For even as the parchment begins to pile up, he's plagued by the fact that Lady Viola must marry the insufferable Lord Wessex.

Now 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. Triumphant winner of 7 Academy Awards® - including Best Picture - this witty, sexy smash features Oscar®-winning Best Actress Gwyneth Paltrow (SLIDING DOORS, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS) and an amazing cast that includes Academy Award- winners Judi Dench.

But the guise slips away as their passion ignites. It all begins when Lady Viola, 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. 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. As the film begins, Shakepeare's patron Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush) finds himself in debt to loan shark Hugh Fennyman (Tom Wilkinson). As their relationship progresses, Shakespeares comedy soon transforms into tragedy. The film centres around the forbidden love of William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) and a noble woman, Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow). When a lovely noblewoman auditions for a role, they fall into forbidden love - and his play finds a new life (and title). While the great Elizabethan age of entertainment unfolds around him, Will is without inspiration on material. Young Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, 'Romeo and Ethel, the Pirates Daughter,' before its even written. It is the summer of 1593, and the rising young star of London's theatre scene, Will Shakespeare, faces a scourge like no other: a paralyzing bout of writer's block.

Shakespeare in love 1998