November 04, 2006 11:00pm
FORMER James Bond star Roger Moore counts Princess Mary among his
favourite women in the world.
Screen super-spy Sir Roger, who developed an eye for beautiful women
in his role as secret agent 007, says the Tassie-born Danish princess
is "wonderful".
The tongue-in-cheek star of Bond movies including Live And Let Die and
The Man With The Golden Gun watched Princess Mary's husband Prince
Frederik grow up, and attended the couple's wedding.
"She's such a lovely woman," he said.
"You have a lot of queens in Australia, but she's your first real
princess. She's wonderful.
"I sent young Prince Christian greetings for his first birthday the other day."
The ageing actor holds Aussie actors Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett
in high regard as well, declaring them too talented to ever take up
roles as Bond girls.
"They're too big. Big star ladies don't want to be a Bond girl."
Moore, 78, admitted he didn't think he'd still be alive in 2006, let
alone talking still about 007 to promote the re-release of all 20 Bond
films on DVD.
He predicted new Bond star Daniel Craig would be terrific in the
forthcoming Casino Royale, despite criticism of the newcomer among
fanatics.
"I think he's a very good actor," he said.
"I think ... it's grossly unfair to attack someone before they've done
it. On the other hand, he can only go up from here. They've said
everything bad. I'm sure he's going to be terrific."
Moore said the Bond franchise could go on forever.
"I don't see any reason why it shouldn't if the audience taste is
still for action and adventure, bigger and better," he said.
"Though Bond these days seems to involve a lot of loving and a lot of
blowing things up. It's not really spying."
Knighted for his charity work with UNICEF, Sir Roger said he disagreed
with pop star Madonna's recent efforts to adopt a child from Africa.
The children's rights campaigner, who started his charity work in 1991
at the suggestion of Audrey Hepburn, said the singer's decision was
"rather strange".
"I think children should actually be reared by family," he said.
Moore said he felt guilty to this day that he hadn't made more effort
to use the weight of his celebrity at the height of his fame to
influence politics.
While shooting Octopussy in India, for example, he saw terrible
poverty but "didn't have time to deal with it".
"When I was doing Bond I could have done something, and I didn't. It
makes me work a little bit harder today," he said.
"You've got to keep battering at that door to get the world to do
something about poverty."
.Shows he has good taste in Australian women haha. 
