AS at least one American President has learned to his cost, politics and beautiful women are unhappy bedfellows.

It's certainly true of Maid In Manhattan (PG), a light and frothy romantic comedy about an aspiring US senator who hits the campaign trail and promptly falls in love with a girl from the wrong side of the tracks.

Jennifer Lopez is a feisty single mother struggling to raise her young son Tyler Garcia Posey in the Bronx. She pays the rent by working as a maid at one of Manhattan's swankiest five star hotels, where she is a valued employee popular with the staff and head butler Bob Hoskins, and ear-marked for promotion to head of housekeeping.

During a moment's weakness with her fellow maids, Lopez tries on a 2,000 dollar Chanel trouser suit owned by snooty VIP Natasha Richardson and is caught in the act by Republican candidate Ralph Fiennes, who takes the beautiful young woman to be a guest.

Sparks of attraction fly and Fiennes invites Lopez out for a walk in Central Park, where the two are photographed by the paparazzi, desperate for any crumbs of gossip on the Republican golden boy.

Thankfully, Lopez's face is obscured in the newspaper articles that follow, so her deception goes by unnoticed apart from having to hide every time Fiennes walks round the hotel, in case he sees her in her maid's outfit.

Will Fiennes still love Lopez when he discovers that she is an impostor? No prizes for guessing.

Maid In Manhattan is as predictable as it is unlikely, recycling the Cinderella fairy tale with a contemporary twist.

The key ingredient of any rom-com is chemistry between the lead actors. Unfortunately, if the two leads are really supposed to be in love, nobody told Lopez and Fiennes.

They stare at each other with little more than mild interest; certainly not the all-consuming passion that we're supposed to believe drives their characters together.

As bad as they are, nothing compares to the horrendously contrived finale involving Lopez's kid at a packed press conference (a direct steal from Notting Hill). Someone call room service, I think I'm going to be sick.