted at No.1 in the UK box office, taking £2.6million. It went on to spend three weeks at the top spot.
 

October

- A third TV commercial for Lux appeared online, portraying a 'Mirror mirror on the wall' storyline.
- Keira paid her third visit to The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on the 10th, promoting Domino, but the movie was savaged by critics for Tony Scott's mindbending style of cinematography. Many critics praised Keira's kick-ass performance, however, even if only as proof that she can act in varied genres successfully.
- The US premiere of Domino took place at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood on the 11th.
- The November issue of society magazine Tatler featured Keira on its cover for the second time in two years. It also featured a new photoshoot and interview.
- Domino debuted at No.7 in the UK, while Pride & Prejudice was at No.3, the first time since May 2002 that Keira had two movies in the UK Top 10. It came in at No.6 in the US.
- The Pirates cast and crew abandoned the Bahamas on the 22nd, ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Wilma. It eventually passed North of the islands and little damage was done to the sets.
- Movie industry bible Variety announced on the 25th that Keira will receive their annual Personality of the Year award at the British Independent Film Awards in November. Variety said “There's no brighter star in the world today than actress Keira Knightley, who's gone in a few short years from breakout success in Bend It Like Beckham to blockbuster hits like King Arthur, Pirates of the Caribbean and Love Actually. This year, Knightley has demonstrated an impressive range, getting gritty in Domino, dark in The Jacket and solidifying her leading lady status in the critically-acclaimed Pride and Prejudice, while also joining the gangplank again for the much-anticipated Pirates II & III."
- Keira donated a pair of her shoes to be auctioned for Breast Cancer Care. The shoes went on show at the US premiere of the Cameron Diaz movie In Her Shoes. She also designed a corset wihch was auctioned by lingerie retailers Fredericks of Hollywood to raise money for RAINN - the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.
 

November

- It was reported on the 6th, wrongly as it turned out, that director Gurinder Chadha was about to write a sequel to Bend It Like Beckham.
- Keira paid her second visit to Regis & Kelly and her first visit to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, both on the 9th, to promote P&P.
- On the 10th Keira was interviewed on the CBS Early Show and on CNN, and in the evening attended the US premiere of Pride & Prejudice in New York at the Loews Lincoln Square Theater. She wore a specially-designed Calvin Klein dress which failed to contain her breasts adequately on more than one occasion.
Pride & Prejudice opened at No.10 in the US box office, on just 215 screens. That made a per-screen average of a whopping $13,000 per screen.
- Keira paid her first visit to Conan O'Brien on the 11th.
- After an Internet campaign which gathered momentum to such an extent that it made worldwide press, Working Title issued a press release on the 18th confirming that The Kiss - the alternate ending to Pride & Prejudice WILL be available on the DVD, and that the US version would play at selected UK cinemas over the forthcoming weekend.
- On the same day it was also announced that Tulip Fever has been resurrected, on a smaller budget and not necessarily with the same cast.
- Keira's photoshoot by Annie Liebowitz for December's US Vogue appeared online, with Keira as Dorothy in a Wizard Of Oz theme, to celebrate the release of the classic movie on DVD. 
- The first, hotly-anticipated teaser trailer for Pirates DMC appeared on the Pirates Volvo yacht race web site, and was swiftly removed a day later.
- Asprey sponsored a whole day's horseracing in Dubai on the 24th, with all races named after Asprey's products or campaigns, including the Keira Trophy.
- Keira attended the British Independent Film Awards at the Hammersmith Palais in London on the 30th to receive Variety's Personality of the Year award. The $10,000 cheque awarded as a prize she donated to Comic Relief.
 

December

- The first of many nominations for Keira came early in December when the International Press Academy named her a contender for Best Actress as Lizzie Bennet in their annual Satellite Awards. She lost out at the ceremony on the 17th to Reese Witherspoon for Walk The Line, a turn of events to be duplicated several more times during December nominations, especially by Critics Circle and Online Critics groups. 
- Pride & Prejudice rose to its highest position in the US box office on the 5th, when it came in at No.4 on the daily figures table.
- Also on the 5th, Keira conducted her most unusual photoshoot to date - underwater in a giant film studio pool. It was to raise awareness of Third World clean water charity WaterAid.
- The 10th saw Keira's first win of the awards season, Best Actress for Lizzie Bennet from the New York Film Critics Online.
- A perfect exclamation mark to a terrific year for Keira came on the 13th with the announcement live on television that she had been nominated for a Golden Globe Award from the Hollywood Free Press Association. 
- Keira's agent confirmed exclusively to KeiraWeb on the 19th that she has signed on to play Helene Joncour in a movie adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's novel Silk, opposite American actor Michael Pitt.

After receiving almost totally positive criticism of her performance as Elizabeth Bennet, and amid increasing buzz surrounding her chances of Oscar glory in March, the Golden Globe nomination serves to ensure that people remember 2005 as the year in which Keira Knightley proved she can act, proved she can hold a lead role exceptionally well - in a movie in which she appeared in almost every scene - and that she's going to be around for a long time. 
 

Looking Ahead

2006 will see the wrap of Pirates 3, and the opening in theatres of Pirates DMC, a franchise already on its way to a level of fandom approaching that of Star Wars. Keira will also film at least one entire movie, Silk, although Tulip Fever may still be on the cards also.

Keira's 2005 can be best described with the very same words a US critic used to describe her Lizzie Bennet: "The appealing Knightley goes in a promising young actress and comes out a star."