So, Katherine Moennig – wearing nothing but a pair of pyjama bottoms – is sitting up in bed at home in LA, during a week’s break from filming Series Five of The L Word in Vancouver. It’s 10.30 Wednesday morning, the sun is streaming through an open window, and she’s just reaching for the copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that lies, half-read, on her bedside table when the phone rings.
How do I know all this? Because it’s me phoning. And during our transatlantic one-to-one she tells me everything. Well, not everything, but surely we expect that by now.

What you might not know is that Kate’s dad is a respected violin-maker who still runs the family business in Philadelphia, and her mother, Mary Zahn, is an ex-Broadway dancer. Kate is the niece of actress Blythe Danner (who played Will’s mum in Will & Grace) and cousin to Gwyneth Paltrow. In spite of her artistic pedigree, Kate tells me, ‘I never felt pushed into performing. In fact, I always wanted to be a doorman when I grew up.’ Living on the 12th floor of an up-market apartment block in Philly, Kate spent a lot of time hanging out with the guys who ran the building: ‘They were my friends, I thought the uniform was cool and it seemed like an easy job.’