Jennifer Connelly puts on a leggy display in a thigh-skimming black sequin dress

Jennifer Connelly puts on a leggy display in a thigh-skimming black sequin dress as she enjoys red carpet date night with husband Paul Bettany

She usually favours a low-key style, and is more comfortable in casual jeans than a skimpy dress.

But Jennifer Connelly vamped things up as she attended the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards in New York City on Wednesday, putting on a rather leggy display in a thigh-skimming black sequin dress,

The 43-year-old actress turned heads in her tiny frock as she arrived arm in arm with her handsome husband Paul Bettany at the city's Museum of Modern Art.

Jennifer teamed her sequin mini-dress with a pair of gold and red snakeskin ankle boots and a camel-coloured clutch.

The Oscar-winning actress wore her shoulder length brunette hair down in a sleek straight style, and accentuated her green eyes with a bronze coloured eyeshadow and black liner.

Her husband Paul, also 43, matched his wife in the style stakes, and looked suited and booted in a smart in a charcoal grey two-piece with matching tie.

The Iron Man 3 actor teamed his suit with a tan-coloured pair of leather shoes, and donned tinted shades.

The couple, who are parents to three-year-old daughter Agnes, and sons Kai, 17, and Stellan, 11, recently worked together on new film Shelter.

It's Paul's first directorial effort - which he also wrote - and Jennifer plays a grief stricken heroin addict in the gritty drama.

The couple work a lot with the homeless, and Paul says he was inspired to write the film by a man who'd regularly sleep in front of the couple's townhouse until the day Hurricane Sandy hit and he disappeared.

For the role of Hannah, a homeless woman who falls in love with another homeless man, Jennifer lost 25 pounds.

Speaking of her mission to lose weight for the role, she said: 'There was so much work to do about her [Hannah] and the circumstances of her life that I knew nothing about.

'I had a lot of practical research to do. Slowly, over months, a lost a lot of weight and ultimately lost about 25 pounds.'

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