Critics have savaged Diana, a biopic of the late Princess of Wales, just hours after its world premiere in London.
Australian actress Naomi Watts, who plays Diana, has already defended her involvement in the controversial film, which follows the princess's romance with London-based Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan.
Watts looked suitably regal on the red carpet in a floor-length white gown and diamonds while greeting and waving at fans.
Within hours of the premiere, a string of merciless reviews in the British press shattered the party spirit.
The Times praised Watts for doing "her level best with a squirmingly embarrassing script" but concluded that the film was still "atrocious and intrusive".
"Poor Princess Diana," wrote Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw.
"I hesitate to use the term 'car crash cinema'. But the awful truth is that, 16 years after that terrible day in 1997, she has died another awful death."
The Daily Telegraph gave the film two stars - one more than both The Guardian and The Times - but was also withering in its assessment.
"What's the point of Diana?" reviewer David Gritten asked rhetorically.
Before the screening, Watts held a press conference at a hotel in Mayfair, not far from Diana's former Kensington Palace home.
"In the beginning, I just thought how do you possibly take on the most famous woman of our time, when everybody feels they know her so well," she said.
"When you play real life characters there's always an extra sense of pressure because of the responsibility to tell the story in the most truthful and accurate way.
"And certainly in the case of Princess Diana there's no one as well known as her to date, or as much documented."
Based on Kate Snell's 2001 book Diana: Her Last Love, the film suggests that Diana started dating Dodi Fayed, whom many friends of the princess say was her real love, to make Khan jealous.
Asked if she felt the film would offend Diana's sons, she told BBC TV: "Hopefully if they get to see the film, they will feel that we have done it in a respectful and sensitive way.
"We try to honour the depiction of her character in the best possible way."
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