At five feet nothing, you couldn't call Dolly Parton larger than life. But she does have a number of conspicuously outsized features - her smile and hairstyle to name just two. And when you add a bigger than average personality, it's no surprise she can fill up a room with her presence.
Her personality was not the feature dominating the thoughts of male fans who queued to meet her at a Dublin record store yesterday, however. Appearing in an orange dress which one fashion expert described as "tight", the singer was not shy about displaying the qualities which, above all others, have made her famous.
When she leaned forward to sign a record, onlookers behind the security ropes leaned forward too. And while Ms Parton smiled and posed for photographs, the security men looked tense, perhaps worried that the rope might give way at any moment and one of the small people at the front would be plunged headlong into her cleavage.
Happily, the event passed off without incident, other than the signing for a couple of hundred fans of copies of the singer's new album Haloes and Horns.
The record is the latest instalment of a comeback which has brought her renewed critical acclaim after she was written off by the aficionados of "new country".
Several of her adoring fans who queued yesterday brought flowers, including Mr Edward Boyd, a hairdresser from Castleblayney, who insisted he was interested in "her music - nothing else".
Yet few could match the devotion of Mr John Langton (28), from Sligo, who was meeting the singer yet again,having made several pilgrimages to "Dollywood", the theme park in her Tennessee home town.
At exactly twice his age, Dolly Parton thrives on such devotion. And for a whole hour yesterday, her famous smile never once sagged.
All her other features held up well too.
