When you look at the light bulb above you, you remember Thomas Alva Edison. When the telephone bell rings, you remember Alexander Graham Bell. Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. When you see the blue sky, you think of Sir C.V. Raman.
Marie Curie is my hero. Few people have accomplished something so rare - changing science. And as hard as that is, she had to do it against the tide of the culture at the time - the prejudice against her as a foreigner, because she was born in Poland and worked in France. And the prejudice against her as a woman.
Marie Cornelie Falcon, who lost her voice while performing - singing the line 'Je suis pret' - 'I am ready.' How much more tragic can you get?
The most famous line in gastronomic history, 'Let them eat cake', turns out to have been an eighteenth-century cliche. According to Antonia Fraser, the French accused every foreign queen of saying it, beginning in 1670 with the wife of Louis XIV, Marie Theresa.
I remember seeing 'The Bling Ring' in cinemas and loved it - it was so cool. And 'Marie Antoinette' - I watched that when I was, like, nine or something. I thought it was the best thing ever.
The concentration in my book on Marie Antoinette's childhood and on her family influences. It is surprising how some books actually start with her arrival in France!
I think mine is the fullest and most plausible account of what went on in Marie Antoinette's life.
I realize that I had always in my heart of hearts planned to write a biography of Marie Antoinette.
My performance outfits are very Marie Antoinette, sparkly corsets... and full skirts. And then we do another look that's '50s-inspired. Poufy skirts, big bows. Very fun, girlie and young, but otherwise, when I'm not in costume, I dress really normal.
I'm not pretty. The truth is I didn't think I could be a model at all. I was looking at some of the guys on the walls at Irene Marie and I thought to myself 'Jesus Christ. I can't do this. I don't look anything like these guys'.
