There was a lot of excitement Wednesday night in Edinburgh for the screening of Pushing Tin at the Edinburgh Film Festival...Wednesday night being tonight in Los Angeles, a day ago in Melbourne, and last night in Edinburgh. Confused yet?

As reported just hours ago by Hugh Dougherty of PA News, Sean Connery stole the show when he arrived unexpectedly at the UK premiere of PT. The local legend apparently stole some of our Cate's thunder when he made his surprise arrival at an Edinburgh cinema last night for the film's first UK showing.

Accompanied by wife Micheline, the former 007 star posed happily for photographers after arriving discreetly in a white Ford Mondeo.
Ms. Blanchett herself arrived by limousine 10 minutes later and beamed at the crowd of fans thronging the pavement outside the cinema.

Wearing green stiletto boots, a green silk skirt and embroidered red cardigan, the actress said she was delighted to be in Edinburgh for the International Film Festival. "I love it - you have great shopping malls," she said.

Contrary to expectations, co-star John Cusack was not able to attend, but, Cate is star enough for any premiere. The premiere was the latest to have brought out the stars to the Edinburgh Film Festival. We are hoping to track down some pictures of Cate at the gala for an upcoming issue of Cate News.

GO SHEKHAR GO!!

Shekhar Kapur's fight against Indian censors goes on and on. With the heated dialogue rising in intensity, a Bombay judge's final ruling is due at any moment.

In a story first described this week by Suzanne Goldenberg in New Delhi reporting for the UK Guardian, when Shekhar Kapur's film Elizabeth won seven Oscar nominations, and Rohinton Mistry's novel made it on to the Booker shortlist, India's cultural establishment bristled with pride in the achievements of its native sons.

But fame is fleeting and India's censors exercise a peculiar magic of their own, infuriating both men by demanding cuts in Elizabeth and in the film version of Mistry's "Such a Long Journey".

If the judge does not allow the film to be screened uncut and for general release, the director says he does not want it shown in India. This month he cancelled the official premiere, for which the stars Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes had flown to India. "The film opened the Indian film festival. The irony of it all was that the president asked to see the film, and told me what a wonderful film it was," Kapur said from Bombay.

"Everyone that I meet says that there is nothing to cut in it. But right down there at the bottom level there are some people who take bureaucratic decisions."

The central board of film certification objects to a love scene between the Duke of Norfolk and his mistress, a shot of heads on pikes, and the use of the word "quinny" in subtitles. "I am kicking myself because it's one word that doesn't exist: we made it up," Kapur said. "We made it up because we wanted a slang which looked of that time."

We can't help but find this bit personally amusing because there have been those of us on the Cate/Sarah list that have discussed this "quinny" and it's lack of familiarity to many of us around the globe. Now we know why.

Kapur's row with the censors has led to spectacular public slanging matches with the Bollywood screen siren of the 60s who is the chairman of the censors' board, Asha Parekh.

At press conferences and in open letters to newspapers, Kapur has accused Ms Parekh of lacking even the basics of film literacy. Ms Parekh has fought back, accusing Kapur, who ran into trouble with the board over his 1994 film Bandit Queen, of stirring up a fuss to get free publicity.

She also claims the director is loath to take orders from a woman. "I am not going to sit here and watch another woman being portrayed in poor light," she told interviewers. "I am not going to allow anything vulgar and obscene." But her case crumbled when she revealed that she had not actually watched Elizabeth.

Despite the heat of the row, Kapur was upstaged this week by the usually publicity-shy author Mistry. The writer, who lives in Toronto, fired off a seven-page letter to the censors' appeals board, which has ordered 16 cuts to Such a Long Journey, including the sentence: "1971 - Indira Gandhi is the prime minister of India."

An incandescent Mistry wrote: "What is the point of censorship in India? We live in a country where life can be seen in the raw in the streets itself.

"Bare-bottomed people crapping on the streets, using four-letter words - who are they trying to fool? What Indian culture are they trying to preserve? Aren't dowry deaths, female infanticide also a part of this culture?"

The ways of the government-appointed censors' board are mysterious to many. It views few films directly, meets only twice a year, and farms out most of the submissions to viewers' panels, chosen more for their proximity to bureaucrats or politicians than their familiarity with art or culture.

Mehta reportedly took pains to win over the viewers' panels. The restrictions imposed on the film industry are even more galling given the revolution under way on the small screen, where Hindi soap operas about incest and extra-marital affairs compete with revelations on Oprah and the gritty realism of NYPD Blue.

Hopefully there will be a happy resolution to this ongoing civil war soon. We'll bring you the news as soon as it is resolved.

CATE PROJECTS

In a story we first reported on our Cate/Sarah List, which we encourage you to join--see the Interactive Cate Page-- almost two weeks ago, the story we referred to pre-Cannes about Cate starring with DeNiro in Sally Potter's "The Man Who Cried" has come roaring back to life. If you remember Cate was quoted as stating at Cannes, "I won't be working with Robert DeNiro"

That SLY Cate!!! Maybe that's because, and this is a FACT, Johnny Depp has been signed for the lead, along with Christina Ricci (looks like Johnny and Christina got along pretty well on "Sleepy Hollow"). But, the bigger news is that Cate and John Turturro are VERY close to signing as well...filming begins in September.

Although another source reported it's a done deal, Variety has said contracts are still pending so we will wait and see. However, the idea of Cate working with Orlando director Sally Potter sounds grand.

COVER GIRL

Well, with all the rampant speculation that goes on regarding our Cate...is she going to be in THIS film or THAT, it's nice to actually know anything for certain. We CAN tell you Cate just appeared on the cover on a new Aussie magazine, "Total Hair". Our Melbourne-based web authors apparently aren't too keen on the magazine upon first reflection, but, it is certainly always a treat to see Cate's beautiful face gazing up from a magazine cover.

CATE vs. BRAVEHEART

Should Australia continue the monarchy, or go republican? That, apparently is the $64,000 question. And, if republicans have their way, our Cate will soon be in the mix. Let's just hope she calls Sarah Polley for activist advice rather than Rachel Griffiths.

As reported last week by the Times UK's Paul Ham, Mel Gibson, who inspired Scottish nationalists as William Wallace, the anti-English martyr, has dented the Australian republican cause with his avowal that the Queen should continue to rule Down Under.

As the campaign to win over Australian loyalties heats up, in advance of the November referendum on whether to turn the country into a republic, monarchists have invited Gibson to fight for their cause. "I am a little conservative," said the Catholic father of seven recently. "I tend to favour the monarchy, or the idea of the monarchy. Up until now it's done a pretty good job of maintaining people's independence and freedom. I just think you can't throw it away without thinking it over."

Gibson, who holds American citizenship but was born to an Australian mother and lived in Australia for 25 years, said he wanted the Queen to open the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. The star of Gallipoli and Lethal Weapon, who unsuccessfully supported an independent political candidate in Australia many years ago, has no illusions: "Politics is the filthiest business of them all. There is so much skulduggery."

He faces a tough battle with the rough republicans. They include a man who frightens the English far more than Braveheart: Shane Warne, the Australian spinner who humiliated England's batsmen during last year's Ashes series.

The Australian Republican Movement (Arm) claims to be on the verge of recruiting the actresses Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett, in a bid for A-list celebrities to boost its campaign to make sure Prince Charles never becomes the Australian head of state. They want a native-born leader instead.

Blanchett and Kidman, wife of Tom Cruise and Australia's most sizzling export after her roles in Eyes Wide Shut and The Blue Room, have yet to lend their names to the republican cause. But Warne is among a string of Australian sporting heroes who have declared themselves fervently in favour of an Australian head of state. Other high-profile sympathisers include Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis and Bryan Brown, the actors, and the film directors Baz Lurhmann and Fred Schepisi. Activist writers include Robert Hughes, author of The Fatal Shore, and Thomas Keneally, who wrote Schindler's Ark. Dame Edna Everage has lent support, symbolically dumping the title and returning to Australia last year. John Newcombe, the former Wimbledon tennis champion, and Rolf Harris have also jumped on the republican bandwagon.

On November 6 Australians will be asked: "Do you approve of a republic with the Queen and governor-general being replaced by a president appointed by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Commonwealth parliament?" Only time will tell. Until then, it would probably benefit everyone to twirl a partner while we PLAY A VOLTA!! See you next time.