It's difficult to imagine anyone other than Julianna Margulies playing Alicia Florrick in the hit drama The Good Wife, but would you believe the stunning actress, who has won an Emmy for the role, was not first choice? Yep, the star told The Hollywood Reporter she was in fact THIRD in-line for the role, behind two other well known leading ladies.

Want to know who they are? First choice was Ashley Judd, why she turned down the role, we have no idea. Dolphin Tale one and Two must have clearly been a higher priority.

Second choice was then Academy Award winning actress Helen Hunt, who oddly enough we actually could see playing Alicia. She's not a patch on Ms Margulies though, obviously.

The actress said she knew all this upon receiving the script for the role, and didn't want to like it, but couldn't help herself; "When The Good Wife came to me, it came in such a backhanded compliment. {They said} ‘So Ashley Judd was offered this script, but she’s turning it down’ adding that as long as Helen Hunt passed, she could go for the part."

Lovely, no wonder she wasn't chomping at the bit for it, going on to say; "I was then reading the script sort of already defensive, and I wanted to hate it, because, you know, **** you, you didn’t want me to begin with, and I’m like your sloppy thirds."

Thankfully though, she was obviously persuaded, and five seasons in, the legal drama has had people hooked with the actress earning a Primetime Emmy, a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama

Now. How you like them apples Ashley and Helen?