Kate BeckinsaleKate Beckinsale thinks it’s dangerous for people - even size zero celebrities - to aspire to look like the images produced by Hollywood and fashion magazines.

Kate told Glamour magazine recently: “I don’t think you can aspire to it, nor can I.”

“Everybody is retouched, stretched, lengthened, slimmed and trimmed. I could look at a picture of myself from the past and think, ‘Why don’t I look like that now?’ It’s because I never have!”

She added that it’s distressing to see how many people have surgery and cosmetic procedures to try to attain the unattainable: “This is what’s sick about living in LA. My 8-year-old daughter [Lily] will point to a woman and say, ‘Look! That woman’s had too much Botox.’ She spots them because they all look a bit like Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter.”

She also revealed that she was surprised by how much weight she gained when she was pregnant with Lily at the age of 26: “When I was pregnant, everyone told me, ‘You’re going to be one of those women with a little football in front.’ And then this … thing, this Scooby-Doo monster belly arrived.

“I gained 65 pounds (four and a half stone). Every single part of my body was thicker - even my scalp! But that’s the advantage of being young - it went right back.”