Teri: 'I'm a real Desperate Housewife'

In Desperate Housewives she is the ditzy one who regularly engages mouth before brain, occasionally under the influence of alcohol.

Teri Hatcher was on vintage form when she gave an emotional speech at an awards ceremony in Mayfair.

The actress, whose Hollywood career was in the doldrums until she was rescued by Desperate Housewives and is now one of the hottest stars around, was talking at Glamour magazine's Women Of The Year awards.

It may not have been the Oscars, but for a few minutes on stage she put Gwyneth Paltrow to shame. And yes, she said she had had a drink or two. "I flew in today from California," she told the audience, which included fellow US actress Kim Cattrall. "I'm red-eyed, tired and drunk."

She dedicated her awards for US TV personality of the year and Glamour editor's special trophy to women everywhere. "We are just one and the same person, having the same pressures on any given day."

Hatcher, 40, who has a daughter of seven, went on: "I know what it's like to be a woman and dealing with a relationship and trying to make it work and being a mum and paying the bills and trying to be sexy and be normal in whatever it is you do.

"When you need help looking good get a hair stylist, and when you feel like looking s*** just put your hair in a pony tail and some jeans and own it," she added, to cheers from the audience.

Hatcher married fellow actor Jon Tenney in 1998 at a ceremony held in the New York toy shop FOA Schwartz. But the couple divorced in 2003 over irreconcilable differences. They agreed to joint custody of their daughter Emerson Rose who was born in November 1997.

Other winners were singer Rachel Stevens, Jimmy Choo shoe designer Tamara Mellon and Oscarnominated actress Sophie Okonedo. Author JK Rowling, who could not be at the event, said in a recorded message: "I'm under that benign form of house arrest that is looking after a baby."

Former Sex And The City star Cattrall was theatre actress of the year.