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ARTS:HOLLYWOOD LORE is full of stories of stars who were discovered in unusual places. Lana Turner was supposedly spotted in a soda shop; Harrison Ford got his break making cabinets for George Lucas. English actress Carey Mulligan, however, owes her professional career to a school talk by the actor and Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, writes ANNA CAREY

“Julian gave a talk at my school when I was 17 about Gosford Parkand winning an Oscar,” says Mulligan, who is now 24. “I met him after that very briefly and said I wanted to be an actor and he said, ‘go and marry a lawyer’. So that,” she adds dryly, “was brilliant. Very helpful.”