The 31-year-old actress – who appears alongside the Hollywood legend in ‘Barney’s Version’ – found the star’s playful attitude irritating, as she would find it hard to concentrate when he was around.

She explained: “We only had one important scene together, and he was so annoying!

“Paul Giamatti and I were having our wedding day, and we were doing our big kiss, and Dustin would be like, ‘C’mon, that’s not a kiss. Ooh, now Paul, that’s more like it! Ah-ha, now she’s kissing you back big time! Giving you a stiffie, is it?’ All this stuff.”

However, the ‘An Education’ star confessed she was too scared to reprimand the actor because of his legendary status.

Rosamund added: “He’s completely un-shy. He’ll say things like, ‘Rosamund, which part of your body do you like least?’ just before you do a take. And if it was anyone else you’d say, ‘Oh f**k off’, but it’s Dustin Hoffman, and you realise that he’s suddenly got you to wear a mournful face when it’s supposed to be the happiest day of your life.

“You sort of marvel at how he got you into this different place.”

Sexism is not confined to football commentary boxes. Rosamund Pike, the former Bond girl, complains that she was recently turned down for a leading role because she was not flirtatious enough.

“I auditioned for a job recently, and didn’t get it,” says the actress, speaking at the launch of the Birds Eye View Film Festival. “Word came back that they were looking for ‘a flirty piece of ass’.

“Now, I do not want, and have never wanted, to be a flirty piece of ass, but when told I was not one, I found myself quite offended. I was thrust right back on the most primeval battlefield, the loser at the mating game.

“The point that sex appeal is not the level at which I want to compete was lost on me, momentarily.”
Pike, 32, appeared in the film Made in Dagenham, about women workers’ fight for equal pay. She adds of Hollywood power brokers: “The irony is that a good director needs to be really feminine.

“I mean, look at those fellas out there, with their long hair, – they’re real posers, some of them – natty dress sense and sensitive sides.
“They’re all so busy cleverly accessing their feminine sides that we don’t realise that they’re taking up all the space and pushing into the wings those people who really are feminine.”

It’s a cold, clear day in London and actor Rosamund Pike has just returned from her morning bike ride. “I made a resolution years ago to be more aware of my body, and it’s really helped to hone my instincts,” she says. Those instincts are responsible for scene-stealing roles in Pride & Prejudice, An Education, and, more recently, Made in Dagenham, for which she won ecstatic reviews as a housewife during the 1968 Ford Motors factory strike in Dagenham, England.

But it’s Pike’s performance in Barney’s Version, an adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s prize-winning novel starring Dustin Hoffman and Paul Giamatti (her love interest in the film), which has finally earned Pike awards season buzz. “It was an incredible challenge for Paul and I to play characters in different phases of love from ages 29 to 60—to find language for that,” she says. “Now I’m going to make sure to wear a lot of miniskirts in public before people get the wrong idea.”

The picture of a patrician English Rose, Pike, 31, is excited about the opportunities she’s had to exhibit range and depth. “An Education was the first film that allowed me to play a villain, but also make people laugh,” she says. “That one opened up a lot of doors.” Among those open doors are a host of roles in upcoming films, including The Big Year, a bird-watching comedy opposite Jack Black and Owen Wilson, and The Sea, a drama with Charlotte Rampling. “I suddenly feel understood,” she says of her recent successes. “I’m like the geek at school who suddenly gets to be friends with the cool kids.” —Cayte Grieve

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

British actress Lesley Manville is a veteran of such Mike Leigh films as “Vera Drake” and “All or Nothing,” but she is little known in Hollywood.

That’s changing with Leigh’s “Another Year,” in which Manville is the mirror reverse of Sally Hawkins’ eternal optimist in the director’s 2008 film “Happy-Go-Lucky.” Manville is heartbreaking as a lovelorn woman who sees everyone around her getting at least some of what they want, while she perpetually holds an empty glass.
While reviews are mixed at best for Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls,” the ensemble drama does offer some excellent performances, with Loretta Devine and Kimberly Elise among the standouts.

Other possibilities: Helena Bonham Carter, “The King’s Speech”; Marion Cotillard, “Inception”; Minnie Driver, “Conviction”; Cecile de France, “Hereafter”; Greta Gerwig, “Greenberg”; Gemma Jones, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger”; Keira Knightley, “Never Let Me Go”; Mila Kunis, “Black Swan”; Ellen Page, “Inception”; Rosamund Pike, “Barney’s Version”; Sissy Spacek, “Get Low”; Olivia Williams, “The Ghost Writer.”

New Films International says it has acquired the worldwide rights to Christopher B. Landon’s “Burning Palms,” an edgy comedy set in Los Angeles.

Starring Zoe Saldana, Dylan McDermott, Paz Vega and Rosamund Pike, the film interlaces five stories set in different Los Angeles neighborhoods where no taboo is left unexplored as each character careens toward a dark and often comic fate, the producers said in a synopsis released Wednesday.

“We are excited to be distributing ‘Burning Palms’ worldwide and we are planning the U.S. theatrical release for early 2011,” Nesim Hason, president of New Films International and New Films Cinema, said in a statement.

“‘Burning Palms’ is a smart, independent, cast-driven film that we expect will be a breakout film in the United States theatrically and deliver in the international marketplace,” added Ron Gell, New Films chief content officer.