I've been to movie premieres in the most unlikely of places - on Alcatraz, for example, where we danced in the old cell blocks at the launch of The Rock.

But the producers of The Nativity Story have pulled off quite a coup in securing the Vatican as the venue for the movie's world premiere on Sunday week. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who made Thirteen, the drama features Keisha Castle-Hughes and Oscar Isaac as Mary and Joseph before they go to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. Hardwicke and key cast and crew members will join 7,000 Vatican guests at the premiere.

Conspicuously absent will be the movie's star, Whale Rider discovery Castle-Hughes, who is 16, unmarried and expecting her own child in the spring. The film is due here on December 8th.