Susan Sarandon likes to hold her first dates at a pet cemetery.

The 70-year-old actress - who has two Pomeranians called Penny and Rigby - thinks the morbid graveyard, which contains the remains of dead animals, in Hyde Park, London, is the ideal place to take a man she's trying to woo because it's quiet.

Speaking to the London Evening Standard newspaper, she said when asked where she'd take someone on their first date: ''Maybe the pet cemetery in Hyde Park? It's something you probably haven't done before and would give you lots of time to talk.''

And as she fast approaches her 71st birthday, the legendary star has started thinking about death and has decided to dish out collectibles - such as art pieces - to her children; Eva Amurri, 32, Jack Robbins, 28, and Miles Robbins, 25, while she's alive.

She explained: ''Right now I'm in the process of giving everything away, so I did have a lot of fairly well-known photographs - and some art - but I'm passing everything on to my children while I'm still alive. I have some magnificent photographs from Sebastião Salgado that I'm giving to them -- and some Picasso etchings ...

'''When you're on your deathbed, none of these other things will matter.' Mary-Louise Parker told me that in the middle of a crisis.''

But just because she's getting older, Susan has no intention of slowing down and has has admitted she would thoroughly enjoy wreaking havoc, while smoking cannabis, if she were let loose in a building in the English capital overnight.

Asked what building she would choose, she said: ''Maybe the National Gallery or the V&A Museum - that would be fun. I'd probably just get high and wander around.''

Susan's permanent home is in New York City but she regularly pops over to London for work and has admitted her favourite place to stay is Claridge's because she loves devouring the scones and clotted cream while she's there.

She explained: ''Claridge's, which is a very comfy stay, it has a wonderful kind of old-school elegance. I really love the whole thing they do for tea (below); I love scones and clotted cream. Anything that's fattening, I love.''