Madonna casts Natalie Dormer to portray the 'game-playing' Queen Mother

Much missed since her death in 2002, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother is to be subjected to a radical new portrayal by Madonna. Mandrake can disclose that the American singer has cast an actress who appeared naked as Anne Boleyn in the television series The Tudors to perform the role of Queen Elizabeth in a film that she is making about the Edward VIII abdication crisis.

"This country tends to remember the Queen Mother as a rather wrinkly 97 year-old, but I am playing her when she was quite an enchanting, engaging twenty and thirtysomething," Natalie Dormer told me. "She was quite a savage and savvy game player."

The "Queen of Pop" is understood to be portraying Queen Elizabeth as a highly negative influence in W.E., which is sympathetic to Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American socialite, who caused a constitutional dilemma when the king declared his desire to marry her.

Dormer, who was speaking at a party to mark the 100th anniversary of Elizabeth Arden, the cosmetics firm patronised by Queen Elizabeth, said: "She never really spoke in public – she left it up to her husband, the king, and, therefore, even if she was a dominant force in the marriage, and a rock and forward thinker, she always let the king take the lead. She never took any credit for it."

Madonna has long been fascinated by the 1936 crisis, which was resolved by Edward's abdication and his succession by his brother, George VI, who was the present Queen's father. Edward was given the title the Duke of Windsor and he married Simpson.

In May, the singer said: "People have accused Wallis of all kinds of things. They've said that she put a spell on Edward. They've said that she was a hermaphrodite and that he was gay. They've said they were Nazi sympathisers. It's just the usual lynch-mob mentality that descends upon somebody who has something that lots of other people don't have."

Mandrake reported in March that Madonna would ask the Queen for filming on W.E. to be allowed in royal palaces.

Dormer, 28, whose ancestor is Jane Dormer, a lady in waiting to Queen Mary, is used to controversy after starring in The Tudors, which was criticised for its historical inaccuracies.

Madonna's film has already undergone several changes. The latest is that Margo Stilley, who appeared in the sexually explicit film 9 Songs, has left. "I had the role, but we had artistic differences," said the American actress.

Stilley added of Madonna: "She is really something. I wish the cast luck because they are all really talented."

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