Like a scene from a romantic movie, Duran Duran star Nick Rhodes found himself fighting with a gorgeous blonde stranger at Oxford Circus over who had first hailed the same black taxi.

"Of course, it wasn't me but I figured, hey, I am the woman here so I am getting in the cab," laughs American actress Meredith Ostrom.

That auspicious meeting was seven months ago and the couple have been dating ever since.

" I had only been in Britain two days when Nick and I met. It turned out by an extraordinary coincidence we were both going to the same place - namely Mario Testino's party for his book Alive. So in the end we shared a taxi."

Meredith, 24, has just returned from Italy where she is making a new film for director Paolo Virzi. She has also appeared in 3 movies by cult American director Abel Ferrara.

But she refuses to live with Nick, who was divorced from his American wife Julie-Anne ten years ago. "My mother wouldn't like it" she asserts quaintly.

Transcript provided by Diane H.

A scan of this article can be found at Nick Rhodes' Inamorta.