02 Mar, 2010

Alice in Wonderland director Tim Burton revealed in a recent interview that he had based the character of White Queen (played by Anne Hathaway) on Lawson herself.

Burton told the Los Angeles Times that the cooking queen was at the back of his mind while crafting the characters for his highly-anticipated adaptation of the Disney story.

"There's this very beautiful cooking show host in England named Nigella Lawson and I quietly had her as my image for this character," he said.

"She's really beautiful and she does all this cooking, but then there's this glint in her eye and when you see it you go, 'Oh, whoa, she's like really... nuts"'.

What's more, actress Anne Hathaway also seems to identify with her character's eccentric persona.

"She is kind of adorable on the outside and has tried very hard to become this good, almost over-the-top, positive creature but underneath she kind of has a murderous streak," she said. 

Burton’s Alice in Wonderland will be hitting the big screens on March 4 -- complete with Avatar-style 3D special effects and an all star cast (including Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter).

Yes, we are counting down!

By Penelope Roth.