On 'The Royals,' Hurley watches her throne

NEW YORK — Elizabeth Hurley's manipulative and malicious Helena, the pretend British queen on E!'sThe Royals (Sunday, 10 p.m. ET/PT), makes Mad Men's icy Betty Draper seem sweetly affectionate by comparison.

"I'm just so nasty to her," says Hurley of her scenes with her wild-child daughter, Princess Eleanor (Alexandra Park), who opens the series by having her nether regions splashed all over the tabloids, much to her mum's rage and shame.

Hurley's getting quite the kick out of parenting her unruly TV brood, which also includes the well-meaning, if callow, Prince Liam (William Moseley). He becomes the sudden heir to the throne after his older brother, Robert, dies in an accident.

"This is the first time as an actress I've ever had grown-up children, in anything. I don't have grown-up children in real life. I'm enjoying it," says the actress, the mom of Damian, 12.

Hurley lives in England and, like so many, is obsessed by her country's telegenic young couple, Prince William and his pregnant bride, Duchess Kate. And no, she doesn't have any special insights into their private lives.

"I know as much as anybody knows who reads Hello! magazine. I see what they show us: not very much at all. We see everything they want us to see," she says.

She drives past Buckingham Palace every day and understands the fascination.

"They're fabulous. They're the ultimate movie stars in England. They're as glamorous, as privileged and as secretive, in a way, as it gets," she says. "You get to see how gorgeous England is, with our stately homes, with the carriages. It's fabulous just to see the pomp and the circumstance."