Knightley slams the trailer of her film The Duchess

London (ANI): Keira Knightley has slammed the trailer of her new film 'The Duchess' for suggesting that the period drama is inspired from the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. In the new movie, the 23-year-old actress plays Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, a distant relation of Princess Diana who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

The trailer, which is currently being shown in cinemas ahead of the movie's release next month, shows juxtaposed images of Knightley's character and Princess Diana and reads: "The two were related by ancestry and united by destiny."

"I am Georgiana. I am not Diana. The film is not about Diana," the Telegraph quoted Knightley, as saying. The promo has also come under fire from Amanda Foreman, who wrote the biography, which the film is based on, calling it 'a bad joke.'

"There is absolutely no reason to have done this trailer, which is a bad joke," she said. "The marketing people probably thought the only way they could get young popcorn-eating brigade to see this film was if they made some comparison with Diana. But they did not need to and should not have done it," she added.

She also said that the 'united by destiny' tag is inaccurate. "I don't actually think that Georgiana died in a carriage crash," she said.