As if waiting until December to see the film version of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement wasn't bad enough (the Brits get to see it September!), now I find out that Keira Knightley will do the book justice and get naked during the pivotal fountain scene.

This doesn't just please me because Keira Knightley is hot. If you've read the novel, you know this scene is the instigating event of the entire narrative. In it, Knightley's character, Cecelia, disrobes and dives into a fountain to retrieve a piece of broken vase while Robbie, the son of a servant, watches. Cecelia's little sister, Briony, also sees the scene and misconstrues it, and it's this dramatic irony, as well as Briony's subsequent actions that propels the plot, with tragic consequences.

Cecelia's near nakedness is so essential to the scene that I can't imagine a movie version without it; but if you're Keira Knightley, you don't have get naked just because someone says so. Many stars refuse to do nude scenes under any circumstances. I'm glad the star agrees that the partial nudity is essential to the script, although apparently, that's not her only reason for doing it. Knightley goes on to add that she loves stripping naked in her movies and finds sex scenes "liberating."