HELEN MIRREN - MIRREN SELLS NEW ORLEANS DREAM HOME

Oscar winner DAME HELEN MIRREN has sold the New Orleans, Louisiana "Creole cottage" home she showed off in top design magazine Architectural Digest. But the actress and moviemaker husband TAYLOR HACKFORD still have property in New Orleans because the couple don't want to lose their ties with the area. She says, "We will never abandon the most beautiful city in America... New Orleans is a totally unique environment, and we encourage every American to make a long-term commitment to preserving this fabulous cultural asset. "It's one of the few places that's not precious to the nth degree; it doesn't look as though its history has been cleaned up by Disney. It's funky and untidy. "And when I'm working in London, it's New Orleans that I'm homesick for." Mirren, who insists she'd like to die in New Orleans, also shares homes in Los Angeles, London and the South of France with Hackford.