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Cate Blanchett always puts her children before her career.

The Australian actress - who raises three sons, Dashiell, eight, Roman, five, and 22-month-old Ignatius, with her playwright husband Andrew Upton - admits she chooses her roles after first considering the impact the shoot will have on her family life.

She said: "With my film choices it used to be a question of, 'Who's directing it?' Now it's, 'How long is the shoot and where are they filming?' Recently I said yes to something because filming is in the Easter holidays. The children need to be in school now."

Cate and Andrew are the co-directors of the Sydney Theatre Company but, despite her heavy workload, the 40-year-old actress always organises her days around the school run.

Nicole Kidman will present Mentalist star Simon Baker (pictured) with an award at the Ozwood event of the year, G'Day USA, in Los Angeles on January 16. The black-tie gala, held annually in the heart of Hollywood, will also honor Toni Collette and golfing great Greg Norman.

The event is famously the setting of Kidman's meeting with Keith Urban in 2005. The pair went on to marry.

Baker and Collette were announced weeks ago as honorees but Norman's addition was a surprise. "Greg Norman is a great Australian with a huge profile in the US and has not just been successful on the golf course. In business he has also been an Australian champion," said Chris De Cure, Australia's consul-general in Los Angeles and a member of the G'Day steering committee.
Past G'Day ball honorees include Kidman, Urban, Mel Gibson, Rod Laver, Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Steve Irwin, Cate Blanchett and Kylie Minogue.
The ball also attracts Hollywood A-listers, with past attendees including John Travolta, Harrison Ford, Sacha Baron Cohen, Sally Field and John McEnroe.
As part of a new advertising campaign in the US, Qantas, a founding sponsor of G'Day, will slash business fares by 50 percent, while economy return tickets will start at $798.
(Image: Splash News)

Vampire movie New Moon has sent sales of pale foundation sky high as fans try and copy the looks of its stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Fake tan is being forgotten in favor of a pale complexion as women take inspiration from the movie and buy pale face powders and foundation.

According to online beauty store FeelUnique.com, sales of pale make-up have risen 200 per cent in the last month. The best-selling product on the site was their pale pink illuminating powder by Bare Escentuals, which is called Mineral Veil. The website says their sales of L'Oreal's True Match powder in rose ivory rocketed by 133 percent in the lead-up to New Moon's release on November 20.

More celebrity news...Aussie actress Cate Blanchett says she 'loves' raising her three sons. Blanchett, 40, is mum to three young boys with husband Andrew Upton - Dashiell, seven, Roman, five, and Ignatius, 19 months. She told PEOPLE: "Having boys is great. It's a neat position to be in and I love the high energy that comes along in raising boys. It's fun." Blanchett recently finished performing a run of production A Streetcar Named Desire in Sydney and Washington and will soon be taking it to New York.
Talking about performing in the show, she said: "Theatre is an evening event so you can't put your kids to bed as often as you like, but we seem to find a way to manage. "The kids have been to New York before and they love it. We have lots of friends who've got kids and that helps. But they will come visit me at work. "We did a show earlier in the year in Sydney and our little child actually watched the show backstage, which is a really interesting and exciting place with people putting on makeup and costumes, so they love it."

With cash-strapped studios looking for return on their investments, Forbes.com compiled a list of the 10 actresses who provide the best bang for their buck.

They found actresses who commanded the highest prices, like Angelina Jolie who topped Forbes' list of the best paid actresses after banking $27 million in a year, were outranked by those earning around $5 million and under for a film.

Watts, 41, topped the list after the analysis found she helped the box office make an estimated $44 for every $1 she was paid for her last three major films.

Jennifer Connelly, star of ""Blood Diamond" and "He's Just Not That Into You," came second with her films earning about $41 for each dollar she was paid and Rachel McAdams, of "The Notebook" and this year's "The Time Traveler's Wife," came third with $30 for every $1 earned.

Fourth was Natalie Portman of the new "Star Wars" movies and "The Other Boleyn Girl" with her films making $28 for every $1 she was paid followed by Meryl Streep who made the top five due to the massive box office success of last year's "Mamma Mia," earning $27 for every $1 paid.

Rounding out the 10 were Jennifer Aniston ($26 per $1) while films by Halle Berry, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, and Hilary Swank all made $23 for every dollar they earned.

Forbes.com said it compiled its list by looking at the 100 biggest stars in Hollywood. To qualify each actress had to have starred in at least three movies in the past five years that opened in more than 500 theatres.

They looked at the star's estimated earnings, each movie's estimated budget, and box office, DVD and television earnings to figure out an operating income for each movie.

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Paul Casciato)

Cate Blanchett will take inspiration from Barack Obama, while Michelle Obama and other celebrities will feature on the new season of kids TV show Sesame Street as pop culture and politics merge. Michelle, 45, will promote gardening on the 40th anniversary season of Sesame Street. The First Lady will feature on the first episode of the new series teaching kids about healthy eating as she plants tomatoes and cucumber seeds.

Other big names that will feature on the anniversary season of the show, include actresses Cameron Diaz and Eva Longoria Parker and comedian actor Ricky Gervais. The new season premieres on November 10.

Cate Blanchett has taken inspiration from Barack Obama in charting the course for her theater. Blanchett and husband Andrew Upton, co-directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, included four American plays in the 2010 season.
She said: "The American election became a symbol for change, the fork in the road. And probably in the wake of the global financial crisis and the election and the up-and-coming point of no return, which is [the international climate change talks in] Copenhagen, I think people want to go to the theatre to talk about the big issues." Blanchett recently hit her head during a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire. But she said: "Accidents happen all the time in theatre. Even though we didn't finish the show that night, it was exciting but it was very, very minor and I was up the next day."

Blanchett says she hopes Obama will see her show when it moves to New York and Washington. "We're going there as part of a bit of soft diplomacy, the Wiggles and us. So fingers crossed. He's a very busy man."
Blanchett also voiced support for climate change, an issue that threatens to split the Australian nation and even bring on dissolution of its parliament. "I think if you speak to any scientists worth their weight in salt, Copenhagen is the point of no return. People really need to take that seriously and you can't lose hope." Blanchett says having three young children made her keep pressing on and making changes in her own life. "We still do live in a democracy and those changes do ultimately pressure the leaders," she said.

Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett was injured when a prop radio hit her head onstage Wednesday night, causing the performance to be canceled. But the show will go on, the theater company said on Thursday.

During a scene in "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the Sydney Theater Company, Australian co-star Joel Edgerton, as Stanley Kowalski, threw a radio out a window and it accidentally hit Blanchett, playing Blanche DuBois, on the back of the head, causing her to bleed.

Despite the mishap, Blanchett continued the scene, and the audience was not aware of the seriousness of the injury until she disappeared into the wings and an announcement was made that the show had been canceled.

Sydney Theater Company spokesman Tim McKeough said the injury was minor.

"I've spoken to Cate. She's absolutely fine, and we anticipate the show will go ahead tonight," McKeough told Reuters.

Blanchett, 40, who came to international attention in the 1998 film "Elizabeth" and won a best supporting actress Oscar in 2005 for playing Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator," has always made it clear that theater is her main passion.

Blanchett and her playwright husband, Andrew Upton, are currently artistic directors of the Sydney Theater Company.

(Reporting by Pauline Askin, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Causing quite a bit of concern to onlookers and fans, Cate Blanchett has reportedly suffered a head injury after being hit by a prop while performing in Australia on Wednesday (September 2).

According to breaking reports, the 40-year-old actress was onstage for "A Streetcar Named Desire" at The Sydney Theatre Company when a radio hit her in the head.

An onlooker told press that Miss Blanchett "had blood streaming down the back of her head and blood on the back of her neck."

The audience member adds, "She acted for about another 30 seconds, then ran into what we thought was the next scene, but before we knew it the lights were turned on and we were told there were technical difficulties and everyone had to evacuate the Sydney Theatre Company."

Madonna wants Cate Blanchett to star in her new musical.

The '4 Minutes' singer is set to direct and produce 'Wallis' - following the life of American socialite Wallis Simpson, who Britain's King Edward VIII gave up the throne to marry - and wants the 'Notes On A Scandal' actress to take on the lead role opposite 'Doctor Who' actor David Tennant after opting against casting Keira Knightley.

A source told Britain's The Sun newspaper: "The final script is now written and the locations have been scouted. Madonna is now trying to assemble the cast and put the finances in place.

"The first scene of the film is an old woman in her 90s living on her own in a Parisian flat. She starts to tell her life story to her housekeeper. It turns out the old woman is Wallis Simpson.

"There will be a song for each decade of her life."

Madonna - whose last acting role in a movie was in 2002 flop 'Swept Away' - had been planning to start work on the film last year, but it was put on hold while she finalised her divorce from Guy Ritchie.

A source said at the time: "Madonna sees Wallis Simpson as her next big film project. She is fascinated by this American commoner who refused to conform or offer explanations for her tangled love life.

"It was all systems go until the divorce, when everything was put on the back-burner."

She’s no stranger to high-profile affairs, and earlier today (July 27) Cate Blanchett was spotted arriving at the Helpmann 2009 Awards in Sydney, Australia.

Joined by her playwrite and screenwriter hubby Andrew Upton, the “Curious Case of Benjamin Button” babe looked lovely as she meandered around outside the Sydney Opera House, sporting a black v-neckline floor-length dress.

On the professional front, Cate has plenty of upcoming projects all vying for her attention and expertise in front of the camera.

She’s been working on Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” with Russell Crowe (due out May 14th, 2010) and will then move on to “The Dangerous Husband” and “North of Cheyenne.”

Fresh from a Nottingham spring spent frolicking in the forests of Sherwood, Cate Blanchett has signed up for Indian Summer, Joe Wright's period drama set in the turbulent, bloody final days of the British Empire.

Set in 1947, Indian Summer sees Blanchett play Lady Edwina Mountbatten, wife of Lord Mountbatten's Viceroy of India, who helps her husband oversee the handover of power in the country to Jawaharlal Nehru. To say that this didn't go well would be understating things, with the country pitched into an unprecedented period of bloodshed and disorder. Gladiator writer William Nicholson is adapting the story from Alex von Tunzelmann's book.

Blanchett rarely makes a misstep when picking her roles and she'll have plenty to get her teeth into as Lady Edwina. With an acute intelligence, hard-partying socialite lifestyle and a string of affairs, Edwina achieved fame and notoriety in her lifetime, but also went on to make a significant contribution to post-Partition India.

Covering some of the same end-of-Empire themes as Atonement, albeit on the subcontinent rather than mainland Europe, Indian Summer has an ambitious, David Lean-y feel to it. No word yet on who will play Lord Mountbatten, so here's your chance to post your tips below... (Clue: he's got to be in his late 40s)