The stars were out for the opening festival at the Cannes film festival, and they sure were gorgeous. The first film to open the 12 day film festival on the Riveria is Blindness. The film by Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles is based on a 1955 novel in which an entire city goes blind after an epidemic. Julianne Moore plays one of the few people who is unaffected and retains her sight. She tries to hide it from the rest of the city as society breaks down from the effects of the change. Blindness also stars Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, and Gael García Bernal.

The 9 person jury at Cannes includes Natalie Portman and is headed by Sean Penn. Penn didn’t miss a chance to rip on US President George Bush while talking to the press at the event. It’s likely that he was asked directly about it, and he is quoted by Reuters as saying “When somebody operates without a brain and without a heart, they kill hundreds of thousands of people around the world.” I dislike Bush as much as the next person, but there are much better ways of phrasing that. It’s lame to personally attack someone in such a blunt way when you can state more compelling reasons for disliking the guy. Bush definitely has a heart and a brain, he just choses when to use them. When it involves money, they’re easily switched off and immune to suffering, death and general havok-wrecking. Reuters notes that Penn then smoked a cigarette “in defiance of French anti-smoking laws.” You would think he would be afraid of setting that ridiculous hair on fire.

Shown at the opening ceremony at Cannes are Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria (who’s still looking pregnant to me), Rachida Brakni, Aishwarya Rai, Gillian Anderson, Sean Penn (the hair!), Julianne Moore, Gael García Bernal, Mischa Barton, Danny Glover, and Bar Rafaeli.

Cate Blanchett had always been a bit of a hero of mine – she manages a demanding career with motherhood, and looks good while she does it. She even makes choices in that career that are good for her family, if not the best for her career. Having won an Oscar in 2005 she might have gone in for the big Hollywood career, taking on movie role after movie role in a bid to cement her position on the A-list. While she did take on a few challenges, in 2006 she moved back to Australia permanently to pursue family life, be part of the theatre community and give her children a stable home life.

Now, the day after having her third son, she announces that she will not be skipping off from Australia’s important 2020 summit, and will attend this weekend’s event. This will be held in Canberra, a city around 300 km (180 miles) from her home in Sydney.

Yesterday Blanchett’s agent announced that the Australian actress and her husband Andrew Upton welcomed a baby boy - Ignatius Martin Upton - into the world on Sunday.

Blanchett had been scheduled to chair a session titled “Towards A Creative Australia” at this weekend’s summit in Canberra.

Mr Rudd says the Oscar-winning mother will still attend, but had requested writer Julianne Schultz co-chair for her session

“I want to extend my best wishes to Ms Blanchett and her family and thank her for her contribution to the Australia 2020 Summit thus far,” Mr Rudd said in a statement.

ABC Online

Cate is, rather disgracefully, the only woman on the panel of eleven, and this is the first significant meeting of the group, so it is hugely important that she be there to represent her demographic.

Cate won’t be paid for her work on the panel, nor did anyone expect her to attend with her new maternal duties, but she is still making a huge effort to do her part. What a supermom!

The panel, called 2020 vision, is to decide the future of Australia beyond the Prime Minister’s term in office, looking at policy for the arts, economy, rural and indigenous Australians, and the environment. The panel is made up of ‘talented’ Australians, in various fields of expertise.

Cate Blanchett has given birth to her third child, a bouncing baby boy.

Blanchett and her playwright husband Andrew Upton welcomed Ignatius Martin Upton into the world yesterday.

The boy weighed 3.6 kilograms

The couple, who are the joint artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, already have two sons: six-year-old Dasheill and three-year-old Roman.

Sydney Morning Herald

If you’re going to go for an unusual name, I think Cate is taking the right approach. While Ignatius, Dasheill and Roman are not common names, at least they actually sound like real names. Ignatius is a saint’s name, and I’m guessing will be shortened to Iggy by other kids on the playground.

Cate is currently the co-director of the Sydney Theatre company with husband Andrew Upton, which is work close to her home in Sydney.

Her first child was born naturally, after a ‘long labour’, and I think her second one was too. Cate’s not too posh to push! The reports do not mention whether this baby was born by cesarean or not.

The NY Daily News reports on a new study in the Journal of Family Psychology that shows that couples are happier and more satisfied in their marriages when the man is less attractive than the woman. This could be partially due to the fact that men, the ones who are traditionally more likely to cheat, are less interested in other women when their wives are hot.

“Both spouses tended to behave more positively when wives were more attractive than their husbands and more negatively when husbands were more attractive than their wives,” said the study by UCLA’s Benjamin Karney.

Karney also found that it doesn’t matter how much better looking the wife is than the husband - just that there is a discrepancy.

From Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller to Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, beautiful women have been marrying less attractive men through the ages.

Consider Howard Stern and his fiancée, Beth Ostrosky; Christina Aguilera and her geeky husband, Jordan Bratman, or Sienna Miller’s latest fling with homely actor Rhys Ifans.

According to the study, it is evolution that dictates that physical attractiveness of long-term mates is more important to men than to women.

Men are looking for a way to carry on their genes and see physical attractiveness as an indicator of strong genetics.

“Because physical attractiveness is less important to women, in contrast, relative attractiveness may only affect them through its effect on their husbands,” the study says.

[From The NY Daily News]

This is interesting, because I thought I learned in psychology class that couples who were matched in levels of attractiveness were the ones who lasted. This story made me think of Cate Blanchett’s husband and I feel bad for using them as an example, but they’re the first ones who came to mind. Cate, 38, has been married to screenwriter and playwright Andrew Upton, 41, for just over 10 years and they are expecting their third child together next month. Cate is one of Hollywood’s most beautiful actresses and her husband looks refreshingly plain.

The Daily News quotes people explaining the ugly guy = happy marriage phenomenon by saying that “When a woman looks better in a relationship she feels like she has nothing to worry about,” and “the men try harder so it makes for a better marriage.”

And I thought it had more to do with shared interests and communication. It would seem to help if the less attractive man was incredibly rich and kind too.

Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman are shown on 9/29/07. Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton are shown on 11/4/07 and 6/14/07, thanks to Splash News.

Here’s a quick update on currently pregnant celebrities.

Halle Berry is due any second! I think she is going to have the cutest baby with her model boyfriend Gabriel Aubrey, but will she sell the pictures?

Jamie Lynn Spears – some sources are saying she is due very, very soon, but just doesn’t seem to have a big enough bump to be close to popping. Must be those 16 year old abs of steel.

Cate Blanchett is expecting her third with husband Andrew Upton, and I’m hoping for a girl because she already has two boys. Girls clothes are so much cuter.

Nicole Kidman is still pregnant, definitely not drinking alcohol, and is due around June where the baby will be born in Australia.

Are Brangelina having twins? What’s the due date? These two haven’t confirmed or denied reports, but it’s all too obvious they’re having a fifth and maybe a sixth.

Jessica Alba is still flying to promote her film, so she must have quite a few weeks to go. She has declined to confirm a due date.

Matthew McConaughey is expecting a boy with model Camila, and he wants him to like beer. Enough to name the boy after Budweiser. He probably won’t wear a shirt either.

Gwen Stefani is expecting her next child with hubby Gavin Rossdale, and had a great time practicing baby making.

These babies will start popping out (if only it was that easy) in September

Kimora Lee Simmons just announced her pregnancy. A little sibling for her older children from her previous relationship, Ming and Aoki.

Alessandra Ambrosio has also just announced on her official blog that she is expecting, saying “This is a dream come true.”

Matt Damon and his wife Luciana, who have nine year old Alexia from her previous relationship, and Isabella, 20 months, are expecting another.

Lisa-Marie Presley confirmed her pregnancy this week, but don’t you dare suggest she’s carrying some pregnancy weight, you pack of coyotes.

Hopefully the celebrity weeklies have their checkbooks ready, these new additions are going to cost a fortune.

Picture note by Celebitchy: stock photos from Morguefile users Prisonbreak and © P. Winberg. Header image thanks to PRPhotos.

The most important people in Heath Ledger’s life have come out to speak about him - his family in Western Australia. I assume that they are heading to the US to be with their son, whether he will be buried in the US or Australia, and hopefully they will be able to move around with minimum harassment from media.

Here is their statement, delivered from outside of Heath’s mother’s house.

Ledger’s father Kim Ledger, mother Sally Ledger-Bell and sister Katie Ledger appeared outside Ledger’s mother’s house in Applecross at 10.50am, when Mr Ledger read a short statement to the media.

“We, Heath’s family, confirm the very tragic, untimely and accidental passing of our dearly loved son, brother and doting father of Matilda, who was found in a peaceful sleep in his New York apartment by his housekeeper at 3.30pm (New York Time),” he said.

“We would like to thank our friends and everyone around the world for their kind wishes at this time.

“Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life, but few had the pleasure to truly know him.

“He was a down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving and unselfish individual who was an extreme inspiration to many.

“Please now respect our family’s need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately.”

News.com.au

Heath also has two half sisters, Olivia and Ashleigh. he and his sister Kate are named after the characters from Wuthering Heights.

Another person to come out and express sadness at Heath’s death is the Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd.

“It was with great sadness that I have learned of the passing of Heath Ledger,” he said.

“It is tragic that we have lost one of our nation’s finest actors in the prime of his life. Heath Ledger’s diverse and challenging roles will be remembered as some of the great performances by an Australian actor.”

Mr Rudd said the nation’s thoughts were with Ledger’s family and close friends, especially his two-year-old daughter Matilda.

news.com.au

Being from Australia originally, my phone and emails have been flooding in all day with people from home asking me if it’s true, like I’m the New York Police Department or something. Right up until his family and the Prime Minister made their statements about his death I had been wondering if it was a prank pulled to promote a film. Which admittedly would be a pretty cruel prank.

Heath’s family are also adamant that he has not committed suicide, and that they had been advised by police that his death was accidental.

I can think of nothing worse than having all of Australia’s entertainment reporters on your front door step - and they’ll ALL be there, there’s not much else to focus on in a small country -while you are trying to cope with a time difference and a foreign legal system. I hope that they have lots of support.

Other prominent Australians who have spoken out about the death include Nicole Kidman, Mel Gibson and Cate Blanchett. Unfortunately for Blanchett she was celebrating her Academy Award nominations for I’m Not There, the Bob Dylan biopic that Heath Ledger also plays Bob in, when she heard the news.

Note by Celebitchy: Here’s the video of Heath’s family’s public statement. In accordance with their wishes, and with common decency, we will post no photos of any of Heath friends and family grieving nor will we publish pictures of the scene or funeral. We may put up photos of average people paying tribute to Heath with flowers and notes.

And here are two photo tributes to Heath, thanks to Darule16:

And libertyangel:

Uma Thurman is already a mother of two from her previous marriage to Ethan Hawke, and her boyfriend of a few months Arki Busson has two children with model Elle Macpherson, but are they planning on expanding their brood together?

Entertainment Wise points out that an otherwise fabulously toned Uma was sporting a little pot belly at the annual Nobel Concert in Norweay, which she hosted.

The dress kind of looks like it’s bunched up around the middle, like maybe when it was first purchased it fit better?

Uma recently admitted that her ex-husband was right, she couldn’t commit to both her career and motherhood.

“(Hawke) claimed I couldn’t be a full-time mother and actress. I insisted I could. But I couldn’t. I really try to give all of myself,” Contactmusic quoted her, as saying.

“I wouldn’t even read a script that wasn’t shooting in New York because I needed to be home.

“It’s a very difficult balance. I’ve thought about quitting but I love it too much, and now I’m a single mother so I can’t quit,” she added.

WebIndia

Uma and Arki were rumoured to be engaged in October, but her rep denied the reports.

Is Uma Thurman pregnant? I hope so, becasue there’s nothing worse then being told you look like you’ve got a pot belly.

Note by Celebitchy: It does look like a pregnancy bump to me. Uma is 37 and her boyfriend Arpad Busson is 44. Thanks to WENN for these pictures, also featuring Kevin Spacey at the The Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway on 12/11/07.

I’ve decided that Celebitchy is officially the most accurate pregnancy spotter on the planet. She was the first to guess Nicole Richie was pregnant, and now she’s beaten the tabloids by declaring Cate Blanchett pregnant a month before the actress confirmed it. Everyone has their skills; Celebitchy can spot the tiniest pudge on a person’s stomach, and I can… latch on to her mad skills and write articles confirming it. Yeah, that’s all I got.

Cate Blanchett is pregnant with her third child, the actress confirmed Saturday night in her native Australia, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. “Yes, I am,” Blanchett, 38, said at the Sydney premiere of her film Elizabeth: The Golden Age, according to the paper. Informed of rumors that she is carrying a boy, Blanchett reportedly responded: “You know more than me. It’s early days yet. It’s due in April.”

The actress and her writer-director husband, Andrew Upton, already have two sons: Dashiell John, 5, and Roman Robert, 3. As for expanding her family, Blanchett recently told W magazine that she was “not going to wait forever. … God, I’d love it to be now. I’d love it to be next week.”

[From People]

Blanchett also confirmed that she will spend more time at home and less time traveling for the sake of their kids. She noted that Dashiell is five years old now, mentioning, “He needs to be settled, and I respect that.” I feel like I should send flowers or balloons or something… but probably to the bump spotter more than Blanchett. I wonder if Celebitchy knows who’s going to win the Superbowl?

Like Angelina Jolie’s year off (that might not have started yet or might have been postponed until she gets less offers for roles) sources say Cate Blanchett is about to step away from Hollywood for a while. The dignified actress and mother of two, who lives in Australia with her husband of ten years, playwright Andrew Upton, is said to be taking a year off to spend time with her family.

As soon as filming wraps up on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Cate Blanchett is packing her bags and leaving Hollywood for at least a year. The Australian-born actress is heading Down Under to “get back to her roots and recharge her batteries,” a pal tells Star. Adds Geoffrey Rush, who costarred with [Cate]… in Elizabeth: The Golden Age: “She adores her two children, and she misses them terribly when she’s traveling around the world making movies.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, November 5, 2007]

Cate Blanchett might have a more pressing reason to take time off. The normally super-thin actress looks like she’s pregnant with her third child, and has been wearing suspiciously fuller outfits lately. I would say we’ll either hear an announcement from Cate or her news will be more evident soon, much like JLo and Christina Aguilera’s pregnancies being obvious, but unannounced. Cate was a guest on BBC show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross last week and looked like she definitely was pregnant. She wore a loose dress, but a bump was visible from some angles.

Cate Blanchett is shown at the premiere of Elizabeth: The Golden Age in London on 10/23/07, thanks to WENN.

A little over two weeks ago, we were declaring Cate Blanchett pregnant after she gained some weight and was looking suspiciously fuller than normal in the stomach area. In the latest photos of Blanchett out at the premiere of Elizabeth: The Golden Age this weekend in Rome, she is wearing a lovely strapless dress with plenty of pleats across the midriff and a lime green sash and train to detract from that area. Blanchett hasn’t been seen out in a form-fitting outfit in at least two months.

Blanchett is at the Rome film festival to promote Elizabeth: The Golden Age. The film is being criticized for playing fast and loose with history and for being too melodramatic. It currently has a low 28% aggregate critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Although the film is not that well-received, Blanchett is receiving praise for an incredible repeat performance as the queen of England, and there’s Oscar buzz around her role:

Fictionalizing history is a noble literary crime that goes back to Shakespeare and Homer. The real issue arises when it makes the drama feel inauthentic. And some of The Golden Age’s more opulent excesses — from its torrid score to its painterly vistas of a digital armada — have a counterfeit ring.

But the cast keeps it real. Even if his Raleigh is overwritten, Clive Owen makes a delicious meal of the role. Unlike Joseph Fiennes, Elizabeth’s unctuous lover Robert Dudley in the first film, this smouldering suitor has charisma to match the queen’s. Returning as spymaster Walsingham, Geoffrey Rush uncovers a realm of pathos beneath the cunning. As Bess, Abbie Cornish has the allure of a young Kate Winslet. And Samatha Morton crackles as Mary — even if her beheading is staged with the elegance of a coronation, rather than the botched hack job that actually took place.

Blanchett, meanwhile, is magnificent. There’s an emotional translucence in her pale chameleon features. The intelligence is visible. You can see moods play across her face like wind on water: fear, whimsy, flirtation, suspicion, calculation, rage — and iron resolve. As a politician empowered by fashion, she’s equipped with a fantastic repertoire of wigs and costumes, culminating in her appearance as an armoured warrior on a white horse, unleashing the fury of God and England on the invading horde. Female roles do not get more heroic.

[From Macleans.Ca]

Elizabeth: The Golden Age also stars Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, and Clive Owen and is currently out in US theaters.

I’m surprised the tabloids haven’t yet called Blanchett pregnant given all the signs, but she has two children and has been married for ten years. It’s not as sensational when a celebrity gets pregnant if it’s not her first child and she doesn’t make it known that she’s yearning for a baby. Blanchett has two boys, Dashiell John, who will be six in December and Roman Robert, who is three and a half. Her husband is playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton.

Blanchett is shown at the premiere of Elizabeth: The Golden Age at the Rome film festival with her co-star Geoffrey Rush on 10/20. She is also seen at a photocall for the film on 10/19. Thanks to Splash News for these photos.