Cool. A quality as impossible to define as it is to attain. You’ve either got it or you ain’t.
How many of our home-grown uber-celebrities have it? Cheryl Cole? Give it another 10 years. Lily Allen? Wants it too bad. The Beckhams? Oh, give over.

Over in Hollywood it’s the same story. Ruling movieland are the dreadful Cruises, the unfortunate Aniston, and the super-saccharine SJP.

And so it is a blessing that within Tinseltown’s small bunch of lesbians, cool is somewhat the default mode. Think Ellen and Portia, Jodie Foster, Melissa Etheridge, Rosie O’Donnell. Then add Sara Gilbert and Cynthia Nixon – all knee-deep in that elusive, enigmatic quality.

Of course Ellen, Jodie et al are cool not because of their sexuality. They just are. The fact that they made it, despite being gay, are unapologetically present and comfortable within their own skin - only adds to their appeal. In Hollywood, a city of fakers and shapeshifters, these women know who they are and have forged ahead while remaining completely and coolly rooted within themselves.

Joining their ranks, and possibly the coolest Hollywood lesbian of them all, is Glee’s Jane Lynch, who at the age of 49, having appeared in over 100 film and TV roles, has become an overnight sensation playing delectably sociopathic, win-or-die cheerleader coach Sue Sylvester. In Sue, Lynch has created a character that will rank alongside the likes of Patsy Stone, Alexis Colby and Heather Mills in the pantheon of delicious, preposterous, shameless villainesses. Glee, a twisted, bittersweet, delightful and frequently barking amalgam of the Fame TV spin-off of the 1980s, High School Musical, Mean Girls and early Desperate Housewives is brilliant, anyhow. But despite some cracking comedic turns from the rest of the cast – the joy in watching the show really comes in waiting expectantly for Lynch’s brilliantly misanthropic turns as Sue – she never disappoints.

‘Sue does anything she wants with these kids,’ says Lynch. ‘In one of the episodes, she has a boy from the football team rubbing her feet and cleaning her pool. She’s not above engaging in inappropriate behaviour with minors. She somehow manages to be horrible and really delightful at the same time. Her entire sexual philosophy can be summed up with the sentence, “Brace yourself!” Something horrible is going to happen so you might want to close your eyes.’