Rosamund Pike had the start to her movie career most can only ever dream of. In her debut film, "Die Another Day", her role as the treacherous double-agent Miranda Frost launched her into the lime light and into movie history as she joined the long line of Bond girls.

But will Pike dodge the Bond girl curse which has haunted many over the past 40 years?

Most of the actresses who get to bed Bond experience their career highlight in a 007 film, and suffer a slippery downward slope afterwards.

Rosamund Pike has different plans. After landing a substantial post-Bond film already ("Castle of Lies" which opens later in 2003), her path has lead her back to where she started - on the stage.

Years of experience with stage productions grabbed the attention of Bond producers back in January 2002, and now her latest stage production in April 2003 is set the grab the attention of Bond fans in - at least the red-blooded male Bond fans.

London's Royal Court Theatre is home to the new play "Hitchcock Blonde" written and directed by Terry Johnson.

Audiences are sure to be left shaken and stirred when Rosamund bears all on the stage in a scene in which she appears totally naked.

Pike’s character, "Blonde", is set in 1959 as Janet Leigh's stand-in during the making of Hitchcock’s classic film "Psycho".

The play switches between the past and the present, where a media lecturer and his female protégé are hot on the trail of a lost Hitchcock film.

Pike had to experience what it must have been like for an actress to read the script for the film’s notorious shower scene, and to get fully in character she has dyed her hair peroxide blonde.

In the play, there’s a lot about the way men look at women,” Pike told the Sunday Times recently.

"Blonde means being childlike and innocent, a funny combination of sexual fantasy and angelic image. Perhaps being a blonde gives me licence to be less grown-up.”

Event: "Hitchcock Blonde"

Location: London's Royal Court Theatre

Date: April 2003 onwards