THE Welsh-born Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones has become Britain’s best-paid actress, commanding a fee of £3,700 a second for a leading role in a shampoo commercial broadcast in China and Japan.

Zeta-Jones, 39, was paid £1.55m in salary and expenses, according to sources at Unilever, the firm behind the seven-minute advertisement promoting a haircare product called Lux.

Although it was filmed in Prague, the commercial will be shown in cinemas and on television in the Far East only. The actress’s fee works out at £3,691 for every second she appears on screen.

“We wanted Catherine as we remember her in Entrap-ment, all slinky and mysterious,” said a Unilever executive.

“That’s why the advert was written as a mini spy movie . . . Pity you won’t see it on British television. She looks pretty good in it, but that’s the deal.”

The commercial features Zeta-Jones stealing a youth-enhancing elixir from a high-security laboratory, which turns out to be the Lux shampoo. She later appears at a red carpet event – complete with shimmering hair.

The actress from Swansea is the latest Hollywood star to make adverts that are not shown in their home markets.

Richard Gere appeared in Ferrero Rocher commercials in Italy, while Arnold Schwarzenegger made many surreal adverts for Japanese drinks and household appliances. Zeta-Jones, however, has virtually made a second career in advertising, becoming the face of telephone companies in America and Elizabeth Arden cosmetics.

That is not to say she has been underpaid in Hollywood – receiving $8m for her Oscar-winning role in the film Chicago, since when she has taken long periods off to play golf and look after her husband, Michael Douglas, 64, and their children Dylan, 8, and Carys, 6.

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