It was definitely a case of entrapment. Thirty journalists locked in an Edinburgh hotel suite listening to Catherine Zeta Jones talk about the great time she had just been having with a much older man.

Unfortunately, the tabloid hacks in the audience didn't want to know about the fun and games she had on the film set of her latest film with her 68-year-old co-star Sean Connery.

They wear straining at the leash to ask the only question that really mattered - was the older man in Zeta Jones's life, 54-year-old actor Michael Douglas, in town for the premier?

But they wear initially foiled by the wily media johnnies at 20th Century Fox, who conducted a carefully staged press conference to publicise the debut screening of her new film, Entrapment.

Anyone raising the subject of the 29-year-old Welsh beauty's "special friend" found themselves passed over, in favour of a query about how her training as a ballerina helps her choreograph those amazing fight scenes.

We also learned that she buys all her make-up herself at Boots, that the film's director Jon Amiel calls her Beryl, and that she is so allergic to forward planning that she hasn't a clue where she will be spending next month, let alone the night of the millennium.

The one thing the actress simply would not discuss was who would be accompanying her to the premier in Edinburgh, saying coyly: "My parents and my aunt are with me."

The actress, who was photographed with Douglas at a London restaurant earlier this week, also laughed off questions about her golfing hobby and her favourite partner on the course.

However, showbiz's hottest new partnership swung into view outside the Edinburgh Odeon later last night as predicted, and posed happily with arms round each other's waists, Douglas looking relaxed with a grin playing across his lips.

Minutes later, Connery arrived with his wife, Micheline, and waved to around 1000 star-spotters who braved the cold and windy night to catch a glimpse of their idols.

After pleadings from the crowd, the film's two main stars reappeared to pose together, but the paparazzi had their prize - the first public appearance of Mr Douglas and Ms Zeta Jones.

Earlier, she had said that she had come to accept her life in the public spotlight after last year's box-office hit, The Mask of Zorro, brought her international stardom, adding: "It is welcome to the fish bowl this time."

But she denied ever using the media as a means to an end: "I just don't like it when it is made out I am instigating or manipulating it. I can put my hands up and say I have never really done it."

As the hacks muttered darkly amongst themselves, Zeta Jones blithely switched tack and started gushing about her first meeting with her veteran on-screen partner in Rome when she went to try out for the film.

She said: "When I first met Sean he was as charming and wonderful as I first anticipated. I left Rome thinking: even if I don't do this, at least I have had a day with Sean."

"Big Tam" repaid the compliment by manoeuvring the conversation away from the politics of relationships to his relationship with politics, announcing that today's state opening of Parliament, which he is due to attend, was "the most important day of my life".

After being coaxed back to talk about Entrapment, Connery reserved a cutting comment for another Hollywood veteran, Mel Gibson, after he criticised the believablity of the film's central romantic plot because of the age difference between the two leads.

When told that Gibson had vowed never to play alongside a much younger woman when he reached Connery's age, the Scots actor countered: "He might not get the chance."

Gavin Medeley --- The HERALD, July 1, 1999

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