- TV chef barred from boarding a flight at Heathrow after her drug confession
- Potential travel ban threatened to ruin her planned career in the U.S.
- But U.S. authorities have now invited the celebrity cook to apply for visa
- Embassy statement offers her hope of returning and is signed off 'stand by'
- But experts say she now faces a drug test to prove she is clean
Nigella Lawson faces the humiliation of being drug tested to prove she is clean if she wants to visit the US.
The celebrity cook was barred from boarding a flight to Los Angeles at the weekend after her courtroom admission she took cocaine and cannabis.
The US embassy in London has now invited her to apply for a visa. But law experts have warned that officials are likely to insist she is tested for illegal substances.
Scroll down for video
Nigella Lawson in London after she was prevented from flying to the U.S., whose embassy has now invited her to apply for a visa
Miss Lawson, 54, would then have to be examined by an embassy-approved doctor and provide a clean blood or urine sample before she could be cleared to travel to the US again.
Her television career in the States – she has recently been a judge on the American version of cookery show The Taste – is now in peril.
The Daily Mail revealed yesterday how Miss Lawson was stopped from getting on a British Airways flight from Heathrow to LA on Sunday.
She was barred under strict American laws which technically exclude any foreigner who admits committing drugs offences in their home country – even if they were never charged or convicted.
Miss Lawson confessed during the trial of her former assistants in December that she had snorted cocaine seven times and smoked cannabis in front of her two children.
The lifting of her travel ban could mean Ms
Lawson is free to resume her TV career in the US, where she is a judge
on talent show, The Taste
Ms Lawson admitted taking cocaine when she appeared at the trial of her and ex-husband Charles Saatchi's personal assistants
The TV cook told the court she last took cocaine in 2010 to cope with the ‘intimate terrorism’ of her then-husband, Charles Saatchi, 70.
But she admitted she had smoked cannabis ‘in the last year of my marriage to Mr Saatchi’.
The couple divorced last July, suggesting Miss Lawson may have used the drug within the past 12 months.
This could prove significant for the US authorities, who will insist on drug tests if they believe she has a recent history of narcotic abuse.
Steven Heller, a US immigration lawyer based in Britain, said: ‘A drugs test is pretty much standard if there is a suggestion of recent drug use.
'Certainly if there was something within the past year, they would send her for a drug test.’
It is understood that as of yesterday Miss Lawson had not applied for a visa through the US embassy in London. But once she does, she will be invited to attend a face- to-face interview with a consular officer.
Ahead of her planned trip to LA, Ms Lawson
tweeted a pictured of her travel 'essentials', including a sun hat,
Colman's mustard and a sachet of salt
As she appeared outside her home in central London this week, Ms Lawson's representatives refused to comment on the travel saga
Adults seeking a visa in London must pay £235 for a basic medical examination and £48 for a drug test, according to a document on the US State Department’s website.
According to one former visa applicant, Miss Lawson may also have to go through the degrading experience of being watched as she provides a urine sample to ensure her drug test results are not faked.
Miss Lawson is thought to have tried to enter the US on Sunday under the visa waiver programme, whereby travellers must register online and confirm they have never been arrested for or convicted of certain offences.
Ms Lawson was prevented from boarding a flight to LA after arriving at Heathrow Airport's Terminal Five on Sunday morning
A spokesman for the US Embassy said staff
understood Ms Lawson has 'professional requirements' in the U.S. and her
case would be 'handled routinely and expeditiously'
The specific grounds on which she was barred entry have not been officially confirmed. She is now expected to engage lawyers to ensure she can travel freely to America, which she visits regularly both for pleasure and for work.
Miss Lawson insisted during the trial of her housekeepers, Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo that she had never been a habitual user of illegal substances and maintained that she was now drug-free.
US border officers appear to have hardened their position since the start of January, when Miss Lawson was allowed to fly to New York to film an interview promoting the second series of The Taste USA.
A spokesman for the US embassy in London said: ‘There are several ways of legally travelling into the United States and Miss Lawson has been invited to come to the embassy and apply for a visa for travel to the US.
‘We understand she has professional requirements for US travel and these matters are generally handled routinely and expeditiously.’
Miss Lawson’s spokesman declined to comment.
Mick and Macca can come and go - but other stars are barred
Many British stars have fallen foul of America’s immigration regulations because of drug use, criminal convictions and reported assaults.Those who have been refused entry visas range from Boy George to Lily Allen, Pete Doherty to Amy Winehouse.
However, there are lots of celebrities who have been welcomed into the States – despite well-recorded drug use and criminal records.
Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney admitted taking
heroin once, along with cocaine cannabis and LSD but has several houses
in the US including a ranch in Arizona (pictured after his arrest in
Japan for possession of cannabis)
Sir Paul McCartney has spoken openly about his once habitual drug use and until 1973 was repeatedly denied entry into the US.
The former Beatle, 71, has admitted to taking heroin on one occasion, as well as cocaine, cannabis and LSD.
In an interview in 2004, he said: ‘Just about everyone was doing them in one form or another. We were no different.’
Russel Brand has mad no secret of his past as a heroin addict, and owns a £2million house in LA
He spent ten nights in prison before eventually being deported.
Despite this, Sir Paul has several houses in the US, including a Manhattan townhouse and a ranch in Arizona. Since marrying American heiress Nancy Shevell, he now spends a lot of time at their mansion in the exclusive Hamptons.
Mick Jagger has also openly admitted taking cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis.
In 1967, he and Rolling Stones bandmate Keith Richards were convicted for drug possession and jailed for three months – sentences later quashed on appeal.
However, Jagger’s well-documented drug use does not appear to have been a bar to entry to the US.
The band have toured there many times and Jagger, 70, spent a lot of time living in New York with his girlfriend L’Wren Scott, who committed suicide last month.
Russell Brand is well-known for his heroin addiction and run-ins with the police, having been arrested 12 times. He quit drugs in 2003 and is now patron of addiction charity Focus 12.
Despite his past record, however, the star has not been barred from America. He has appeared in a number of Hollywood films and owns a £2million home in LA.
Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins, 33, admitted having been a regular user of cocaine and ecstasy but this has not led to a bar on her travel.
She competed in the US television show Dancing With The Stars.
Mick Jagger (left) has openly admitted taking
cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis. He is pictured alongside bandmate
Keith Richards after standing trial for drugs offences
He works in the US regularly, having recently appeared in Oscar-nominated Philomena, and has been living there on and off for more than a decade.
In 2007, Lily Allen’s US working visa was revoked after her arrest for assaulting a photographer in London.
Amy Winehouse was denied a visa to enter America in 2008 because of her drug record. The singer had earlier been arrested with her then husband for possession of cannabis.
Noel and Liam Gallagher were forced to undergo drug tests before being granted US visas in 1997.
The brothers, who were going to New York to promote an album, had been cautioned by British police for cocaine possession a year earlier.
