50 most eligible women: 7 — Rachael Stirling
Rachael Stirling
Actress, 26
Lives: London.
Who is she? You'll remember her from Tipping the Velvet, which made her every gay woman's pinup. Has also starred in Five Little Pigs, a Hercule Poirot TV drama screening on 30 November ("it's brilliant — I get hanged"), and the yet-to-be-released Framed, a dark, controversial film about paranoia. Now performing in Wilde's A Woman Of No Importance in London until January, in order to learn from seasoned pros such as Prunella Scales and Samantha Bond. Not that she needs much expert guidance — a history of art graduate from Edinburgh University, Rachael gets sound advice from her mother, Dame Diana Rigg. Her father is the Scottish landowner Archie Stirling.
Conquests: Recently split with her soulmate and boyfriend of two years, DJ John Lycett Green.
Haunts: Los Angeles from January — until then, try her dressing room at the Theatre Royal or her Victorian cottage in west London, which she's busy decorating.
Pluses: A Hollywood star in the making, she took several months off after Tipping the Velvet, claiming that "life outside work is just as important".
Minuses: Since wearing nought but bodypaint and a dildo for TTV, she has had to fend off many dubious offers.
Do: Take her riding. She's a natural.
Don't: Call her Tiff. She's mistaken for actress Martine McCutcheon all the time.
Look forward to the US release of both films.
