FLAME-HAIRED Hollywood actress Marcia Cross is to front a multi-million pound advertising campaign... to promote red-skinned potatoes distributed from North Lanarkshire.

The star of the hit television series Desperate Housewives will try to encourage the British to eat more Rooster tatties in TV adverts. The distinctive coloured potato was launched six years ago by company bosses at Albert Bartlett, in Airdrie, which is spending £3million on the three-month campaign from October.

John Hicks, the marketing manager at the 60-year-old family firm, said the actress who plays model housewife Bree Van De Kamp was signed up to try to give the humble potato sex appeal.

He said: "Marcia hits the right boxes. In Desperate Housewives, Bree is the proud housewife and wants to be known as the best cook in the street. We felt that was too obvious so this is a bit of comedy."