A FORMER Bond girl and model is taking a starring role at Blackburn Cathedral.

Shannon Ledbetter, who appeared alongside Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies, has been appointed a community canon and will also be working as chaplain at Blackburn College.

It’s a world away from the days of attending Hollywood parties and modelling for the covers of Just 17 and Good Housekeeping, but Canon Ledbetter says she has always been interested in the church.

She said: “All my modelling friends in the 1980s knew I was interested in the church and the joke was that I was part of the God Squad.”

Canon Ledbetter was first spotted by a model scout waiting for a bus in London aged 21, and got the chance to star in the 1997 Bond film when a costume director friend called and asked her to wear a £250,000 PVC dress.

Canon Ledbetter, 47, said: “It was certainly a high point for me, exciting and fun.

"I got quite lucky. The director put me in position for one of the shots and you actually got to see me for a few seconds in the film.”

Since leaving modelling, she studied theology in the United States and Liverpool where she completed her PhD.

She was ordained in Liverpool in 2003 and is currently associate priest at a church in West Derby.

She will be installed as a canon at Blackburn Cathedral on October 9.

She said: “I am delighted to be coming to Blackburn for what will be an exciting and challenging role.”

Canon Andrew Hindley of Blackburn Cathedral said: “Shannon brings huge experience and a big vision for the already pioneering work being done by both the college and the cathedral in the field of community cohesion.”

And Ian Clinton, principal of Blackburn College said: “We are delighted by the appointment.”