An average of 10,000 people a year send letters to the Italian city of Verona, asking romantic advice of Shakespeare’s tragic teenage girl, the personification of young love, says Richard Fitzpatrick

Keira Knightley has been confirmed as the lead in ‘My Fair Lady’.

Mary Haines (Meg Ryan) is a successful, part-time fashion designer with a handsome Wall Street husband Stephen, a 12-year-old daughter Molly (India Ennenga) and a coterie of loyal friends: women’s magazine editor Sylvie (Annette Bening), clucky mother hen Edie (Debra Messing) and sassy lesbian author Alex (Jada Pink Smith).

Several doomed attempts have been made - all with big-name stars attached - to re-make George Cukor's classic 1939 story of catty New York society, a story that has always held a strong fascination.