Messing refuses to change hair colour

Debra Messing has claimed that she will never change back to her natural hair colour because it will damage her career.

The Will & Grace actress revealed that colouring her hair red for an early movie role coincided with an upturn in her fortunes.

She explained: "My first movie was A Walk In The Clouds with Keanu Reeves and they wanted me to be a 1940s harlot and they said, 'We want you to be blonde.' And I said, 'OK, I'm an Eastern-European Jew - if you make me blonde, I will look like a heroine addict...'

She added: "[The colourist] poured this bright Tahitian red colour... I started getting work immediately. I could not get a job as a brunette."