Hayek to bulk up for killer role

Hollywood beauty Salma Hayek has been instructed to pile on pounds of weight in preparation for her new big screen role as a serial killer.

The actress - who won an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of artistic revolutionary Frida Kahlo in Frida - has signed up to play obese, sex- obsessed psychopath Martha Beck.

With her accomplice Raymond Martinez Fernandez, Beck murdered 17 women in the 1940s after contacting them through newspaper adverts.

A studio source says: "Beck was a huge woman with a huge sexual appetite. Salma won't put on all of the weight - some of it will be padding. But she isn't concerned about looking hideous."