"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Those words of Dickens can easily be applied to Keira's 2006. From the highs of an Academy Award nomination and the awarding of the Chanel contract, to the lows of the anorexia rumours, an unprecedented interest in her private life and the furore of the Vanity Fair cover, this year has been the most turbulent and talked about in Keira's career so far. Nevertheless, her average of filming 2-3 new movies a year continued, and next year may see a return to the awards circuit if the early reviews about Atonement and Silk are to be believed. Here, then, is the third annual KeiraWeb.com review of the year: Keira Knightley's 2006.
 
 

JANUARY

- Best Actress nominations for Keira's Lizzie Bennet in Pride & Prejudice continue to come in from regional film societies and Critics Circles, as they had throughout December. Many of them declare Reese Witherspoon winner for Walk The Line. Keira did win the New York Film Critics Online award though.
- On the 12th, Keira and Sharman travel to Rome for meetings with the production company Fandango, producers of Silk, and its director Francois Girard.
- Keira attended her first big awards ceremony on the 17th, the Golden Globes, wearing a white Valentino dress and vintage Cartier earrings. Reese Witherspoon won the Best Actress award. Many fashion critics on TV and in the press declared Keira 'best dressed' at the event.
- Pride & Prejudice is nominated for six awards at the BAFTAs, but there is surprise that Keira is not nominated for Best Actress.
- The month ends with the fantastic news that Keira has received a nomination for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. Keira was asleep in her Caribbean hotel room after filming on Dead Man's Chest, but later said: "We spent a glorious summer making this film in lovely England, with lovely, lovely director Joe Wright. It was great news to wake up to after a long night shoot on a pirate ship -- four wonderful nominations! I'm so proud." Keira is the third youngest Best Actress nominee.
 

FEBRUARY

- Vanity Fair issue a press release giving details of their March issue, featuring Keira and Scarlett Johansson naked on the cover, together with the magazine's guest editor Tom Ford. Initial reaction from fans and media was negative, suggesting that it was purely a desperate publicity-seeking stunt and that Keira in particular had 'sold out' to the Hollywood ideal of 'sex (and nudity) sells'. The article, about the beauty of Hollywood, featured many other celebrities, and only a much smaller version of the cover image was featured of Keira inside the magazine.
- On the 12th Keira conducted a webchat at the Los Angeles Times, speaking to fans and movie critics alike for 40 minutes or so.
- The next day Keira attends the Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
- Keira paid her first visit to The Ellen Degeneres show on the 17th, to promote the Pride & Prejudice DVD. She talked about the Vanity Fair shoot, and displayed her talent for playing 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' on her teeth !
- Pride & Prejudice won one BAFTA Award on the 19th, director Joe Wright who won the 'Carl Foreman Award for special achievement by a British Director/Producer or Writer in their first feature film'. On collecting his award, he berated BAFTA for not nominating "his leading lady".
- Paparazzi pictures from the Caribbean confirm that Keira is more than just good friends with her Pride & Prejudice co-star Rupert Friend.
- Filming on Silk begins in Japan with Michael Pitt and the Japanese cast.
 

MARCH
- Filming of Pirates of the Caribbean in the Caribbean comes to an end as the project goes onto hiatus until late summer. Remaining filming will be done in California.
- The Daily Mail announces that Keira will be rejoining director Joe Wright on an adaptation of Ian McEwan's bestselling novel Atonement, and that filming will take place in the summer.
- Keira arrives in LA prior to the Academy Awards, staying at the Chateau Marmont hotel courtesy of Universal Pictures, and attends several functions, including the Diamond Aquifer Mystical Retreat, and a party held by her US talent agency Endeavor.
- Keira attends the Kodak Theater for the 78th Academy Awards, wearing a burgundy crushed taffeta Vera Wang dress, once again voted one of the best on the red carpet. She sat on the front row of the auditorium next to her brother and Jack Nicholson. Following a comedy profile of the Best Actress contenders, including Keira, Reese and Dame Judi Dench, she lost out to Reese Witherspoon once more for the accolade. She attended the Vanity Fair after show party, having changed into a black Missoni dress.
- While in California, Keira conducts another photoshoot for Vogue magazine, in Santa Monica.
- On her return to the UK, her flight to Heathrow is diverted due to bad weather.
- Variety announces another project that Keira hopes to film in 2007 - The Best Time Of Our Lives, a drama reconstructing true events in the life of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his friends and family. The screenplay has been written by Keira's mother Sharman Macdonald.
- At the Empire Film Awards on the 13th, Pride & Prejudice wins Best British Film, Kelly Reilly (Caroline Bingely) wins Best Newcomer, but Thandie Newton beats Keira to Best Actress.
- Keira turned 21 years old on the 26th and partied at the Paper and Glass Club in London's Piccadilly. The event was 1920s themed, with Keira dressed as a flapper girl and Rupert as a gangster.
- Keira flies out to Rome to begin filming Silk in Rome studios and on location in the town of Sermoneta.
- The Daily Mail announces that James McAvoy has been cast as the male lead in Atonement.
 

APRIL

- Keira will donate her Academy Awards Vera Wang dress to the Oxfam charity, to be auctioned on eBay to raise money for the East African drought. The dress goes on display in the window of Oxfam's Notting Hill store, then goes to New York's Vera Wang flagship store in Madison Avenue.
- The latest Vogue photoshoot appears online and is greeted rather coolly by Keira's fans. The polka dress and accessory dog didn't wow many people. Even the cover image of Keira didn't get a very warm reception.
- Keira is No.11 in the annual Sunday Times Rich List for UK under-30s.
- Chanel officially announces on the 26th that Keira will be the new face of their Coco Mademoiselle fragrance. Vice president of Chanel Fragrance said: "What makes Keira exceptional is that she shows strength and independence through the film roles she chooses to play. And she certainly has a vein of irreverence that is similar to Mademoiselle Chanel herself." On gaining the contract Keira said: "(I am) really proud to have been asked to work with such an iconic house as Chanel, and thrilled to follow the extraordinary women who have been associated with it before."
 

MAY

- The auction for Keira's Oscar dress ends on the 1st, with a Chicago resident paying £4,300.
- The first published biography of Keira's career so far goes on sale on the 4th. Called simply 'Keira Knightley', it has been written by Brandon Hurst and consists mostly of previously published news stories and interview quotes.
- Keira is confirmed to be starring in The Best Time Of Our Lives. Filming is rumoured to begin in January.
- A couple of theatre rumours emerge regarding Keira. The first is Eliza Doolittle in a new version of My Fair Lady, and the other is Lisa Voice, girlfriend of singer Billy Fury, with Johnny Depp rumoured to be playing Billy.
- Keira ends filming on Silk and returns to the UK. Photographs of her apaprently wearing a Kabbalah bracelet flood the newspapers, magazines and newswires.
 

JUNE

- Filming on Atonement begins mid-month at Stokesay Court in Shropshire. Scenes are also shot at Pinewood-Shepperton Studios in London.
- Keira appears on the cover of July's InStyle magazine, with an extreme photoshopped image that fans find horrible and amusing in equal measure.
- Keira attends the US premiere of Pirates DMC at Disneyland, California. She wears a white chiffon Chanel dress. Johnny and Orlando have the majority of talk show promotions, although Keira does chat to E! and ET.
 

JULY

- Keira begins the day of the UK premiere with a live chat on London's Capital Radio Breakfast Show, then onto Jo Whiley's midday show at BBC Radio 1.
- On one of the hottest days of the year, Keira attends the UK premiere of Pirates DMC at the Odeon in London's Leicester Square. She wears a barely-there gold Gucci dress, which prompts concern about her health and the rumour that she has an eating disorder.
- Next day, the 4th, Keira is asked at the press conference for Pirates DMC at the Savoy, what it's like to be called anorexic. She denies she is but states that her family has a history of the disorder.
- A waxwork exhibition featuring the main characters from Pirates DMC begins at Madame Tussaud's in London.
- Keira becomes DJ on a national network of radio stations to promote Pirates DMC (pre-recorded earlier in the month). She chose a playlist of songs including James Brown, Britney Spears, Dido and The Killers.
- Pirates DMC opens on both sides of the Atlantic and breaks all sorts of records, including highest ever3-day opening, first movie to take $100m in two days and highest per-cinema takings for a wide release. In the following weeks, as it opens around the world, it breaks national box office records in the majority of the countries it opens in.
- Keira attends the concert and after-show party for Lily Allen's debut gig in London. Keira is filming Atonement with Lily's brother.
- Atonement location shooting finishes in Shropshire and moves to Westminster on the 24th. Keira is snapped in a nurse's uniform in street scenes.
 

AUGUST

- The global box office for Pirates DMC passes that of the first movie, with more than a quarter of countries still to launch the film.
- The Independent newspaper claims that Keira is one of several celebrities who have fallen victim to a spate of celebrity phone hacking, in the hope of gaining scoops or insider gossip.
- Keira wraps filming Atonement and soon flies out to LA to resume filming on Pirates 3.
- Keira's beach tantrum in Pirates DMC wins her Choice Hissy Fit at the Teen Choice Awards on the 21st.
- Keira attends a birthday bash for her stylist Rachel Zoe at the Social Hollywood Club on the 24th.
- On the 25th Keira attends the Silver Spoon Hollywood Buffet at a private residence in Los Angeles. It was a pre-show party for the Emmy Awards.
- Atonement wraps filming at Redcar beach, which was used for the Dunkirk evacuation scene.
 

SEPTEMBER

- POTC writers confirm the subtitle for Pirates 3 will be At Worlds End.
- Working title announces that Atonement has now wrapped completely and entered into post-production.
- Pirates DMC breaks the $1billion global box office barrier on the 10th, and shortly after becomes the third biggest movie of all time, behind Titanic and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. With Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, this is now two movies Keira has in the all-time Top 10.
- Mid-month Keira visits Paris for a meeting with Chanel's promotional team, ahead of next year's advertising campaign for Coco Mademoiselle.
 

OCTOBER

- Lindsay Lohan announces she has been cast in The Best Time Of Our Lives. The news is greeted with horror by many Keira fans, who see Lindsay as everything that Keira is not. She tells MTV that there is a lesbian undertone, prompting the world media to conjure up all sorts of stories, enhancing the hatred among Keira's fans.
- Keira makes her debut in the respected tome DeBrett's People Of The Year.
 

NOVEMBER

- On the day that Keira wraps filming her scenes in Pirates AWE, she has reportedly told the Daily Mail that the movie will be her last for the franchise, and she will not be involved with any rumoured fourth movie. The writers of Pirates deny she has said anything of the sort.
- A few days later, two news stories emerge from a party Keira attended, hosted by Lindsay Lohan while she was in London to present the World Music Awards. The first was that Keira and Rupert were vocally boasting of their engagement, and the second was that Lindsay deliberately ignored Keira all night. The engagement story was later denied by close friends, claiming it had been fabricated as mutual promotion between the party's venue and a press agency.
 

DECEMBER

- Keira donates a green beanie hat to the Wellbeing Of Women miscarriage charity. Its eBay auction ends at £695.
- The Pirates DMC DVD breaks first-week records on both side of the Atlantic and looks set to become the biggest selling DVD of all time.
- Keira's appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show last year, and in particular her playing a tune on her teeth, has made it into the Top 10 'viral downloads' on the Internet in 2006.