'Stalker' Donald Trump 'asked out' Oscar-winning actress and she thought it was 'a joke'

Celebrated Oscar-winning actress Dame Emma Thompson has made the startling revelation that she "could have changed the course of American history" had she accepted a date with Donald Trump. The British star claimed that the former US President approached her following her split from actor Kenneth Branagh.

Dame Emma speculated that Trump must have had informants on the lookout for newly-divorced high-profile women he could court after his own break up with second wife, Marla Maples.

Speaking at Switzerland's Locarno Film Festival, the Howards End actress shared: "I realised that on that day, my divorce decree had come through. And I bet he's got people looking for suitable people he could take out on his arm - you know, a nice divorcee. That's what he was looking for."

She further revealed that she received this peculiar call in her trailer while filming the 1998 political satire Primary Colors, a film loosely based on Bill Clinton's ascent to the presidency.

Tracking down the private telephone line installed in her temporary movie set trailer would have been no easy feat. Emma likened Trump's efforts to find her to something akin to "stalking."

Emma remembered being sceptical whether the caller was actually Donald Trump - then owner of a struggling casino and hotel. She recalled: "He said: 'Hello, this is Donald Trump.' I thought it was a joke and asked: 'How can I help you?' Maybe he needed directions from someone.

"Then he said: 'I'd love you to come and stay at one of my beautiful places. Maybe we could have dinner.' I said: 'Well, that's very sweet. Thank you so much. I'll get back to you.'".

At the time, Emma had already begun seeing her Sense and Sensibility co-star Greg Wise, whom she went on to marry in 2003.

Dame Emma, who was a staunch supporter of left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and has spoken out frequently on environmental issues, joked that she "could have changed the course of American history" if she had agreed to go on the date.

Another award-winning actress, Mexican-American bombshell Salma Hayek, has also revealed that Trump somehow managed to track her phone number down too.

Speaking on a Los Angeles radio show, she recalled: "When I met that man, I had a boyfriend, and he tried to befriend him to get my home phone number.

"He got my number and would call me to invite me out," the From Dusk Till Dawn star said.

She said she asked him 'What about my boyfriend?

Are you crazy? '" To which Trump reportedly replied, "He's not good enough for you. You should go out with me.

Ms Hayek added that after she rejected him, someone from the Trump camp told gossip magazine The National Enquirer that he had refused to date her.

She revealed: "Someone told the National Enquirer-I won't say who, but everyone knows anything he wants out in the open appears in the National Enquirer-that he didn't want to go out with me because I was too short. "

These days the 5'2" star of Eternals is now blissfully wedded to French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, who is also the father of her daughter, Valentina Paloma.