They were delighted when she went through a period of sharing her Saturday nights out in the company of Met Bar homegirls like Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and Meg Matthews – and could hardly contain their joy when someone secured a shot of her locking lips with another woman at the first night party for The War Bride.They also adore her because she doesn’t seem to censor her thoughts in the presence of journalists With Friel, there seem to be few no-go areas. “You can be honest,” she says to me, as I tiptoe around some slightly tricky area of her biography. “You don’t have to mince your words so you don’t insult me.” Friel’s official website has most of her interviews logged and archived – even the ones for Best and What’s On TV. Clicking through these is a good way to measure her occasionally alarming frankness.

It’s all here: the story of how an ovarian cyst exploded on the set of Me Without You; an account of how her doctor told her that she would be wise to have children before she reaches 30; the tale of how her father walked in on her having it off with Darren Day; and confessions about her sex life with David Thewlis. Perhaps this is what she means about living life vicariously through her characters: she often plays the hedonist surrounded by prudes and prissy types. When, during our conversation, she looses an accidental burp from the middle of a sentence there’s a pause as we both reflect on the inevitability of its appearance in this piece. Then she grabs herself the punchline, “at least it wasn’t the other end.”The next three years of Friel’s life may well determine what she does for the next three decades. She’s clearly looking to America for inspiration: a stint in a good HBO series would suit her fine, she says, if the contract was right. (On her last visit to Los Angeles, she held a meeting with the producers of Six Feet Under.) “You’ve got to take responsibility for your own reputation,” she says.

“I don’t want to be just arm-candy and do Scream 3 and teenage things. I want to be a better actress, somebody who’s going to be around for a while.” And then there’s the question of children, which, as she’s said in interview after interview, would be best addressed sooner rather than later One aspect of this, at least, has been settled. As I leave the hall of mirrors, she volunteers a happy ambition. “If I have a girl,” she says, “I’m going to call it Gracie.”. The numbers of Americans choosing to continue their education after school is rising. About 15.5 million students are enrolled in colleges and universities compared to 14.3 million a decade ago.

But they are taking on an often intimidating financial burden. The number of Americans choosing to continue their education after school is rising. The cost of higher education in America has jumped this year, as many states have cut funding. Tuition fees in the publicly funded New York State University system rose by 28 per cent this year a $950 (£555) increase, bringing the cost, not counting room, board or other expenses, to $4,350 a year. Students face a choice between a public university in their own state, where fees will be lower, a public university in a different state or a private university, where they will pay more.