HELEN MIRREN - MIRREN ADMIRES MADONNA'S ATTITUDE TO SEX

Golden Globe winner DAME HELEN MIRREN finds MADONNA's controversial 1992 SEX book inspirational - and admits she holds the star's outspoken sexual views in high regard. Sixty-one-year-old Mirren, whose reputation for stripping off in films often obscured her acting ability, insists she hated having to play a certain type of "sexy female" in the past - but admires Madonna's "fantastic" and unique grasp of her sexual self. She says, "The thing that was imposed on me from the outside was crude and vulgar and distressful to me, and disturbing - that big t**s, blonde hair, DIANA DORS, blowsy kind of thing. "(But) I think Madonna got it right. Madonna claimed it for herself, and I've always admired her for that. "I loved that Sex book she did. I thought it was fantastic, because it was a big two fingers up, 'This is my sexuality, it's not what you put on me, it's mine."