Andie's randy new role

For anyone already flagging from World Cup fever, look no further than gorgeous Andie MacDowell for a little light relief. The stunning actress provides a very pleasant distraction from the beautiful game, with her new chick-flick movie Crush.

A few guys might just tear themselves away from the box too as the film features MacDowell in her raunchiest role to date. And far from feeling uncomfortable about it, the 43-year-old actress couldn’t be more delighted.

‘‘It’s not too raunchy for me. It’s just right,’’ she says in her distinctive North Carolina drawl. ‘‘The great thing was I had a lot of control on what happened in the sexy parts. They were mostly my idea and there was nothing that made me uncomfortable.’’

In the film, which opens this week, Andie plays a teacher who embarks on a passionate affair with a student half her age, (newcomer Kenny Doughty). Meanwhile her two closest friends Janine (Imelda Staunton) and Molly (Anna Chancellor) can’t hide their disapproval.

Although MacDowell says she couldn’t put the script down when she first read it, she admits she had her reservations about one particular scene. ‘‘My character has sex with Kenny on a gravestone and I was a bit worried about my son seeing that,’’ she smiles.

‘‘But I realised it would be done quite discreetly. I just had a sense of humour and wasn’t serious. Kenny was quite nervous so I made jokes and said ‘Oooh, isn’t this fun. Okay, here we go - show your bottom’,’’ she giggles.

MacDowell was also drawn to the romantic comedy because it was shot entirely on location in the Cotswolds. The star, who shot to fame in the British hit Four Weddings And A Funeral, says she has come to regard England as her second home.

‘‘I feel very comfortable in the UK,’’ she says. ‘‘I love the British sense of humour, the way people behave here. I think they’re a classy bunch.

‘‘I could see myself living in the Cotswolds,’’ she continues. ‘‘It was gorgeous, lush and green. I rode my bike a lot and lived in a thatched roof cottage during filming. I had to duck down to get through the door. I just loved it.’’

Despite her love affair with all things British, not to mention her onscreen romance with a toyboy, MacDowell is blissfully happy with her own domestic set up back in the States.

Last year she married for the second time to former school friend Rhett Hartzog, 43, and says she still can’t believe her luck. ‘‘It just blows my mind,’’ she beams. ‘‘I don’t know how this happened, but I’m very, very thankful that it did. We can sit around and go, ‘Is it all planned out?’ because it seems remarkable the things that have happened to me.’’

The pair now live in Montana with her three children, Justin, Rainey and Sarah Margaret, but things weren’t always so rosy for the loved-up star. She reveals she plummeted into deep depression after splitting from her husband of 14 years.

‘‘I was very, very raw,’’ she says. ‘‘I’d been to the bottom of my pit and experienced deep pain and depression.’’

Meeting Hartzog again was a turning point, but their marriage almost didn’t happen. It was due to take place, not long after September 11 and MacDowell admits she thought twice about going ahead with her big day. ‘‘I felt very guilty about enjoying my life while all these people were suffering so terribly,’’ she explains.

Happily the pair did tie the knot and MacDowell has not only found the personal security she was searching for, she’s also bucking the trend careerwise by being more in demand the older she gets.

‘‘I love being in my 40s,’’ she beams. ‘‘I’ve never felt sexier in my whole life. I’ve got an incredible body and I’m 43 but it’s not that hard, you just have to work out a little bit. You reach this magical number and everything’s supposed to go downhill, but I actually feel better about myself. It’s a sad perception about actresses who reach a certain age but look at Katharine Hepburn, she was just coming into her own at 40.’’

Of course, it helps that MacDowell was a very beautiful model before deciding to become an actress, however she says, even then she had to fight to change people’s perceptions about her.

‘‘No one told me I could be an actress,’’ she explains. ‘‘People seemed to think it wasn’t realistic and I admit I was close to giving it all up by the time I got Sex Lies And Videotape. I had this idea to buy a big house and turn it into a Montessori School for children - my life would have been completely different.’’

It was that movie - Sex Lies And Videotape - by the Oscar-winning director Stephen Soderbergh, which ensured she’d never have to think about teaching. She went on to star in smash hit comedies including Four Weddings, Groundhog Day and Green Card.

Although her next role sees her turning her hand to drama in the harrowing war story Harrison’s Flowers, the actress fully intends to keep us laughing in the aisles.

‘‘If we didn’t have comedy, we’d all be sitting there wallowing in pain,’’ she reasons. ‘‘There’s nothing better than laughing.’’

And as for all those footie fans, MacDowell reckons there’s a surefire way to get them to see Crush.

‘‘We’ll just tell them there’s lots of sex. That’ll make them want to go,’’ she says with a wicked laugh.