On top of that - finally the scoop on the theatre gig in New York we heard rumblings about earlier - and it's with Sam Mendes' next Bridge Project. From the Daily Mail:

The Bridge Project's second season: Sam Mendes casts Anne-Marie Duff as Ariel and Rosalind

Anne-Marie Duff, who bridged social divides in a range of performances from playing an out-of-work scrounger in Shameless to Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen, is soon to cross another cultural bridge - one that will take her to America, around the world and back again.

Sam Mendes has cast her in two Shakespearean productions that will begin in New York early in the New Year.

The actress will join the Tony award-winning actor Stephen Dillane and New York-based thespians Christian Camargo and Juliet Rylance for the second season of what's known as the Bridge Project, classical plays cast with actors from both sides of the Atlantic that play on both sides of that ocean.

Anne-Marie will play Ariel in The Tempest opposite Dillane's Prospero, Camargo's Stephano and Rylance's Miranda. In As You Like It she will play Rosalind, Dillane Jaques, Camargo Orlando with Rylance as Celia.

'I'm really looking forward to it,' Anne-Marie told me. 'I just met up with Sam, had a cup of tea and, as you can imagine, it didn't take much to be enticed. He's ridiculously charming.

It was a bit of a no-brainer really. I thought I'd be an idiot to say no.'

The second Bridge season begins with As You Like It opening at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in January next year, followed by The Tempest in February. The Bard's plays will then tour before hitting the Old Vic next summer.

But until rehearsals begin in October, Anne-Marie told me, she'll be taking a break. 'And I'll be eating some cake,' she said laughing.

She's had to be disciplined on the cake front up to now, you see, as she's just finished portraying Britain's first prima ballerina, Margot Fonteyn, in a BBC4 film called Margot.

'I was in a leotard and I felt I should at least look as if I was a disciplined dancer.'

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