Dame Helen Mirren greets me enthusiastically on the phone from New York City after a day of promotion for her latest thriller, The Good Liar, in anticipation of digitally featuring as Flaunt’s first Annual Icon. I’m over 3000 miles away in Manchester, England. The first thing Mirren wants to talk about is not her current film, nor her other high-profile role in HBO’s Catherine the Great which is currently airing, but Manchester—the city where she arrived as a young actress in 1965. Mirren eventually returned to the city 26-years-later for her life-changing, BAFTA and Emmy winning performance as Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect. “I owe Manchester a great deal,” Mirren says fondly. “I had my very first professional job in Manchester and of course Prime Suspect came out of Manchester and it was filmed there too. I hold it very close to my heart.” For a time in the late 1960s, Manchester was a home-away-from-home for Mirren as she appeared in several Braham Murray-directed plays at the city’s Century Theatre. Her initial route in came via the UK’s Youth Theatre scheme where those without the means to afford astronomical drama school fees were supported into a career in the arts via a vocational route. “I was dying to go to RADA but I couldn’t,” Mirren says, sadly. Yet her talents were quickly spotted: months later she was hired by the Royal Shakespeare Company where she soon became one of the company’s most acclaimed actors. Eventually, Mirren appeared on prime-time British television where her gritty portrayal of the ambitious Tennison—one of the first female detective chief inspectors of the metropolitan police—changed her career forever: it changed the face of women on screen forever too. The complete article can be read over at Flaunt Magazine.

A couple more video interviews have been released over the last couple of days to promote the theatrical release of “The Good Liar” in the United States. Helen Mirren visited “Live with Kelly & Ryan” to talk about the film and joined Ian McKellen for a gondola ride at Central Park with CBS This Morning. Also, more press junket interviews have been added to the video archive. Screencaptures from most interviews have been added to the photo gallery as well.

During an onstage chat at the “Helen Mirren and Hawk Koch Discuss The Magic of Movies” event on Friday hosted by the SAG/AFTRA Foundation and the Producers Guild of America, Mirren regaled the audience with the story of being invited to tea at the Queen’s Sandringham estate, as reported by People. “She invited me for tea,” said Mirren, assuming she would be attending a large event. “I thought it was going to be in a room with 200 other people, which it often is. I’ve met her once before and it was in a room with 200 other people. So I said, ‘Oh well I can manage that.’ So it was at the horsey place and the message came to me that the Queen would like to invite you to tea, she knows you’re here. So I walk in, and there’s like eight people sitting around a table. Prince Philip, the Queen, a Sheik of somewhere or other and a couple of horsey people. I know absolutely nothing about horses, at all, and the Queen knows everything about horses. Then I got a cup of tea and the Queen, in particular, was having a very intense conversation about what’s in the sandwiches with Prince Philip, very important. ‘What is this? What’s in here?’” Mirren explained. “The milk is on the other side of Prince Philip and I want some milk in my tea, but my brain goes completely dead and I cannot remember how to address Prince Philip. I mean, is it sir? Is it your majesty? Is it your highness? Is it rude to ask him to pass the milk? Or should I just ask for a lackey? I finished up not having any milk. I just couldn’t sort it out. It’s a lesson in embarrassment, but they were lovely, they were utterly gracious,” she said. Pictures from the discussion panel have been added to the photo gallery.

A big batch of video clips have been added to the archive, compiling all of this week’s released press junket interviews from the promotional tour for “The Good Liar” in the United Kingdom as well as all the recent appearances and interviews in the United States. For a complete list of uploads, check out the full list below. Screencaptures from all appearances have been added to the photo gallery as well. Enjoy! And don’t forget to see “The Good Liar” in UK theaters today.

Over the last, there have been numerous interviews, an appearance on “The Talk, as well as articles and editorial pictures to promote the television broadcast of “Catherine the Great” in the United States. For a complete list of all the material that has been updated to the site, have a look at the previews below.

On Thursday, Helen Mirren made the talkshow rounds in Los Angeles to promote the television premiere of “Catherine the Great” on HBO. She sat down with Sean Hayes, serving as a guest host, on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”, and was interviewed at the Sirius XM Hollywood Studios. The full Ellen appearnce can be found in the video archive while pictures from both appearances have been added to the photo gallery.

To promote “Catherine the Great” in the UK, Helen Mirren has been interviewed on various daytime programs, including Sky News, The Andrew Marr Show, and, just this morning, Lorraine. All appearances can be found in the video archive.

On Friday, Helen Mirren helped launch Graham Norton’s 26th season of his beloved show, promoting the UK release of “Catherine the Great” while sharing Graham’s red sofa with RuPaul, Jack Whitehall and Simon Reeve. In reference to Ru Paul’s UK premiere of “Ru Paul’s Drag Race”, Mirren joked that her husband Taylor Hackford’s sons Rio and Alexander were “slightly in shock” when she showed them around the popular gay entertainment venue the Vauxhall Tavern years ago. “There’s a real historic tradition of drag in London and I was growing up and first came to London on a Friday night there was often a drag show. There is a very famous drag pub – the Vauxhall Tavern – and when I first got together with my husband he had two young sons. I thought it would show these two young Californian boys something of the real London, so I took them to the Vauxhall Tavern.” She added: “These poor kids were slightly in shock but they certainly remember it as being very cool. It was cool, and I love my London.” The full episode can be watched below and in the video archive while screencaptures and promotional stills have been added to the photo gallery. By the way, this is Helen’s seventh appearance on The Graham Norton show – you can find all previous appearances in the video archive.

The two iconic Parisian brands are joining forces to introduce a makeup collection like no other. Karl Lagerfeld and L’Oreal Paris are pleased to announce an unprecedented collection of beauty products, featuring feminine shades with a sophisticated, rock-chic touch. Connected by their Parisian heritage, both Karl Lagerfeld and L’Oreal Paris share a vision based on elegance, style and relentless innovation. As Karl once said, “Tomorrow I could be the opposite of what I am today” — which is also the idea this collaboration invites women to explore. The striking campaign was inspired by Karl’s most iconic quotes. It features the inimitable Helen Mirren, Doutzen Kroes, Liya Kedebe, Ming Xi, Luma Grothe, Louise Bourgoin and Soo Joo Park. You can watch the collaboration video below and find the very stylish screencaptures in the photo gallery.

Helen Mirren makes for a thrilling Catherine the Great. In the upcoming, eponymous HBO miniseries, the Oscar winner plays the 18th-century Russian leader with ruthless panache, cutting down all the men attempting to usurp her throne. “It would be a terrible mistake to go against me,“ she warns in the trailer above. The project was apparently kick-started when Mirren said in an interview that she would one day like to play the monarch, who ruled during Russia’s Golden Era and had a notoriously rocky marriage to Peter III. Producers David Thompson and Charles Pattinson heard the word and quickly made it so. Now Mirren hopes the four-part miniseries will help people see Catherine in a new light. “History doesn’t like very successful, very powerful women,” Mirren told the Independent. “They have to drag them down, and history tried to drag Catherine down. I hope we are going to reinstate her reputation as the incredible leader that she was.” “I’m not saying she didn’t have her faults,” the actor added. “She made mistakes, and finished up quite tyrannical. But she was originally a reformer and a Westernizer, if you like, of this vast, vast country.” The four-part series also stars Jason Clarke as Grigory Potemkin, the military commander who became Catherine’s lover. Catherine the Great will debut on October 21 at 10 p.m. on HBO.