If you say something often enough, it becomes true: especially if you say it in writing. And publish it.

So goes the story of Cameron Diaz living in Australia, a "fact" you'll find everywhere from Wikipedia to websites spruiking fun things you might not have known about the Hollywood star (another fact: it apparently took her 12 callbacks to land her breakout roll in The Mask).

A flight attendant who spoke to Diaz on her way to Sydney this week even asked about her year living Down Under.

"I came here when I was 19 and stayed here for a total of two to three months," Diaz told Fairfax on Tuesday to clear things up. "But now after some 20-odd years, it's: 'I've lived here for a year'."

Still, she says, she did love her time in Sydney, with most of it spent in Kings Cross where she lived while working as a model. "It was the cauldron back in the day."

Did she go clubbing in the area? "Of course! I was 19 years old. Duh! Why do you think I stayed in Australia?"

Diaz is in Sydney this week to promote her latest film, The Other Woman, along with co-stars Leslie Mann (you may recall her brilliant take-off of Eric Bana's Aussie accent in Funny People) and model Kate Upton. The three play women all connected to the same man, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (aka Game of Thrones' Jamie Lannister). Mann plays his wife, Diaz his mistress and Upton his other, younger, mistress. When the women discover each other, they band together to seek revenge.

Can people be monogamous? It's an obvious question given the nature of the movie, and one that's followed Diaz since she hit the promotional trail. When she told InStyle that "I don't know if anyone is really naturally monogamous", the web lit up with "Diaz doesn't believe in monogamy" stories.

It's another thing she needs to clarify. "In the movie my character says monogamy doesn't work," Diaz says. "But I've never said anything about monogamy - that's something people have applied to me from my character."

Upton chimes in helpfully at this point, "Movies aren't real. There's actually no Spider-Man," and the women erupt with laughter.

There's a clear bond both on screen and in the room, one likely to appeal to female audiences who've hit cinemas in droves to see recent box office successes like Bridesmaids and The Heat. Together with the success of The Hunger Games films, there's a growing appetite (and market) in Hollywood for strong women on the big screen.

"I think maybe women [audiences] are a bit more comfortable asking for what they want," says Diaz. She suggests that women want to see people on screen they can relate to or who inspire them. "Maybe it's our version of a superhero."

The Other Woman opens Thursday.