ABOVE: Julia on the red carpet

She too ignores ‘The Seinfeld curse’ (there was a lot of media speculation after its nine-year run that the stars of the show would never be able to achieve such stellar success again). Indeed, it’s something Louis-Dreyfus has poked fun at repeatedly; when winning one of her Emmys she held the award aloft crying out, “Curse this, baby!” “The media love to construct these curses out of thin air and hone-in on any slight negative as ‘proof of the curse!’” she sighs. “The Seinfeld Curse, The Cheers Curse, The Friends Curse, they’ve done it with every comic sitcom. I just call it the ‘continuing-to-have-a-career-in-show- business curse’ because that’s what it is, essentially. It’s really hard to hit it out of the park once in this industry, let alone twice. It’s not just the writing, or the casting, it’s so many other things aligning. It’s a miracle when it happens.”

But lightning has stuck twice for Louis-Dreyfus, because the political comedy Veep, in which she plays the lead, is hilarious. The Huffington Post named her, “One of the funniest people ever” in the wake of the first two series and a third has just been commissioned. “Playing Selina has definitely made me more sympathetic to politicians and their predicament,” she says, sounding surprised. “It’s so tricky for politicians to hang onto their morals and survive politically, I don’t know how they actually do it.”

And how has Washington reacted to her take on politics? “I was invited by Joe Biden for lunch at The White House actually,” she admits. “It was mind-blowing. All his staff started introducing themselves as characters from the show. ‘Hi, I’m the Dan Egan of the office,’ and ‘Hi, I’m the Sue,’ and so on, which was so neat. There was a lot of talk about me basing my character on Sarah Palin, but I didn’t at all, I can only assume it’s because I look a bit like her,” she shrugs.

In real life politics, Louis-Dreyfus’ heart lies with environmental concerns. Her home in California is solar powered, radiant-heated and built by recycled materials. “I like clean water better than dirty water and clean air better than dirty air, it’s a basic human right. I think of celebrity as like a bank account, I spend the collateral on issues that are important to me.”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus: no pressure