Liz Hurley prepares for a Catholic retreat

LOUISE JURY

The Roman Catholic Church had better prepare itself for the paparazzi. Liz Hurley is preparing to convert.

While the woman best known for a plunging neckline and safety pins may not be an obvious candidate for Catholicism, she has been "obsessed" by the Roman faith for years.

And having courted and tired of life in the limelight, the face of Estee Lauder is "seriously considering" a more reclusive life in rural Ireland where she believes she would make a very good stab at a union with God.

The news of Miss Hurley's potential retreat is revealed in the 25th birthday issue of the society magazine Harper's and Queen. Thoughts of a change of direction were prompted, it emerges, by exasperation at the public attention she received after the arrest for lewd behaviour in Los Angeles of her boyfriend, Hugh Grant.

Finding the house she and Mr Grant share outside Bath "horrible" because of the ease with which the media can stake it out, she may look for a new home.

"I'm seriously considering moving to southern Ireland. I've always loved Ireland. I am half Irish even though I don't know any of my Irish relatives at all." Also, she adds, "because I'll be a very good Catholic, it will be lovely to be in Ireland".