Kate Beckinsale says she, Michael Sheen and Sarah Silverman are "basically family".
Kate Beckinsale
The 42-year-old actress can't understand why people were surprised that she invited her former partner - with whom she has 17-year-old daughter Lily - and his girlfriend to the premiere of her new movie 'Love and Friendship' recently.
She said: "I don't know why everyone was so surprised. Sarah's such a fantastic woman, I love her and Michael and I have gotten on for years now. I've known him since I was 22, we're basically family.
"The thing that surprised me was what a big deal everybody made about us all getting on and then thinking, 'F**k, that's really sad if it's that unusual'. I don't think any of us were thinking, 'This is a huge achievement we're not punching each other.'"
Kate thinks Sarah is a great influence on Lily and would want her around her daughter even if she wasn't dating the 'Masters of Sex' star any more.
She added: "I'm completely open to any other strong, cool sensitive independent-thinking women who are going to be an influence in my daughter's life. Sarah's a great person and I'm glad she's in the village that's helping. It's important as a teenager to have good women in your life building up the fabric of your experience of becoming a woman. Even if Sarah wasn't Michael's girlfriend I'd want her to be in that."
The 'Underworld' actress has a joint honours degree in French and Russian literature from the prestigious Oxford University and would love to go back to college to study more, but not while her daughter is pursuing higher education at the same time.
She told Stylist magazine: "I took Lily to my old college a couple of years ago and my old French tutor said, 'Listen, come back, it's fine' and I was like, 'Maybe I will'.
"But I need to wait a bit. I don't want to become that awful mother who's like, 'Oh, you're at college. So guess what? I'm at college too. You can't get your identity, I have to have it'.
"I do love the idea of going back to study English literature though."
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