“God, that girl is gorgeous!” runs the message on the internet chatroom. “Definitely one of greatest thinspirations out there…”

Another fan agrees: “She is my one and only inspiration now, she is so amazing!”

Then there is this posting: “Keira is my ultimate inspiration. She helped me to lose weight the first time round, so let’s hope she inspires me enough to do it again.”

It is followed by another: “I love Keira. She is THE One.” And another: “Keira Knightly is so skinny! And again, thanx for the ana [anorexia] and mia [bulimia] tips, those have really helped.”

There are many more tributes to Hollywood actress Keira Knightley on the hundreds of “Pro-Ana” websites, often set up by young women to celebrate the current ‘thin aesthetic’ and allow them to swop tips on how best to starve themselves.

Such postings by young women - one of them going under the chilling chatroom name dying2bthin - would no doubt greatly distress the beautiful 21-year-old star of Pirates Of The Caribbean, for she insists she is naturally thin and wouldn’t want anyone to go to extreme measures to emulate her figure.

She is not, she maintains, and never has been, anorexic, despite recent photographs apparently showing her to have lost weight from her already slender frame.

She puts her slimness down to her genes, and talks of eating whatever she likes and hating the gym because it is so boring.

So natural is her lack of curves and so touchy is she about the subject that she has now, remarkably, instructed lawyers to take legal action against anyone who dares comment on her thinness - even if those comments belong to the grieving mother of an anorexic who starved herself to death in an attempt to look like the stars she so admired.

Two days ago, Miss Knightley launched a libel action against the Mail over an interview we ran earlier this month with the mother of Sophie Mazurek. Her daughter died in December, aged 19 and weighing just 4st, after a two-year battle against the eating disorder.

In an impassioned and moving piece, Rosalind Ponomarenko-Jones blamed the fashion and film industries - increasingly populated by size zero icons - for contributing to her daughter’s death. The impact of such women on vulnerable young girls could not, in her opinion, be underestimated.

Commenting on recent photos of

Keira - looking extremely thin in a bikini - Mrs Ponomarenko-Jones, 46, said that, in her eyes, the star looked unhealthy. She said Keira’s body reminded her of Sophie’s, who was obsessed with skinny stars such as Victoria Beckham and Nicole Richie.

So Keira launched an extraordinary legal offensive, claiming the Mail had suggested she was losing too much weight and could be anorexic.

While extending her sympathy to Sophie’s family, Knightley’s lawyers claimed our article suggested she had ‘dishonestly sought to mislead the public’ over whether she had an eating disorder.

Mrs Ponomarenko-Jones told the Mail last night: “She is just one of many celebrities who are so thin and who young girls aspire to be like. She is part of a trend. She is clearly very hurt, but that can’t be compared to how I am feeling. I am a grieving mother.”

Anorexia rumours, however, are not new to Knightley. Last July she responded robustly to widespread concerns over her appearance at the premiere of Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest - her figure noticeably reduced from what it had been previously.

She commented at the time: “Last night people said to me: ‘How does it feel to be called anorexic?’ I’m not saying there aren’t people in the film industry that suffer from it, because I am sure there are, but I’m quite sure I don’t.

“I’ve had a lot of experience with anorexia - my grandmother and great-grandmother suffered from it, and I had a lot of friends at school who suffered from it. I know it’s not something to be taken lightly and I don’t.

“Whatever people say about my weight they are all wrong, but Hollywood is all about the way you look and I don’t think that’s a healthy thing for anyone.”

So perhaps that is why Keira is so distressed to find herself the latest pin-up girl for anorexics, and why she is apparently so keen to quash an important debate in which she has, like it or not, taken centre-stage.

Gap year student Jay Taylor, 18, from Newcastle, is a recovering anorexic. She is now 7st and an ambassador for the Eating Disorders Association, although at her most ill last year, her weight plummeted to five-and-a-half stone and she almost died.

“When I started to lose weight I was looking at a lot of media images of tiny celebrities, particularly Victoria Beckham in my case,” says Jay.

“It set in my mind the idea that being extremely thin was desirable, and I went all out for that to the point that I became very ill.”

Helen Clarry, 24, from Exmouth has battled with eating disorders since the age of 14. Aged 18, she weighed just 4st and had to be hospitalised. She is now recovering, and at 5ft 5in weighs a healthy 9st, although she says food will always be a problem for her.

“Anorexia is a complex mental illness and the whole issue goes deeper than simply pointing the finger at a number of celebrities. But having their stick-thin bodies plastered over every billboard certainly doesn’t help,” she says.

“Images such as Keira Knightley in her bikini normalise the condition. Someone with serious food issues who opens a copy of Vogue to see size zero models or celebrities will breathe a sigh of relief, because while doctors are telling them they aren’t well, the pictures they are seeing with their own eyes tell a different story.

“In that photo, wearing a bikini, Keira looks very thin. She has always been thin, but it is obvious that she knows she needs to look slim for the industry.”

These, remember, are the impressions of anorexics who admit to having a distorted body image and think anyone a size 12 or over is “fat”. Even they say Keira is very thin, and that it was this image of her which has caught their attention more than other celebrities of late.

Nineteen-year-old Emma Wheatley, from Staffordshire, was given two weeks to live when her weight plummeted to five-and-a-half stone when she was 16. But she fought back and is now 9st.

“I think Keira Knightley looks ill in those pictures of her in a bikini,” she says.

“I have really struggled with my eating disorder. At one point I was so terrified of putting on weight that I was convinced that a lettuce leaf and a glass of water would make me fat. Keira Knightley is in the public eye and is a role model for girls like me, so I think comments about her weight are justified.” Similarly, Lauren-Martin, 18, has been an anorexic for four years.

At 5ft 5in she weighs just 6st, but last October when her weight dropped to under 4st, she was admitted to Ulster Hospital in Northern Ireland.

“I’m not the biggest fan of Keira Knightley, but the pictures of her on the beach did catch my eye,” says Lauren.

“She looks thinner than she did before and that made me think, ‘If she can do it, then why shouldn’t I?’ But that was on a bad day. On good days I try to steer clear of images like that.”

Recovering anorexic Rachel Dickson, 26, is a business adviser from Derby. In November 2004 she was admitted to hospital after her weight dropped to 6st. But even now, she says, images in the media can still tempt her.

“I rarely buy celebrity magazines because seeing how thin the likes of Keira, Victoria Beckham and Nicole Richie are makes me incredibly jealous. I long to be a size two or even a size zero [a UK dress size 4] because they look amazing that way.

“I wouldn’t wish what I’ve been through on any woman, but I think many more will become anorexic if magazines don’t start featuring more curvy celebs. These famously thin women are not just a danger to themselves, they also harm those who look up to them.”

According to the Eating Disorders Association, an estimated 1.1million people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder, of which around 15 per cent of cases are anorexia.

Approximately 80 per cent of these eating disorders are women in the 12-20 age group.

Chief executive Sue Ringwood told the Mail that while images of skinny celebrities may not cause anorexia, they do often impede a sufferer’s recovery.

“We recently surveyed 100 young people with anorexia and none of them said they became anorexic because they were trying to emulate thin celebrities,” she says.

“But they did say that these images made it harder for them to get better when they were struggling to put on weight. They would look at these women in the public eye and equate their thinness with success. They think, ‘How can they be thin and I can’t?’ It adds pressure when they are trying to get well.

“Woman of all sizes compare their bodies with others, and while we should not blame naturally thin people for this, such an environment can become toxic - and sometimes lethal - for some vulnerable girls.”

She adds that the current “thin aesthetic” is coupled with the worrying trend that sufferers are getting younger - as young as eight.

“Anorexia can be extremely dangerous, causing heart and liver failure, but one of the greatest risks is from suicide,” says Sue. “People with eating disorders are 200 times more likely to commit suicide than members of the general public.”

Barbara Pearlman, is director of the Finchley Clinic for Eating Disorders and a chartered clinical psychologist with 25 years’ experience.

She explains that adolescence makes girls very aware of their bodies at the same time as turbulent feelings are stirred up. Sometimes they don’t want to deal with these emotions, so they unconsciously give them a physical form - fat - that, in their mind, is easier to get rid of.

“If you have girls who think that thinness equals ‘I’ve got rid of all this nasty stuff (i.e. fat),’ what they really need to come to terms with is reality - their difficult feelings,” she adds.

“They should not be encouraged to aim for perfection or to think that thinness - something physical - is the solution to their emotional problems. When images in the media show this, such as pictures of skinny models and celebrities, it supports the girls’ distorted reality that “thin” equals ‘perfect’.”

But she points out that the ‘thin’ role models themselves, while being talented actresses or singers, might also have been chosen for their appearance and be under the same sort of pressure on their looks as the girls who emulate them.

Thankfully, the tide appears to be turning against such images. Already, the fashion industry is in revolt over size zero models, so why not the film industry?

Two days ago, Valentino joined Giorgio Armani in his denunciation of using stick-thin models on the catwalk.

“I think now enough is enough with thin models. Recently we have not been watching women on the catwalk but a parade of skeletons,” said the 74-year- old Italian designer.

His comments echoed those of Armani, who said the fashion industry has a duty to “work together against anorexia”.

Sue Ringwood believes that it is just as difficult for people in the public eye to admit to an eating disorder as it is for the young girls who try to emulate them.

“We need to change the stigma attached to eating disorders. People feel ashamed about it.

“It is extremely difficult for those with eating disorders to talk about it or confide in their parents. They are terrified, so why should we expect celebrities to be braver than we would be ourselves?”

Kirsty Ball, from Chepstow in South Wales, was just 11 when she first developed anorexia and bulimia. Eighteen months ago, weighing just 5st, she took an overdose. She emerged from a twomonth coma brain-damaged and needs 24-hour specialist care.

Her parents, Joanne and Martin - like Rosalind Ponomarenko-Jones - believe the images of skinny celebrities in the magazines that Kirsty adored had a huge impact on her once she’d fallen ill. She was also a fan of Pro-Ana websites, which often have pictures of skinny celebrities posted next to those of real anorexics.

Joanne, 45, says: “It makes me really angry to see how these famous women can influence young girls. It may not be their fault, but they have a responsibility, nonetheless.

“When I see pictures of skeletal celebrities now, after what we’ve been through, I think: ‘How can anyone think that’s attractive?’

Joanne and Martin say they are lucky that, unlike Mrs Ponomarenko-Jones, their daughter is still alive. Kirsty is in a state of minimal awareness and fed through a tube. When she returns home from hospital - and the Balls have no idea when that will be - she will need care around the clock.

But that is one image which will not make it on to one of the many Pro-Ana websites.

Actress Keira Knightley is suing a British tabloid, saying that it implied she lied about having an eating disorder.

At issue is a Jan. 11 story in the Daily Mail about a teenage girl who died of anorexia. It was illustrated with a shot of Knightley on a beach in a bikini.

The Pirates of the Caribbean actress, 21, has “publicly denied suggestions that she might be anorexic or have a similar eating disorder,” her lawyer, Simon Smith, said in a statement. He said that any legal action will reiterate that denial.

Knightley will “argue that the Mail’s article suggests that she has dishonestly sought to mislead the public about whether she has anorexia or similar eating disorder and will show that she does not have anorexia.”

Last summer, at the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest London premiere, Knightley emphatically denied that she suffers from anorexia. “I don’t have it. I’m very sure I don’t have it,” she said.

She continued: “I’ve got a lot of experience with anorexia. It was in my family hugely. My grandmother and my great grandmother suffered from it. And I’ve got a lot of friends at school who suffered from it. So I don’t think it’s anything to be taken lightly.”

If the case is not settled, it could go to court in London later this year.

Associated Newspapers, the publishers of the Daily Mail, did not have a comment Tuesday.

With size 00 figures to aspire to, celebrities are shrinking in front of our eyes. Only this week Pirates Of The Caribbean star Keira Knightley’s skinny frame was revealed as she holidayed on a Pacific island. But for ordinary young girls, attempting to emulate this image is often dangerous. Last month, Rosalind Ponomarenko-Jones, 46, lost her daughter Sophie Mazurek, 19, to anorexia. Rosalind, from Powys, Wales, blames the fashion industry for Sophie’s death. She says:
Seeing Keira in her bikini made my stomach turn. She is losing weight too quickly and I think she is over-exercising. You can tell by her belly button that she is not healthy. There is no fat underneath her piercing and it is hanging loosely. To me, it is unattractive: she looks more like a man than a woman.

Tragically it reminds me of how Sophie looked in her final months. She, too, had a belly button piercing and where it once used to sit comfortably in her pillowy stomach, by the end it was dangling from the flap of skin covering her hollowed-out midriff. It is a tiny detail but one that makes me think that Keira has, or is on the way to having, an eating disorder.

Keira, like my daughter, has never been a big girl. Looking at pictures of her two years ago it is inconceivable to think she was fat. All I can think is that she must be under tremendous pressure from the fashion and movie industries to aspire to an impossibly stick-thin look.

That pressure is passed through celebrities like Keira and Victoria Beckham on to vulnerable girls like Sophie. I hold the whole industry responsible for my daughter’s death and I hope by sharing her story, other lives can be saved.

Sophie began obsessing about what she was eating when she was 17. In the kitchen she was keen to help me prepare the food. She offered to chop the vegetables and pored over the ingredients of anything I’d bought prepackaged.

Then she stopped eating cheese, declaring that she’d never liked it. She’d been a vegetarian since she was 12, so many of the dishes I’d made for her were cheese-based, I thought it was odd that she’d suddenly decided she didn’t like it. Still, she could have been out drinking or taking drugs so, as teenage phases go, I really wasn’t too worried.

Besides, unhealthy eating had never been an issue in our family. I’d always cooked a family meal every evening for Sophie and my other three children, Lauren, 25, Jacob, 17, and Polly, 11. On Fridays they were allowed a treat of an oven-baked pizza and chips, but that was the only time they ever ate junk.

Also we led an active life walking our dogs, so at 17 Sophie was her naturally healthy weight which, as she was 5ft, was eight-and-a-half stone.

However, it was in that year that Sophie enrolled on an animal care course at a college in North Shropshire. She stayed in the halls of residence during the week and at weekends she’d either be working at a supermarket or out with her friends.

As a result, the only time I really saw her was on a Sunday night when I’d drive her back to college.

I didn’t think she was spending too much time away from home, I was happy for her. I thought that she was having fun and doing all the things teenagers were supposed to do.

It was when my husband Lloyd, 48, and I went on holiday to Tunisia in October 2004 that I first noticed something was badly wrong.

When we returned, she was at home for the first time in weeks. I was shocked by how skinny she was. Her legs looked like twigs.

She reluctantly agreed to be weighed and the scales read sevenanda-half stone. Straight away I feared anorexia, so we sat down and talked it through. She finally admitted that she’d been skipping the canteen meals, which were inclusive in her college fees, because she wanted a flatter stomach like the models and celebrities in the magazines.

I was horrified and tried to reason with her, but she said her friends had complimented her and that the boys would fancy her more now.

She promised me she’d eat properly from then on, but of course she was still at college so I had no idea what she was eating. By Christmas that year she was painfully thin, probably around six stone, so I took her to our doctor.

She stayed at home after that and I was mortified to see she was only eating two mouthfuls of pasta for lunch. At dinner she’d take her food into the lounge and although I thought she was eating it, days later I’d find it stuffed in the pockets of her trousers.

I tried reasoning with her, shouting at her, explaining the dangers she was putting herself under, but she was like a closed book.

Eventually, I took her back to the GP and after several more visits Sophie was admitted to hospital with dangerously low blood sugar.

She spent the next 15 months in a specialist eating disorder ward at a hospital near Telford, Shropshire. Sophie had a feeding tube up her nose and we had to go to regular family counselling sessions.

Each time, I felt like my daughter was becoming a stranger. She said she didn’t have many friends and it was obvious she had no self-esteem. It was nearly impossible to get her to open up.

Even though she was discharged in May last year, I don’t think she ever recovered. She was back up to seven stone, but almost immediately the weight fell off again.

I pleaded with the health authorities to return her to the hospital, but as she had turned 18 she was officially an adult - they could not force her to do anything against her will.

By December the situation was perilous. She weighed four stone and could hardly stand without support. She couldn’t see properly, she was hypoglycaemic and had contracted hypothermia. Finally she agreed to be treated - but it was too late.

Sophie was admitted to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford on December 10, but she died 11 days later of heart failure caused by malnutrition brought on by anorexia.

I wouldn’t wish what we went through as a family on my worst enemy. Burying a child is probably the hardest thing any parent has to contemplate.

So to see fashion magazines glamorising size 00 women is truly deplorable. Women should be proud to be women and flaunt their curves.

In my mind, women like Victoria Beckham and Keira Knightley aren’t attractive, they have masculine physiques. It is shameful that they are in such influential positions but don’t think about how their actions can affect girls like my Sophie.

I champion The Dove advertisement campaign for real beauty because it uses real women. It teaches women to be happy with their natural shapes.

Anorexia is an affliction and an addiction. When I was a child, smoking was seen as glamorous but now we all know that it kills. It is hardly seen in films and never promoted in other media. I think the same should be true of emaciated women.

Thinness should carry a health warning just like obesity. If women didn’t aspire to be skinny then maybe my beautiful daughter would still be here today.