Hey Jude, how do you still look this good at 46?
IT is 20 years since his portrayal of the brooding Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr Ripley earned him international heartthrob status.
Yet at the age of 46 Jude Law seems to have an even more toned physique, if these pictures are anything to go by.
Law was pictured in skimpy white swimming trunks as he shot scenes in Venice for The New Pope, looking far from holy as he emerged from the water. He also walked hand-in-hand with co-star Ludivine Sagnier, 39, who wore a colourful bikini and a large necklace bearing a cross.
The New Pope is a follow-up to the 2016 Sky Atlantic series The Young Pope – dubbed ‘House Of Cardinals’ – in which Law played Lenny Belardo, the Archbishop of New York who becomes Pope Pius XIII.
So how has the tanned, blond and effortlessly handsome actor who played Dickie Greenleaf in 1999 turned into a gym-honed, bulked-up Law that, if anything, seems an improvement?
No one could accuse the star voted People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2004 of not paying attention to his looks. In the early days of fame he smirked: ‘Face it, I didn’t become famous until I took my clothes off.’
And although he will rail against what he sees as objectification when he is described as a hunk or a sex symbol, he has spent the past decade trying to roll back the years by working out up to six days a week. Law has a gym at home in Highgate, north London, and employs a personal trainer.
He began eating meat again after his divorce from actress Sadie Frost, mother of three of his five children, and regularly does extra training for film and stage roles.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that this super-fit period has been during his bachelor years. He had an eventful romance with actress Sienna Miller plus fleeting liaisons with a US model in 2009 and an aspiring singer in 2015 – each resulted in the birth of a daughter.
Law is now engaged to psychologist Phillipa Coan, 32, who shares his £15million Highgate pad. They have been together four years and will marry in France next month.
He claims to dislike his old status as a heartthrob, saying: ‘I feel more and more at ease, because I think the older I get, the less pressure there is.’
‘Not famous until I took my clothes off’