It started with the lips and the unflattering 'pout trout' look - but now it seems Meg Ryan truly is morphing into British actress Leslie Ash.

America's former sweetheart was attending a film soiree in New York on Monday night, where her uncanny resemblance to Ash was hard to miss.

With polka-straight blonde locks and an unmissable Joker-wide smile, the A-list superstar seems to have based her latest look on the Men Behaving Badly star.

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They could be sisters: Hollywood superstar Meg Ryan (left) on Monday night in New York; and British actress Leslie Ash (right)

Ryan catches up with her Sleepless in Seattle co-star Tom Hanks at the 23rd Annual Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the plush Waldorf Astoria in the Big Apple

However besides their fondness for collagen implants and both being 47, their remarkable similarity is no doubt just a matter of coincidence.

Ryan looked in good spirits as she spent the time catching up with her Sleepless in Seattle co-star Tom Hanks at the 23rd Annual Rock'n'Rock Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Big Apple's plush Waldorf Astoria hotel.

The two enjoyed enormous success in 1990s with a succession of romantic comedies which earned Ryan the moniker as 'America's Sweetheart' and placed her as one of Hollywood's most successful actress.

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Co-stars and friends, Hanks and Ryan smile for the cameras

It was Ryan's attempts to appear in more serious fare like the critically-mauled drama, 'In the Cut', that her star started to suffer and she took a break from acting.

After a three-year hiatus from movie-making to concentrate on raising her son Jack and adopted daughter Daisy, Ryan is keen to reignite her film career.

She leads an all-female cast in the remake of George Cukor's classic 1939 film 'The Women' and joins Antonio Banderas in comedy 'My Mom's New Boyfriend', released later this year.

Ash, on the other hand, hasn't been so successful with resurrecting her acting career.

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Three times a charm: Back in the 1990s, Ryan and Hanks starred together in Joe Versus the Volcano, Sleepless in Seatlle (above with Ross Malinger) and You've Got Mail

She recently made the headlines after receiving a record £5m pay out from the NHS after she caught a strain of MRSA in 2004 at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Her solicitor Janice Gardner said at the time: "This is a substantial sum which reflects what Leslie has lost in her life due to contracting this infection.

"She was a very commercially bankable actress with an enormously successful career in television, but she has done very little since. Obviously she has been cut down in her prime."