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!