Holden Fulfils Serious Ambition as Millie???

Actress Amanda Holden - best known for cheating on her husband Les Dennis with Men Behaving Badly's Neil Morrissey, as well as for her TV roles including Cutting It - has confirmed that she'll be making her West End musical debut later this year in the transfer of Broadway hit Thoroughly Modern Millie (See The Goss, 4 Apr 2003). Speaking this weekend to chat show host Michael Parkinson, Holden said she'd always wanted to be famous - though she was now "trying to be a serious actress" - and that "one of my biggest ambitions was to be in the West End". She acknowledged that, thanks to her private life, most members of the public probably already had a preconceived image of her - and it rhymes with flapper. Which is handy as she'll be playing a flapper in Millie. Based on the 1967 film starring Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing, the nostalgic musical comedy is set in 1920s New York where recent arrival-from-Kansas Millie Dillmount is determined to bob her hair, dance to jazz, get a job and marry her boss - all in the modern fashion. Rehearsals start in September for the London production, which is expected to open at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Opened last March at Broadway's Marquis Theatre, Thoroughly Modern Millie was the big winner at the 2002 Tony Awards, taking home six trophies including Best Musical.

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