Leading lady (7)
I believe the answer is:
heroine
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">leading lady</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(I've seen this before)</span><br/ ><br/ >This is all the clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for heroine that I've seen before include "Chief female character in a book" , "Leading lady" , "The main good female character in a work of fiction" , "Woman of outstanding courage" , "Perhaps Tess" .)