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I'm out of love with London but I think I could run it, says Liz
Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Business Editor2 Nov 2009
Elizabeth Hurley's kaleidoscopic career takes a new twist tomorrow when she turns organic food entrepreneur - inspired, she says, by her self-confessed inability to keep her hand "out of the biscuit tin".
Tomorrow her snack range, of organic fruit bars, oat bars and beef jerky, partly sourced from her Cotswold farm, goes on sale in Harrods.
In an exclusive interview with the Standard, the famously slender 44-year-old said she was "greedy by nature".
In pictures: Liz Hurley's career
She said: "If I don't eat between meals I get so hungry by lunch or dinner that I'm ready to wolf the entire bread basket. Finding the right snacks can be challenging as most things are too fattening."
Her herd of Gloucestershire cattle from her 400-acre farm at Barnsley in Gloucestershire will provide the meat for the beef jerky, while grains from the estate will used in the banana and chocolate and orange and chocolate oat bars. Next year she hopes to grow berries on the farm for the fruit bars.
The oat bars will cost 59p, the fruit bars 75p and the beef jerky £1.95, and each contain fewer than 100 calories.
They will soon also be available in supermarkets and convenience stores across the country.
Ms Hurley, who initially bought her farm in 2004 just as a weekend country retreat, went on to describe how she had fallen out of love with the city where she first found fame as the girlfriend of actor Hugh Grant.
She said: I'll never live full-time in London again as I prefer to ring the changes - but I'll always have a London base. I crave the sun more than I crave the city. As I sit cuddling my dogs in Gloucestershire I'm dreaming of Mustique.
"I wish [former New York mayor Rudolph] Giuliani were our mayor. I spent a lot of time in New York, both pre, during and after his reign and during was the best. Boris seems like a good egg, though."
Ms Hurley, now married to Indian businessman Arun Nayar, said that if her career ever took another unlikely turn and she ended up as London's Mayor "I'd stop all trucks entering central London during working hours, like in Beverly Hills, and I'd have way more cops on the streets. All armed".
In another tilt at life in Britain she said "it certainly pisses me off" that she will be paying 50 per cent tax on her earnings from next year but said she had no plans to leave for tax reasons.
The Elizabeth Hurley name - more usually associated with bikinis - could be extended to other food ranges, even including ready meals, if the launch is successful, she said.
Despite her slim figure the mother of seven-year-old Damien confesses to sometimes giving in to "guilty pleasures".
She said: "I love cheese, salamis and pizza but would put on about a stone if I didn't save these for treats only."
She added: "For years, I've had to watch my weight for my job and, for better or worse, am still modelling bikinis at 44. I'm quite greedy by nature and love food but can't abide tasteless 'health' food."
In pictures: Liz Hurley's career
Reader views (2)
Why is it these celebrities are so conceited thay feel they can do anything? In truth they could achieve very littel because they haven't done anything in the real world.
I'd love to see how Ms Hurley could cope with a real job. Lucky for her that she'll never have to.
- Md, Cardiff, 02/11/2009 13:53
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About time she got a proper job!
- Donald, E16, 02/11/2009 10:34
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