SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is a romantic comedy for the 1990s set in the 1590s. It imaginatively unfolds the witty, sexy and timeless tale behind the creation of the greatest love story ever told.

It is the summer of 1593, and the rising young star of London's theatre scene, Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), faces a scourge like no other: a paralysing bout of writer' s block. While the great Elizabethan age of entertainment unfolds around him, Will is without inspiration or material. No matter how he tries, and despite pressure from financiers and theatre owners, he just can't seem to work up any enthusiasm for his latest play, "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter."

What Will needs is a muse - and in an extraordinary moment in which life imitates art, he finds and falls for a woman who draws him into his own dramatic adventure of star-crossed love.

It all begins when Lady Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), desperate to become an actor at a time when women were forbidden from such depravity, disguises herself as a man to audition for Will's play. But the guise slips away as their passion ignites. No Will's quill again begins to flow, this time turning love into words, as Viola becomes his real-life Juliet and Romeo finds his reason to exist.

Yet all is not well in Will's world. For even as the parchment begins to pile up, he is plagued by real-life twists of fate - including the unavoidable reality that Lady Viola must marry the insufferable Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) at the command of Queen Elizabeth (Judi Dench).

In a whirl of mistaken identities, mixed-up messages and misbegotten desires - between bawdy brawls, duels with jealous husbands and dangerous misses - Will Shakespeare searches for a resolution not only to his play but to his own undying passion.

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is a funny, fast-moving romance from acclaimed director John Madden (Mrs. Brown ). The screenplay is by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard. Produced by David Parfitt, Donna Gigliotti, Harvey Weinstein, Edward Zwick, Marc Norman and executive produced by Bob Weinstein and Julie Goldstein. SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE also stars Academy Award winners Geoffrey Rush (Shine ) and Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting ) in wonderfully comic roles.