Martine's Hollywood blunder

Days after her feature film debut was released across the world, Martine McCutcheon decided to try her luck in Hollywood.

At first, the plans to build on her role as Hugh Grant's romantic interest in Love Actually looked promising.

She linked up with a leading Hollywood talent agency, set herself up with several auditions and spoke of landing a new record deal.

'I've been to LA and they said I'm England's answer to Jennifer Lopez,' Miss McCutcheon soon declared.

But, only two months after jetting out to the U.S. with great fanfare, the former EastEnders actress has come home with her tail between her legs.

Although she claims it was because she missed England too much, U.S. sources tell a different story.

They say she was dumped by her agent at the William Morris Agency after enjoying too much of the free drink at Sir Elton John's lavish post-Oscars party at the Marquee Club in February.

'Martine didn't have that much luck in auditions and, when Oscar time came around, she was desperate to get invited

to some of the parties,' said a source.

'At one point, she was crying on the phone because no one would get her into anything.

'Eventually, she got a pass into Sir Elton John's party but that turned out to be a nightmare.

'She appeared to be drunk and was jostling really important people out of the way when she was walking around.

'At one point, she pushed some really high-powered television executive out of the way and he was really annoyed with her.

'They thought she was being really loud and obnoxious.

'The problem in Hollywood is that everyone knows everyone else, so if you upset one person it gets around really quickly and can have a terrible effect. It turns out that the executive who she pushed out of the way was a really good friend with the people at William Morris.

'The next day, she was hauled into their offices and told off about her behaviour - which she didn't take too well.

'A few weeks later Martine was told that she would no longer be represented by William Morris.

'Networking is the most important thing to people at Hollywood parties - and the Oscar parties are the biggest of them all.

'It's just not the done thing to go to those sorts of places and get drunk - but clearly Martine didn't know it.' At one point during the party, when an unfortunate man stepped on the back of 27- year- old Miss McCutcheon' s Vera Wang gown, she shouted: 'Oi, get off my flaming dress.'

Miss McCutcheon, whose singing career suffered a setback when she was dropped by her record company EMI last year due to falling sales, returned to her West London home earlier this month, saying she disliked Los Angeles.

'It was not what I expected,' she said. 'People were shallow. They pretend that they are interested in you and then they forget you.

'It didn't work out for me and I'm so glad I'm back.

'Apart from going to auditions, the only other thing to do there is go to the beach.

'I missed the shops and the people back home in England.'

A spokesman for the William Morris Agency, which is based in Beverly Hills, confirmed that Jason Barrett - who represents stars such as Morgan Freeman and Steven Seagal - was no longer looking after the actress who made her name playing Tiffany in EastEnders for three years.

'Martine McCutcheon is no longer with us,' he said. 'She was a client of ours up until a couple of months ago.

'We have no forwarding address for her.'