Cate Blanchett is the Toast of New York

Mary Mapes*Cate Blanchett*Robert Redford* Dan Rather (Truth is about Mapes & Rather)

 Cate Blanchett's latest film has premiered in New York City. "Truth" was filmed in Sydney's Western Suburbs earlier this year. Whispers reported on the fact that one of the Shuttle's most searched for personalities Sharon Sargeant (right) had a small role in the flick. So impressed were the 2 stars of the film -Cate Blanchett and the legendary Robert Redford - that Blanchett said to Sargeant after her scene :"you were perfect, just perfect". And Redford requested Sargeant share his limo back into central Sydney to discuss the film with her.    

Now one the USA's most famed chroniclers of society Liz Smith is raving about Cate Blanchett in Truth. She said this:
"What the movie couldn't do without is Cate Blanchett. To say this is a great performance, would be a laughable understatement. I don't know

Liz Smith

if the real Mary Mapes is as volcanically intense and charismatic as Blanchett, but after seeing herself portrayed by Cate, she might have wished she was, or had been, during her five months battling CBS and the rest of the media...I would go so far as to say that Blanchett's performance, from beginning to end, makes her recent Oscar win for "Blue Jasmine" seem like rehearsal footage! You cannot look away from this woman, who needs nothing but her eyes, her mobile mouth, and her cheekbones to rivet. (I know — you can't really "act" with your cheekbones, but somehow, Blanchett seems to.) Even if you are a staunch conservative, go see "Truth" just for Cate's amazing performance"
So you heard it here first : expect Cate Blanchett to be nominated for an Academy Award.
But it gets better. Liz Smith has also discovered Noni Hazelhurst who also appears in Truth and had this to say:     "But aside from the pyrotechnics provided by Miss Blachette, there is another great female performance. Her name is Noni Hazlehurst, whose face is familiar to me, but whose credits are not on the tip of my tongue. She portrays Stacy Keach's wife, who urges him from the start not to "get involved."
Ms. Hazlehurst delivers a scene toward the end of the movie, in which she upbraids Mapes and her crew, for dragging her ill husband across the country to "explain" himself, to agree, on camera, that he lied. "So, don't you dare ask me 'how is he!'" This confrontation cannot last more than two and a half minutes. It sears the screen. Judi Dench won an Oscar for eight minutes as Queen Elizabeth in "Shakespeare in Love." Noni Hazlehurst could be carrying home an award for her splendid two and half!

Grin And Bear It!

Robert Redford at Sundance

A BIG THUMBS UP  for actor Nash Edgerton's short film Bear which premiers today at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The Sundance Festival was created in 1978 and the actor Robert Redford is chairman,.

Directed by Edgerton, Bear stars Nash with Teresa Palmer and Warwick Thornton. Below is a clip from the film which was produced by Lauren Edwards and John Polson of Tropfest fame.

Joel & Nash

 Nash Edgerton's credits are possibly longer than his brother and fellow actor Joel Edgerton who has now finished working on The Great Gatsby. Nash has worked as a stunt double in umpteen Aussie productions and on Gatsby, stands in for brother Joel.

### Michelle Williams, the mother Heath Ledger's baby daughter Matilda Rose has been nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in the film My Week With Marilyn.

A Home For Leonardo DiCaprio

IT WOULD BE churlish to publish the address, particularly as we are sworn to secrecy.
We can tell you it is in Sydney's Easter Suburbs and no further than a ten minute drive from Fox Studios. Is it on the harbour?. That would be telling but water can be accessed from the house (that leaves the Harbour and ocean beaches)

Isla Fisher

We're talking about the new home for the next few months for Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio who will arrive on these shores any day now to begin filming Baz Luhrmann's 3D epic  The Great Gatsby.

Fear not though-there will be ample opportunity to see DiCaprio around town as some of the film will be shot in various locations in Sydney. At Fox Studios, Luhrmann has built massive sound stages to resemble 1920's New York and 6 vintage vehicles have been imported with left hand drive for authenticity.

Also arriving soon to co-star in the movie-Isla Fisher, married to Sacha Baron Cohen (she met him at a Sydney party in 2002), Spiderman's Tobey McGuire and English actress Carey Mulligan.

DiCaprio reprises the role of Jay Gatsby which was played by Robert Redford in the 1974 version of F.Scott Fitzgerald's book while Mulligan plays Daisy Buchanan, a role taken by Mia Farrow opposite Redford. Jason Clarke and Joel Edgerton also have roles.

Leo as J.Edgar Hoover

Quite what Fitzgerald would have thought of his book being turned into a 3D film is any one's guess but DiCaprio is undeterred by Luhrmann's last rather droll production, Australia which went to video soon after release. He has only praise for Luhrmann after starring in Baz's 1996 Romeo & Juliet and is probably the big name-he's box office gold-needed for another Lurhmann production.

And the producers of bio-pic J.Edgar in which DiCaprio plays the legendary cross dressing founder of the FBI, J.Edgar Hoover have released the first pic of Leo in the role.

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"talk to the hand "..Joel Edgerton and Susan Sarandon at a party in Sydney

 JOEL EDGERTON is one of the hardest working actors in Australia and with Gatsby-it will make 8 productions in which he has major roles awaiting release.
The Thing, a blockbuster Sci-Fi epic in which an alien craft is discovered at a research station in the Antarctic, is due for release during the Christmas holiday season and the word is that his acting in the Disney production The Odd Life of Timothy Green, due for release next year will bring high praise.

Here is a trailer for The Odd Life of Timothy Green,: