WHY ARE THEY FAMOUS? NO 13: GOLDIE HAWN

Main claim: Actress/comedienne and Elder stateswoman of Kook, recently over here to plug her new film, The First Wives Club. Her presence at the London premiere led to lots of guff about how older women can stay sexy - Goldie is 50 going on 15. "Still Hawny", crowed the Daily Star. Posed nude for a magazine cover to show the body remains beautiful.

Appearance: Recalls a bushbaby/ Barbie cross: blonde, mildly wacky, large eyes and mouth. The Sun described her as a "Wide-eyed bubblehead", and her status as Peter Pan-ette du jour hints at a cross between innocence and experience.

How does she do it? She "still loves sex". "Great sex and lots and lots of it."

Home: Aspen, Pacific Palisades, California. Of Jewish and Presbyterian parents, she is now a citizen of the West Coast. Goldie on women: "Women understand on a compassionate level the plights of mankind. We're healers and we can work on many different channels at once."

Love interest: She has been with lantern-jawed actor Kurt Russell for 12 years, and one of her three children, Wyatt, 10, is by him. He is a raw Republican, who said: "The first thing I fell in love with was her behind." Goldie said that he "turns on her female energy": she is a Democrat.

Past husbands club: Gus Trikonis (seven years) - he directs Baywatch - and Bill Hudson (four years, two kids: Oliver, 20, and Kate, 17). The first was "a wonderful man; he never took a dime from me". The latter she called a "Goldie Digger". He called her "a cold-eyed shark".

Hawn-ography: "A smile doesn't cost anything - and it uses fewer muscles than a frown!" she said recently.

Career: Started as a chorus girl. Went on to Rowan and Martin's Laugh- In. Moved to films (Shampoo, Private Benjamin, Cactus Flower, There's A Girl In My Soup). Used to act dumb characters, but has moved on to a wisecracking maven. In First Wives she plays an alcoholic actress past her prime.

The future: Best legs in the cryogenic-preservation parlour.