She is the willowy Australian actor at the heart of a Hollywood love scandal.

Abbie Cornish has given her strongest indication yet of a full-blown romance with Ryan Phillippe, who separated from his Oscar-winner wife Reese Witherspoon after working with Cornish.

Cornish, 25, who appeared at the Sydney premiere of Elizabeth: The Golden Age last night, has revealed her next film project is a love story starring opposite Phillippe.

“I’m doing Last Battle Dreamer which is a Viking film. It’s about Vikings who pillage and do what Vikings do,” she said. “A love story occurs between an Englishwoman and a Viking.”

Asked whether the role would prompt further speculation about her romance with Phillippe, Cornish said “I don’t know”. But she rebuffed any suggestion she might be worried about the rumours.

“I wouldn’t have done the film otherwise,” she said.

The actor has previously refused to comment about her relationship with Phillippe but after Witherspoon made a public appearance with her new partner Jake Gyllenhaal in the US last week the stance appears to have softened.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald