Was watching a Marilyn Munroe movie last night, when I drifted off. Woke a short time later and the movie was still going. In that dreamy half awake, half asleep state I watched as Marilyn tried to win her man, when it hit me. Nigella Lawson, the English cookery writer and television presenter, and Marilyn Munroe are a lot alike. The same voluptuous bodies, the flirty looks, pouting lips and eyes that speak of a thousand pleasures. In fact the only thing Nigella doesn't have of Marylins is her vulnerability, Nigella is more your Wusthof Trident kind of girl, all hard and sharp.

Can't imagine Nigella singing, "Happy Birthday Mr Prime Minister," to Tony Blair either. But if she did, the effect on him would be the same as for John Kennedy.

My mate L. loves watching her on the telly. L. can't really cook, he just loves to watch. He tells me there is something about the way she tastes food, a sensual parting of the lips, flashing eyes and the morsel slowly devoured.

I've watched Nigella a few times, but she kind of lost me a while back. She was making guacamole and was chopping coriander with her trendy mellazuna when she said something like "I can't be bothered with too much chopping" and proceeded to put the coriander into the mashed avocado pretty much intact. I know she is appealing to the time challenged, but her statement showed she knew it wasn't chopped enough.

Another time I heard her say, "I never salt water before it boils, as it takes longer to boil that way," with a gee I know a lot kind of look. Well I'm not Harold Mcgee, how much longer Nigella? A second, two seconds and who is going to watch the pot to save all that time? We all know a watched pot never boils.

Don't get me wrong, I do like Nigella, she obviously loves her food, likes to eat it, dresses so well and looks good all the time. It's just that I can't help the feeling that food is something to help her get to where she wants to go. Wherever that is.