Sir Ben Kingsley has found love in the shape of a German advertising executive 31 years his junior.
The newly knighted actor recently left his girlfriend of nine years after becoming smitten with 27-year-old Alexandra Christmann. He now wants her to move permanently from Berlin to his Oxfordshire home.
Sir Ben, 58, appeared in public with Miss Christmann at last month's Oscars, where he missed out on an award for best supporting actor for his performance in Sexy Beast.
Miss Christmann revealed she was originally approached by the actor at her table in a restaurant in Germany.
She said: 'While I was in the ladies' room he very politely asked my companion all about me and when I returned we invited him to join us at a bar. From that night on I think we both fell in love.'
Miss Christmann is the youngest in a long line of lovers for Sir Ben, who won an Oscar for his 1982 role in Gandhi. He has already been married twice, to actress Angela Morant and theatre director Alison Sutcliffe.
He left Ms Sutcliffe after 14 years for 33-year-old TV producer Kate Townsend but is understood to have ended their nine-year relationship to be with Miss Christmann.
Sir Ben is not the only big-name actor to favour younger partners.
Harrison Ford, 58, dated a string of young celebrity beauties after splitting with his wife of 18 years. He has been linked to Minnie Driver, 31, Jack Nicholson's on-off girlfriend Lara Flynn Boyle, 32, and, most recently, Calista Flockhart, 37.
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones seem to have no problem with their 25-year age gap, while 68-year-old Joan Collins recently dismissed suggestions her marriage to Percy Gibson, 36, was under strain.
