Today in Sydney, Australia, actress Cate Blanchett looked as healthy as a horse, a very pregnant horse. “People often talk about pregnancy as if it’s an illness, don’t they, and the thing is I’m very fortunate to feel disgustingly well,” the 38-year-old actress told reporters on the red carpet at the city’s Theater Company, where an advance screening of her latest film, I’m Not There, was being shown. (The screening was reportedly arranged to benefit the theatrical organization, which wants to be able to sell 20 tickets for $20.)

“[My husband, director Andrew Upton] and I really want to find a way to make cheaper tickets available across all productions and we’ll be looking for a corporate partner to be able to do that in 2008,” Ms. Blanchett told The Sunday Telegraph. “I think a lot more people would go if they felt they could afford to go so we’re kicking off the initiative [with Blackbird] and hoping to extend the twenty-for-twenty idea further. I think generally theatre is very expensive for a lot of people [so hopefully this will] make it available to the wider community and invite new audiences in.” Blackbird is a play she is directing for the Sydney Theater Company; it explores childhood sexual abuse.

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Where’s Dylan in I’m Not There?  read more »

Fall is the season for 'quality' movies, the kinds of movies that make good showbiz at the Oscars. But that doesn't mean that fluffier stuff can't break out the box office: witness Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married, the No. 1 film last weekend over Elizabeth: The Golden Age.  read more »

George Clooney's Michael Clayton managed to outgross the national chart topper, Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married, in Manhattan. And there was nary a peep out of the Joy Division biopic Control.  read more »

Talented actors are thoroughly wasted in this plodding, pageantlike and punishing sequel to Elizabeth.  read more »

Todd Haynes' new film I'm Not There will have New York audiences seeing double in more ways than one.  read more »

“I’ve met an estimated 56 of 100,” said NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, surveying the crowd at last night’s Time 100 gala. “I always assumed I might come as a guest but not a lapel-wearing member.”

Oh, Mr. Williams, don't be so modest! Or quite so serious, either: he said he was most looking forward to meeting Elie Wiesel, author of Night.

When guests include the likes of Cate Blanchett, Martha Stewart, Michael J. Fox, Harvey Weinstein, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Richard Branson, Tina Fey, and Stephen Schwarzman, that almost seems like taking things a bit seriously.

But Elie Wiesel was there, just like the others, to be honored at Time’s third annual party for the magazine’s hand-picked influencers. It was held, as these things are nowadays with an almost monotonous regularity, at Jazz at Lincoln Center.  read more »