Susie Orbach: You were picked as DIVA's cover girl because
you're very popular with the lesbian community. Did you know
that?
Nigella La wson:
I know that, DIVA did a poll and I came fifth, after Angelina
Jolie.
What do you think of that?
I don't know. Having been a journalist, I don't know if I take
those kinds of things seriously. It's nice to be popular in a poll
rather than unpopular. If you're not a thin person, it's very easy
to get turned into a poster girl for the non-conformist shape.
Obviously I don't do it on purpose.
You mean you don't want to accept that they absolutely adore
you?
I don't know. I don't know what to make of it, I always say to
people as a joke when I do book signings that I'm a broad church,
because I appeal to all sorts.
That's an accomplishment, that you appeal to a wide range.
I don't know if it is. I'm not trying to be a particular way. When
I started off, people would say, "Oh, you're too this, you're too
that, you sound too posh", and someone once said to me: "Look, pay
no attention to any of that because a phoney is the worst thing. Be
what you are." I think it's true, if you are what you are, people
react to you in a way [and] those sort of definitions fall away,
whether people respond to you or not.
However I'm also aware that in popular culture, you can become
someone. People project a lot of themselves onto you, so I don't
take things too seriously because I feel that I'm not what some
people think of me as, neither glamorous nor someone who can cope
with things perfectly. I am not that person.
