The microphone picks up the sound of someone sniffing as Minnie Driver and Mary McCormack sit down at the table for the interview. Driver apologises for her companion. "Mary has something wrong with her nose," she says. McCormack corrects her: "It's my ears".

That sort of banter won't turn Minnie and Mary into a comic duo on a par with Morecambe and Wise or even, heaven preserve us, Cannon and Ball. But the actresses obviously have a rapport that comes from being friends in real life and now friends on screen in the British comedy thriller High Heels and Low Lifes.

McCormack plays Frances, an American (which she is) actress living in London. British actress Driver - Oscar-nominated for Good Will Hunting - is her pal Shannon, a casualty department nurse. After overhearing crooks planning a heist, they become pursued by Michael Gambon and his criminal gang.

"It helps," says Driver about acting opposite someone she knew socially before making the movie. "We've all had to work with people we don't like, which is not impossible, or people who are just difficult. So it was really nice working with a mate.

"It makes everything easier. It means you have someone to eat lunch with, to look at bums, all that sort of thing, someone to have a laugh with. We have quite similar humour, similar taste - so it was good."

McCormack, the quieter of the two perhaps due to her ear problem, adds: "It makes it more fun to work with someone you like and makes you laugh. If you are playing best friends it helps if you get along."

It also helps you get to meet the Queen. Driver felt that as Americans get laughed at a lot here, she wanted to redress the balance by showing McCormack "some of the more faintly ridiculous aspects of British society".

So they went to a polo match and met Her Majesty in the tea tent after the game. They both agree it was a fantastic experience. "She was in a good mood," recalls Driver, who admits forgetting to curtsey. "She had about 50 flies in her hat. I wanted to tell her but it wasn't appropriate."

Driver is soon to become part of American "royalty" when she marries actor Josh Brolin. His father James Brolin, also an actor, is married to superstar Barbra Streisand. So how does she feel about having Streisand as a mother-in-law? "It's good. She's fine, she's great," says Driver, who was a fan long before linking up with young Josh.

As for the wedding plans, she says don't believe everything you read in the newspapers. "I've yet to read a thread of truth about my marriage to my lovely boyfriend," she says.

What is true is that Driver had a medical emergency during the filming of High Heels and Low Lifes - she had to have her appendix taken out. "I thought it was wind," she jokes about the pain. "I went to bed with a hot water bottle, and at three in the morning it was so painful I called my mum. I went to the doctor, then to hospital and they said I had to have it removed right away."

Within ten days she was back on the set, wearing a lot of raincoats to disguise her swollen stomach. "I don't think my life was in danger or anything. But it's a very British thing to put something down to wind." The director of High Heels And Low Lifes is Mel Smith, best known for his comedy partnership with Griff Rhys Jones although his directing hits include the big screen film of Mr Bean. Working with such an experienced comedy hand didn't faze McCormack, whose US stage work includes the musical Cabaret and who played Howard Stern's wife in the film Private Parts.

"I never felt scared," she says. "because if you didn't get the joke Mel would tell you how to do it. He's just right when it comes to comedy. It's a science."

For Driver doing the same gag in take after take is difficult. "You hope you get it in the first take," she says. "Comedy is not as gruelling as doing big emotional scenes, but it does demand a lot of focus." Although both actresses have a degree of fame, they had to audition for this film. The script was hot property around Hollywood, perhaps because it's one of the few to feature females as the main characters.

Driver has her own production company to develop projects but has no new screen roles lined up at present. McCormack, who was in hit TV series Murder One, has a film opposite Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges awaiting release.

Whether the pair work together again remains to be seen. "There are not a lot of funny parts for women," says McCormack.

l High Heels And Low Lifes (15) opens in cinemas today.

Published: 20/07/2001