I think it’s so funny that British soul singer Joss Stone was asked to get her frump on for her role as Anne of Cleves on the upcoming season of The Tudors. Joss has serious vocal chops and she’s totally cute, so being cast as the “Flanders Mare” to King Henry’s sleek stallion seems a leetle bit of a stretch.

In an ET interview, Joss explains that Anne, while not as gorgeous as Jane Seymour or as bewitching as Anne Boelyn, was maybe not as homely as history has made her out to be. Henry couldn’t stand her though, Joss says, so he made her out to be fugly.

Asked if she’ll get hot and heavy with Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ randy king on Season 3, Joss laughed. Henry and Anne never consumated the marriage, which made it easy to ditch Anne, she said. Just as well, Joss admitted, ’cause she’d be totally embarassed to film a sex scene.

For more from Joss and Jonny about Season 3, bounce over to ET Online to watch the full clip.

Season 3 of The Tudors is back on Showtime in April 2009.

There’s no fat suit in Jonathan Rhys Meyers‘ future, producers of The Tudors say. They’d rather keep the hot Irish actor trim and sexy as the series enters its third season.

Forget historical accuracy, exec producer Morgan O’Sullivan told The Sunday Times, the aim is not to make Jonny (pictured at left on set in Ireland) look like Henry VIII.

“We have accepted that from day one,” O’Sullivan said. “We have been criticised for not casting someone with red hair. But you either cast him exactly like Henry VIII or you choose to deal with it differently. We chose from the start to have him looking fit. So there will never be a fat suit. That would be unreal.”

Although not obese, JRM will look a bit older in Season 3. Still, he’ll avoid some of the un-pretty ailments the real King Henry suffered from, including gout, boils and possibly an STD (no wonder, with the wife-swapping and bed-hopping and all).

The Tudors is currently filming in County Wicklow, Ireland, with the new season due on Showtime in 2009.

Showtime announced this week that along with British soul singer Joss Stone, it’s added another top talent for The Tudors third season.

Acclaimed Swedish actor Max von Sydow — best known to U.S. audiences for his roles in The Exorcist, Hannah and Her Sisters and Minority Report — will play Cardinal Von Waldburg, a German-born cleric who tries to orchestrate the downfall of Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ King Henry VIII.

The cardinal, whose family was killed by Protestant revolutionaries, was appointed by the Pope to crush the Reformation in England.

Showtime calls Von Sydow “one of the most iconic European actors of the last century.” The Oscar-, Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actor worked with director Ingmar Bergman on 13 of his films, most notably The Seventh Seal.

The 79-year-old actor has called acting a “weird profession.” “It’s such a futile thing,” he notes. “Even when it’s there on film, there’s nothing really to it. It is not like making a piece of furniture or writing a book.”

Von Sydow will appear in four of the eight episodes in Season 3, which is filming now in Dublin and premieres in 2009.

More on-set photos, straight from Christchurch where Jonathan Rhys Meyers wandered around chain smoking between takes of an episode for The Tudors’ third season. His thigh-high bronze leather boots are awesome. Check ‘em out:

It’s great fun to look through the candid photos that come from the Dublin set of The Tudors’ third season because there are lots of anachronisms.

Here, an actress sports sunglasses more properly seen on Paris Hilton than a Renaissance lady-in-waiting. Below, Annabelle Wallis, our new Jane Seymour, drags her heavy skirts over to a directors chair — not exactly the royal throne we’d imagine!

The Golden Nymph awards may not be as well known in America as the Golden Globes, but the Monte Carlo TV awards ceremony still drew tons of Hollywood heavyweights last weekend. Among the stars on display: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, with Reena Hammer in tow, of course. They don’t look that happy on the red carpet, even though Jonny scored a nymph statuette for his excellent work as King Henry VIII on The Tudors.

Filming for Season 3 of The Tudors is just getting underway in Ireland.

Photo: Newscom

With The Tudors second season behind him, The Los Angeles Times found Jonathan Rhys Meyers in a reflective mood. The uber intense star, shown here arriving at the Dublin airport in advance of shooting the third season, covered a lot of ground in a recent interview:

• He compared himself to an NBA athlete in terms of his preparation for playing Henry VII — “it’s always game time.”

• He said when shooting’s done on The Tudors, he’d be happy not to see a doublet, knee-high boot or pair of boobs for a while.

• He gave the standard “it’s an honor just to be nominated” answer to the question of how he handles award season.

Even better, he dished about the new season of the show, which starts shooting June 16. Find out what he has to say after the jump.

Photo: Newscom

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