The captivating photograph you see here is evidence of Cate's wonderful work on behalf on Kids Help Line, a national 24-hour telephone counselling service for children and young people in Australia.

The photo of Cate, a la Ned Kelly, is one of a series featuring celebrities, done as part of an auction to raise needed funds for this valued childrens' service. To view a larger version of the photo, as well as find out how you may be involved...perhaps make a donation in Cate's name...please visit Kids Help Line. It's our considered opinion that Cate's fans are a slightly more enlightened lot. Here's your chance to add to the evidence. Cheers!

HUSBAND'S STILL GOOD

An Ideal Husband continued to do fine business in both the States and the UK. After holding on in the Top Ten in the US for the last two weeks, it was edged off this week due to the endless supply of blockbusters being released. We would have to say Oscar Wilde is doing quite well, all things considered.

Aussies will finally have their chance to take a peek as An Ideal Husband will be the closing night film at the 48th Melbourne film festival. This will be on August 8th, 7.30pm at the Village Cinema Centre Bourke Street. Ticket prices are $15 for adults, and a Pavarotti for concessions.

Speaking of AIH, The Toronto Sun caught up with that dandy, Rupert Everett, and his director, Oliver Parker, last week long enough to get some really hard news out of the two:

{Rupert} smooched at least two of his three leading lady co-stars (Minnie Driver and Julianne Moore got lip action, Cate Blanchett was resigned to a peck on the cheek), who all fought for his attentions in the film. But despite competition on-screen, Parker says the women were all buddy-buddy off-screen.
"There was no diva behaviour on set," he says of his female, feline cast. "Cate was charming and easygoing, Julianne was an absolute pro, and Minnie was a terrific energy."

Boy, that report makes some of ours appear Pulitzer-worthy.

THE PLAY'S THE THING

There were a few interesting items we ran across recently related to the theatuh! The first was a compelling backstage glimpse of what goes into a stage production, behind-the scenes.

In this case, the object of inspection was a matinee performance of "Plenty" starring the world's greatest actress. The piece, from This Is London contained insights such as:

We're backstage at a Saturday matinée in the West End. The audience, announces the assistant stage manager into a microphone on a tiny desk-mounted console, has three minutes to take its seats. A pensive actor paces about in a sky-blue towelling dressing gown. In two minutes, he will be lying naked in front of several hundred people while an actress pores disparagingly over his genitals...

...Another actor is being clipped into a parachute in which he will descend on to the stage in scene two. Scene one ends, a door opens and bangs shut and a tall angular form sprints off-stage and streaks through the wings, as if being chased by a ghost. It's Cate Blanchett, Oscar nominee and screen goddess, who now has precisely half a minute to lose 20 years.

The entire article may be found in the Cate Library, or by clicking Where There's Plenty Going On.

In a somewhat related story, This Is London also reported on the rather bizarre fact that several of London's most esteemed theatres were about to go on the auction block.

As reported by Melanie Tringham:
The curtain is about to go up on one of the biggest shows in the West End, the sale of some of the capital's most famous theatres. The cast list of potential bidders is already thought to include some of the top names in showbiz, including impresario Cameron Mackintosh and entertainment groups such as Disney, Carlton, Rank and First Leisure.

Eight theatres and four cinemas, as well as a television distribution company, are up for grabs, in a move that is hoped to fetch £25 million.
The portfolio includes many of the leading lights from London's theatre scene, including the Albery, where Cate Blanchett, Oscar-winning star of Elizabeth, is acting in Plenty. The Donmar Warehouse, which played host to Nicole Kidman in the Blue Room, is also up for sale.

Hope Cate has her bags packed for a speedy getaway!

And finally, on the theatre front, it is worth noting that Geoffrey Rush celebrated his 48th birthday last week. And, celebrate he did. At the Sydney theatre company that played a major part in nurturing his career, Rush launched a new venture that will nurture the next generation of performers.

As first reported in The Australian, Company B Belvoir has created an offshoot, B Sharp, that has programmed young acts for its 80-seat Downstairs Theatre in Surry Hills. The six-month program, which starts next Tuesday, is the first of its kind in Australian theatre.

Since the Belvoir Street Theatre played such an integral part of Cate's early resume, as well as serving as the base for her sterling reputation, we felt it only proper to recognize Geoffrey's magnanimous act.

Rush, who is B Sharp's patron, said it was important to harness "that diversity of ideas and give them free space and marketing facilities", otherwise the works of new talent were "likely to get lost, because it's a massive marketplace out there".

Company B artistic director Neil Armfield said B Sharp was established in response to "the amount and diversity of extraordinary new work" being created in Sydney.

It should also be noted that Geoffrey will be returning to Belvoir in January to star as five-year-old Clint in The Small Poppies, a play about one's first day at school. Now, if we can just get Cate to show up and serenade him with a little "Charlie Brown" music.

WILL POWER

One story making a bit of a stir over the past week has to do with an "interview" of our Cate as conducted by the infamous author, Will Self. As The London Times commented:

Readers of last weekend's Independent on Sunday magazine cover story, billed as "Will Self meets Cate Blanchett", may have felt a little cheated by finding that in three separate encounters, including one of "several hours", the actress spoke only 76 words which the novelist deemed worth reproducing - obliging him to fill the rest of the article with riveting Proustian soliloquies on why he had initially formed the mistaken impression that she was short.

Thanks to his day job as a somewhat eccentric interviewer, journalists assigned to pen profiles of outlaw novelist Will Self now have guidance from the author himself on the kind of ratio of interviewee's words (virtually none) to interviewer's thoughts (as abundant and extravagant as possible) to aim for in the resulting article.

We are attempting to track down a copy of said "interview". We will keep you posted on the results.

TRIVIA TIME

Kelly Macdonald is gaining a lot of press in Great Britain for being an ever more successful actor who is about to probably become best known as the Secret deodorant girl, leaving those who admire her to wonder who is advising her career decisions.

Who is she you might ask, and what does she have to do with Cate?

Well, Kelly was the lovely Glasgow girl who won fame as the teenager who seduced Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting. Ahhhhhh, you say.
But, how many of you sharp eyed folk also caught the fact that she was chief lady-in-waiting to Cate's Elizabeth?? Don't worry, we didn't either, but, found it interesting all the same.

Anyway, it's time to say adieu once again, and we'll remind you once again, that when all else fails, PLAY A VOLTA!!.