A long way from the red carpet but still in the limelight for Hugh Grant -- only this time, to turn the tables on the British press.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR HUGH GRANT, SAYING:
"If someone like me called the police for a burglary, mugging, something that happened in the street -- something that happened to one of me or my girlfriend -- the chances are that a photographer or reporter would turn up on your doorstep before a policeman."
This is the first act of an inquiry that will later focus its sights on Rupert Murdoch's media empire, and his now closed News of the World.
Calls for an inquiry began earlier this year after it emerged journalists at the paper hacked the phone of Milly Dowler, a missing schoolgirl later found murdered.
Today, her mother Sally told the inquiry hacking had given her false hope.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) SALLY DOWLER, MOTHER OF MURDERED SCHOOLGIRL MILLY DOWLER SAYING:
"I rang her phone and it clicked through onto her voicemail, so I heard her voice and it was just like..I jumped...'She's picked up her voicemails Bob, she's alive," And I was just....it was then really. When we were told about the hacking it was the first thing I thought."
The first part of the inquiry led by Lord Justice Leveson is expected to take several months.
Among the witnesses will be families of crime victims, journalists, lawyers and celebrities like Harry Potter author JK Rowling.
But after that, the spotlight will shift -- to Rupert Murdoch's News International.
Ruairidh Villar, Reuters.