I just love Cate Blanchett. I love everything she does, I love when she speaks, I love looking at photos of her, I love how amazing she is. These are photos of Cate looking fabulous, of course, in Sydney. She did an event to highlight her work to turn the Sydney theatre district “green”. A rooftop solar installation began construction on the Sydney Theatre Company this week – that the company that Cate and her husband Andrew Upton are directors of. It’s great work, and Cate has put her time and money where her mouth is – but I just can’t over how she’s able to even look fabulous in a hard hat. She’s wonderful.

Cate Blanchett donned a hard hat, commando boots and a smart grey jacket to [promote] the green credentials of the Sydney Theatre Company. Construction commenced this week for a rooftop solar installation, partially funded by the Department of Climate Change, at the theatre at Pier 4, in Sydney’s Walsh Bay.

“Perhaps this whole area stretching from Barangaroo along Hickson Road and all the way to the Opera House [could be done up],” Blanchett said. “We could be well on our way to becoming the first green arts precinct in the world.”

Seventy per cent of the theatre’s energy needs will be provided by the solar panels and Blanchett says all of the companies at The Wharf would benefit from the green power.

“It’s not just the Sydney Theatre Company benefiting from the support of the Department of Climate Change but every single cultural company down here,” she said.

The project, Greening the Wharf, has been the vision of the Sydney Theatre Company’s artistic directors – Blanchett and her husband, playwright Andrew Upton.

“It’s our hope that Greening the Wharf increases awareness of climate change and demonstrates there is a wide range of measures that can be taken to reduce our carbon footprint,” they said in a statement.

It has taken three years of planning and fundraising to get the $5.2 million project off the ground. Blanchett joined MPs at its launch on the theatre’s roof. NSW Arts Minister Virginia Judge praised Blanchett for campaigning for the project, jointly funded by the federal and state governments.

“It’s a real testament to her perseverance, a lot of people have ideas but to stick in there and make sure it happens, we are all going to be blessed because of that effort, energy and vision,” she said.

“This is also a great initiative as all levels of government and agencies working together to get the best possible outcomes for the taxpayers of NSW.”

NSW Environment Minister Frank Sartor also reaffirmed the State Government’s commitment to renewable energy projects.

“We’ve got dozens of these projects around the state and we are starting to change the culture of use of energy and water,” he said. “Hopefully, over time, we will reach a more sustainable place.”

[From ABC News]

It sounds like an excellent initiative. I didn’t even know Cate was involved in any environmental causes, honestly. But she’s been trying to make this happen for three years? Good for her.

Cate Blanchett is the cover girl for the June issue of W Magazine, probably to promote Robin Hood (which only came in #2 at this weekend‘s box office, having been beaten by Iron Man 2). She’s photographed by Craig McDean (slideshow here). What do you think? I think quite a bit of Cate’s ethereal beauty, and I think she could make a burlap sack look interesting and high-fashion. But does this photo shoot do her any favors? She could easily pass for a woman ten or even fifteen years younger, sure. But I think they’ve styled her to look like Tilda Swinton on a normal day. As far as the interview goes, if you already love Cate, you’ll enjoy it. Cate’s not really the best interview, but she’s far from the worst. To me, she always comes across as really normal and well-adjusted. The full article is here, and here are some highlights:

Cate Blanchett on her inaccurate public perception: “I’m so misunderstood! I’m not focused on what other people think of me. Some people get you and some people don’t, and to spend your life trying to make people understand how deep and complex and varied you are—I think that way lies madness.”

Blanchett on her husband’s influence: “My husband keeps me really honest. I remember him saying to me after I made Elizabeth, ‘Sweetheart, you’ve probably got about about five years.’ He was preparing me for the time when the work dries up, as it invariably does.”

Blanchett’s husband, playwright Andrew Upton, on his wife as a coworker: “She challenges, but she’s not aggressive. I can tend to be a bit scattergun. She’s quite practical in the end, so I often just fire off, and she’ll sort of pick up the pieces or choose the best bits. She would be the first and pretty much only person I would seriously seek counsel from. We’re fairly brutal with each other.”

Blanchett on working with her husband: “We’re really open. I have friends—she’s an actor/writer married to a director—and she was horrified when we said we were going to work together. She said they don’t talk about work because they don’t want to venture into the territory of being criticized by you partner. But I know what to do with the criticism.”

On having all boys: “Everyone says, ‘Oh, you must have [been trying] to have a girl,’” she says, adding that she’s open to having another child, regardless of gender. “If the next one was a boy, then that’s just our lot! It’s true you do get a bit demented [with three boys].” But, she adds, “the chaos of it is great.”

On taking a break from film acting: “Before I made a film, I thought it was easy,” she says. “I thought, They all get so much time, so they can get a perfect moment, and then assemble a series of perfect moments. Then you get on set, and you realize it’s a completely different form of concentration [from theater], because you are used to the grand arc of a story and a film is made so piecemeal. To hold the whole story in your head—I found that kind of impossible and terrifying at first.” She managed to master it obviously, but she grew weary of making back-to-back movies. “It was thrilling for a while, but to maintain that pitch and momentum, I just couldn’t do it,” she says. “I think the height of ridiculousness was when I was playing Elizabeth in The Golden Age while preparing to start shooting I’m Not There. I literally finished filming Elizabethan grandeur on Friday, flew to Montreal and started being Bob Dylan on Monday.”

Backpacking in the Middle East when she was 19 years old: “I’d love to see if the Oxford Hotel in Cairo is still around—some pretty dodgy things were going on there! There was one guy there who’d been in bed for three years just waiting for a package to arrive from Pakistan.” Her giggling becomes uncontrollable. “I don’t know if the package ever came! He had to have gotten bedsores!”

[From W Magazine]

See? She’s interesting, but it’s not in any kind of tabloid way. She says nice things about Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, but makes a point of saying her favorite actors are Geoffrey Rush and Judi Dench and Hugo Weaving. She’s funny and interesting, but we really don’t know much about her, which is a cool way to go considering her fame and talent.

W Magazine photos courtesy of W online.

This just a post about the fashion porn at Cannes. The photos just came in from the big opening night premiere of Robin Hood, and evidently, every woman (save Dame Helen Mirren) thought the Cannes Film Festival was a cotillion. Big skirts. Big, big, massive skirts. And pageant hair. Ugh. Let’s start with the only one who looked effortless and chic, my Dame Helen. I would wear this dress in a heartbeat. Except that on me (or anyone else) it would look like a plain black dress (although there’s some detailing on the left neckline and shoulder). Look at Helen’s body in this thing. She’s crazy sexy.

Now, on to the cotillion. I have to give it to Cate Blanchett – if you’re going to do a big f-cking dress, why not do it this way? With a big f-cking eagle/hawk of doom imprinted on your couture. Do you think Cate saw this and was like “Fabulous. The bird of prey, please.” I’m thinking it’s Gaultier, but I could totally be wrong. It’s McQueen. I was wrong.

Next: Eva Longoria. WTF? I didn’t realize the Cannes red carpet was her wedding march. And just FYI to Eva: Charlize and Penelope can make the big tiered/ruffled skirts work, but you can’t. Plus, they were making it work three years ago. Not now.

Kate Beckinsale (who is on the Cannes jury) is trying to do the same Charlize/Penelope thing, and her failure is epic. Plus, the bodice goes on too far, so it makes it seem (to my allergy-drug-addled mind) like Kate has a big, lavender-haired vadge. That veers to the right. It’s so bad I almost missed my boyfriend Benecio del Toro in the corner of the photo. Mmm…he could check out my big lavender vadge. What?

Russell’s wife (I forget her name, Mrs. McAngryPants, whatever) looks over it. She’s all “I wish I was drunk right now.” Russell’s all “I am drunk right now.”

Photos from the Robin Hood premiere in Cannes on May 12, 2010. Credit: WENN.

Here are some new photos of Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett at the photo call for Robin Hood. Robin Hood is the opening film at the Cannes Film Festival, and it’s also going to be Cate’s big “comeback” after more than a year spent doing theatre stuff in Australia and Washington. I’ve missed Cate, haven’t you? Especially on the red carpet. We needed her to be our great fashion icon. Cate was prepared too – delivering a great fashion moment in a very interesting, beautiful pale pink suit. Russell looks like he would rather be in a bar, or that he’s just come out of a bar.

Anyway, Russell and Robin Hood director Ridley Scott sat down for an interview with The Daily Telegraph. Russell is still trying to convince us that he’s not a hyper-aggressive toolbox, like he did in his GQ UK interview. The full Telegraph piece is here, and here are some of the highlights:

Russell on the character of Robin Hood: “We never assume that he is a charitable person, he’s not. He’s totally about looking after himself but he develops into this other thing, mainly driven by the desire, I suppose, to be loved by Marion.”

Russell on working with Ridley Scott: “I love working with him. On a film set with Ridley Scott I trust in the fact the infrastructure is there, I trust in the fact that even though he’s making an expensive movie it will not cost one dollar more than it needs to because he has a very responsible attitude to where the money’s being spent. He knows how many severed heads he’s got in the effects department; he knows what he can use and how quickly he has to move, and I really respect that.”

Russell on his image as an aggressive bully and a “difficult” actor: “When you read it in black and white it sounds like I was being ridiculously aggressive, but one of the main misunderstandings is that I’ve been sold as an angry person and that’s just not true. I like to put a lot of effort into what I do and that comes with a certain amount of energy, especially when you’re weary and it requires you to dig deep inside yourself… I certainly have a temper that can flare up, but having a temper is a completely different thing from being an angry person.”

[From The Telegraph]

Do I buy that Russell is just a misunderstood guy who has maligned in the press? Not really. I do think he’s such a talented actor, and I also think he’s probably a total douche unless he considers you a friend.

By the way, the tales of Robin Hood’s disastrous film production have already come out, but here’s another piece of “what were they thinking?” info. While everyone knows that it was a very expensive film to make, and that it went over budget, new information indicates that it ended up going about $80 million over-budget. Originally, it was thought that it cost $155 million to make, but the actual budget is rumored to be $237 million. And that’s before the promotional and marketing costs! Good Lord. They really need this movie to be a hit.

Cate and Russell in Cannes on May 12, 2010. Credit: WENN.

Here are some nice photos of Cate Blanchett shooting a commercial for JVC in Italy on Sunday. There were a bunch of celebrities in town to shoot the ad – Matthew Fox and Kevin Spacey among them. What is JVC? Is it this – a Japenese electronics company? Or Jesuit Volunteer Corps? I don’t know. But Cate does look so pretty.

Cate is gearing up for the promotional tour for Robin Hood, in which she plays Maid Marion, if Maid Marion was, like, The Warrior Queen. They’ve got her in chain mail, they’ve got her doing archery, they’ve got her making out with Russell Crowe. All in all, she seems like a tough broad. Cate sat down for an interview with The London Times (full piece here) to promote the film. Here are some of the highlights:

On how motherhood has changed her career: “Anyone with children will tell you the same thing. Starting out as single women, our first questions about any job are, ‘What kind of role is it?’ and ‘Who will I be working with?’ But as soon as we have kids, we find ourselves asking, ‘How long’s the shoot?’ and ‘Can it be done in the school holidays?’ Suddenly, your attitude becomes very pragmatic. It has to, because shifting your household to another hemisphere is a major upheaval and there has to be a pretty compelling reason for you to do it.”

Why she took the part in Robin Hood: “To get the chance to work not just with Ridley, but also with Russell? I mean, c’mon, the dynamic duo! It seemed like a great way for us all to spend the summer back in the UK – and it was. In fact, it was thrilling. Our boys [Dashiell, 8, Roman, 6, and Ignatius, 2] had a ball. I went up in their estimation from the first night on set, when I was called on to shoot a flaming arrow, missed my mark and hit a light, which duly exploded. I mean, how many mums do stuff like that?”

On the new Maid Marion: “Rather than Robin simply coming to her rescue, Ridley was interested in depicting a woman who was completely unsentimental, who hardly knew her husband because he’d been away at war for ten years and who’d had to find her own means of survival. Then into her life walks this fellow and they form a bond.”

She doesn‘t hate Los Angeles: “I quite like Los Angeles. The underbelly of the city is really interesting to me. But a lot of my early film stuff ended up being shot around Europe and we headed for England instead. And now we’re back here and quite settled.”

She loves England too, where she lived for ten years: “[I miss] the seasons, definitely. I miss the cold. We were filming Robin Hood in Windsor Great Park, which I’d never visited before… That place is just divine. It could turn you into a tree-hugger. Friends, too, of course. And I miss Brighton a lot, which is where we were before leaving.”

Her sons go to school in Australia: “The boys go to the local state primary school and they love it there, love – like all kids – the routine of it.”

Cate on her all-boy family: “It’s loud. Really loud. So very loud.”

On her father‘s sudden death when she was a child: “One day he was just gone. Children adjust very quickly to circumstances, but I’m sure I’m still working out his absence in my head.”

On her boys: “There is that moment when you’re identifying something within your kids that reminds you of yourself and they catch you and say, ‘Stop looking at me funny!’ They don’t want that level of attention or sentimentality. But it is very touching when you see echoes of your parents, your brothers and sisters or your partner in them. Touching and strangely comforting, in fact. It completes some kind of circle, somehow.”

On how motherhood changed her: “It toughens you up and makes you more pragmatic, yet at the same time it turns you into a bowl of mush. You see a child in distress or a puppy waiting to cross the street and you just want to weep. Maybe that mix is good for an actor. I guess the great thing is that it increases your ability to switch on and off. The work is no longer the only thing in your life. Other things count – and count more.”

On meeting her husband, Andrew Upton: “At first, he thought I was aloof and I thought he was arrogant. It just shows how wrong you can be. Once he kissed me, that was that.”

[From The London Times]

I think it’s little sad that Cate doesn’t have a daughter. Obviously, she completely loves and adores her sons, and that’s not what I’m talking about at all. I just think Cate’s the kind of woman who would absolutely love having a daughter, someone she could play dress up with and do girl things. I can’t even imagine being a mom to three (Aussie) boys. How does she not wander around, covered in mud and spitballs and frogs?

Cate & Kevin Spacey on the set in Italy, filming a JVC commercial on May 9, 2010. Credit: Fame Pictures.

Less than a year ago, there was a solid rumor going around that Madonna had her heart set on financing and starring in a film about Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee girlfriend (and later, wife) of King Edward VIII. Wallis was much maligned in her lifetime, especially since the general story goes that King Edward gave up the throne of England to marry Wallis. But, I’ve always felt there were other factors at play (including King Edward’s sympathy for Adolf Hitler), but Wallis has yet to have a major historical rewrite, or major cultural defense. Madonna, it seemed, had found her next project.

Since the initial flurry of rumors, things got quiet. My main problem with the whole idea of the project was that Madonna would not be up for the role of Wallis – Madonna doesn’t have the acting chops, and Wallis is an acting challenge. Fortunately, the latest rumors have Madonna stepping away from playing Wallis – but Madonna still has her heart set on writing and directing the film, doing the music, and maybe playing a supporting role. This isn’t going over well – and now Madonna can’t cast the Wallis role to save her life:

Madonna hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with her acting. So the Material Girl is turning her hand to directing a musical biopic based on the life of Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom King Edward VIII gave up his throne in 1936.

Except no one wants to Madge’s leading lady! Keira Knightley and Cate Blanchett have already passed.

“There are worries that Madonna will get too involved because she wrote the script and the music,” says a source. “And there the concern that she may want to take a small role which would discredit the film. But don’t cry for Her Madgesty – she’ll always have Evita!

[From Star Magazine, print edition, January 11, 2010]

Keira would be terrible as Wallis, so I’m not upset about that. But Blanchett would rock. Fortunately, Cate has too much sense to sign on for anything involving Madonna, so well done Cate! This seriously would be an amazing project if only Madonna would take herself and her ego out of it. Seriously, why couldn’t she just executive produce and be like Oprah? Give the project to some smart British director, like Stephen Daldry or someone like that.

Here are some old photos of Wallis and King Edward (when he became the Duke of Windsor, post-abdication):

Hot damn! Late Tuesday the first trailer for Ridley Scott’s version of Robin Hood was released, and it’s pretty awesome. The film has been broiling in controversy for the better part of the year because of behind-the scenes drama, but you can’t see any of that in this minute-and-a-half clip. This thing is so awesome, I had to look up the cast just to make sure some of these dirty, sexy people were who I thought. In addition to Russell Crowe as Robin Hood, and Cate Blanchett as Maid Marion, the film also has Mark Strong (nice, he’s in Sherlock Holmes too), Danny Huston, Max Von Sydow, William Hurt (!!) and finally, as the Sheriff of Nottingham, one of my big crushes, Matthew MacFadyen. He was Mr. Darcy in the Keira Knightley version of Pride & Prejudice, and his voice literally kills me. I love him!

Anyway, this trailer makes it seem like this version is going to be very, very dark. I mean, except for the part where Robin Hood is riding a horse on the beach. Which, you know, Robin Hood did…? Oh, and I’m loving Cate Blanchett’s dark wig. But you can do anything to her hair, you really can, and it still works.

I’m so happy this film looks good! I was worried. There was so much scandal during the production, from the alleged feud between Russell and Ridley, to Russell’s alleged weight gain, to Sienna Miller’s dismissal from the film (or, as she put it, she was too thin and beautiful for the role), to Cate Blanchett’s brilliant casting. My only qualm is that the film looks a lot like Gladiator. I mean, that’s Ridley Scott’s style and everything, but did Russell really need the same haircut? Whatever. My Crowe crush is returning!

Production stills from ‘Robin Hood’ featuring Crowe, Blanchett and Ridley Scott, courtesy of Screen Rant.

Just so I get my Blanchett cred, let me just say that I love everything about Cate Blanchett. She’s one of the coolest ladies around, she’s an amazing actress, a great mom, a true artist, and before today, a nearly flawless style icon. Cate likes high-fashion – she likes to make an impact, and you can tell that she simply loves to dress. But this dress… oh, NO. Just no, honey.

This is Cate appearing as the “guest of honor” at an exhibition opening in Melbourne. This is her first public appearance since her Streetcar Named Desire costar accidently bashed in her head with an old-timey radio. So is this crocheted quilt dress a product of a traumatic head injury? Or was it just the one “freebie” bad call Cate gets after a lifetime of being flawless?

There have been some awful red carpet faux-pas over the years, but Cate Blanchett’s latest outing in Melbourne takes the biscuit.

The Australian actress, 40, was guest of honour at the opening of the new exhibition Screen Worlds: The Story of Film, Television and Digital Culture.

But all eyes were on her bizarre crocheted dress, which looked more like a nanna’s winter bed cover than something you’d actually wear.

The odd one-shoulder number left many of her waiting fans with confused and surprised looks on their faces.

She told reporters the exhibition was thrilling, although it was her bizarre choice of outfit that ended up stealing the show – for all the wrong reasons.

Cate appeared to have recovered from a recent head injury which she picked while acting in the stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, in Sydney.

She was injured during a fight scene with her co-star, Joel Edgerton, when he accidentally struck her with a radio. An audience member described seeing blood streaming down the actress’ neck before the play was halted ‘due to technical difficulties’.

It is hoped the exhibition will help to confirm Melbourne as Australia’s home of screen culture.

Australian Premier John Brumby said the show, held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, brings together ‘rarely seen footage, fascinating objects and interactive displays from cinema’s early beginnings to the rise of television, games, the internet and the dominance of the digital age’.

Cate was joined by Matrix actor Hugo Weaving at the opening of the exhbition, which includes a 1896 Lumiere Cinematographe camera/projector, the rocket clock from Play School, and costumes from Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.

[From the Daily Mail]

Well, she got noticed. For all the wrong reasons. Did Cate think she wouldn’t make an impact at this event unless she wore something horrible? Or did she think this dress was just stunning. I can’t even justify this with a “maybe it just photographs horribly” – I’m pretty sure it sucked in person too. Oh, Cate. I just can’t hate you. This God awful dress has given me so much pleasure.

Cate Blanchett was injured in the middle of a stage performance of A Streetcar Named Desire in Sydney, Australia. This just happened a few hours ago, because the performance was on Wednesday night. Apparently, during the course of a scene, one of Cate’s castmates threw a radio and it hit her in the head. According to eyewitness reports, Cate had blood “streaming” out of some kind of gaping head wound. It was so bad that the play ended just seconds later and the audience was basically told to go home. They must have had to rush Cate to the hospital to get her checked out:

Cate Blanchett suffered a head injury Wednesday after she was hit by a prop during a live performance in her native Australia, according to reports.

The actress, 40, was performing in A Streetcar Named Desire at The Sydney Theatre Company when cast member Joel Edgerton threw a radio, as per the script, and it hit Blanchett on the head.

An audience member tells the Sydney Morning Herald that “she had blood streaming down the back of her head and blood on the back of her neck.”

Adds the witness, “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.”

A rep for Blanchett has yet to issue a statement.

[From Us Weekly]

Damn, this concerns me. I hope we get a “she’s fine” message soon. I’ve had simple head injuries before (don’t ask, it involved a shovel and that’s all I’m saying) and one thing is for sure – they always look terrible. Head wounds are gushers. I hope that in Cate’s case, she just needed stitches and some bed rest – she’s one of our greatest actresses.

UPDATE: Cate’s rep is saying that she’s “fine” and that the play will go tomorrow (Thursday). She probably just needed stitches.

Here are Cate Blancett and her husband Andrew Upton as they leave the Sydney Opera House on August 3rd. Images thanks to Fame Pictures .

Before I get into She Who Is Unworthy, let’s just take a moment and enjoy Meryl Streep. Meryl was out last night with her little buddy Amy Adams, attending a screening of Julie & Julia. Meryl donned a comfortable-looking red dress that I actually like, but I’m not too thrilled with her hair. Still, she’s Meryl F-cking Streep, and I doubt she cares what I think about her hair. Julie & Julia comes out next weekend – it’s the film where Meryl takes on yet another great role – that of the first lady of chefs, Julia Child. Reviews are already coming in for the film, and while most are saying there are some weak points in the film, every critic agrees that Meryl shines yet again. Playing Julia Child will probably bring Meryl her SIXTEENTH Oscar nomination. Meryl has already blown through every record ever set by Hollywood actresses, and she’s still got dozens of great performances yet to come. Meryl is the queen.

Take it as a given that Meryl is the undisputed queen, the empress of all, the best of the best and then some. So what does that make Jessica Biel? Yeah, I thought so. Jessica gave an interview to the LA Times to promote her upcoming stage performance as Sarah Brown in Guys & Dolls. Sarah Brown is the role played by Jean Simmons in the film version, with Marlon Brando playing Sarah’s seducer, Sky Masterson. Honestly, I love the film, and you couldn’t pay me to watch Jessica Biel murder those lines and songs live.

Jessica’s doing what she does best – promoting herself through any means necessary. Which means referencing her struggles with her own beauty again, and then topping it off with career-comparisons to Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep. Bitch, please.

Biel, 27, said it took her all that time to summon the courage to take her singing beyond the shower stall. “I’ve struggled a lot in the last five years or so with my own insecurities, having done some film,” she said recently. “Will I be accepted? Is my voice good enough? I think I finally feel confident enough to do it.”

“Her voice is silvery,” said Jay-Alexander, [director of Guys & Dolls]. “It glimmers, and the higher it goes, the more it shimmers. It’s a very interesting instrument.” And she’s been training for the role “like a triathlete in a decathlon,” working with a coach two hours a day for the last two months.

Biel hopes that the role of Sarah will confound an industry that often makes assumptions about the limits of beautiful women. Her concern about that has at times ricocheted awkwardly across the Internet, as it did in May when she told Allure magazine that she wants a career like Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman’s, but her beauty “really is a problem” in Hollywood and has cost her roles.

“I just don’t want to be in a box ever where anybody feels I can only do one thing, because it’s boring,” said Biel. “I feel I have a lot to explore and a lot to give and try and probably fail doing something, but I want the shot to do it.”

That probably won’t include performing with her longtime boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, at least for now. “I never thought about doing an album,” she said. “I’m more interested in incorporating music into film or onstage. I am his No. 1 fan when it comes to music, but we’re doing our own things.”

“The only destination I’m hoping for is longevity,” she said. “I want to be able to keep working until I’m 105 years old. I want the choice. It’s difficult for women in general in entertainment. They peak earlier and the men peak at 30, 40. It’s kind of scary. But you can’t tell Meryl Streep she can’t do a part. You can’t say to Cate Blanchett ‘I don’t believe her in that.’ They do anything they want because they have explored the range, which is endless for them. That’s what I want.”

[From Los Angeles Times]

And I want Gerard Butler naked in my bed. We all want something, Biel. Wanting to be as insanely talented, beautiful, successful and cool as Cate or Meryl is fine. I want to be like them too. But name-dropping them in an LA Times interview as if you’re on the same kind of career path? As if Cate Blanchett doesn’t have more talent in her pinkie than in Jessica’s whole “too beautiful” mess? As if the only thing coming between Jessica Biel being recognized as The Next Meryl Streep is a few casting directors who can’t see past Jessica’s “gorgeous” face? Give me a f-cking break.

Update by Celebitchy: Some people are understandably commenting that Jessica Biel did not bring up her ‘beauty’ in this article in the LA Times. The piece mentions that Biel did reference it again, without stating what she said specifically. They write “Biel hopes that the role of Sarah will confound an industry that often makes assumptions about the limits of beautiful women.” They then go on to quote her Allure article, and then Biel states that she wants to make sure she’s not pigeonholed “in a box ever where anybody feels I can only do one thing.” I think we can assume that she’s again talking about her beauty without making the outrageous comment that it gets in her way as she did in Allure.

Here’s Meryl Streep and Amy Adams at the Los Angeles Premiere of ‘Julie & Julia’ yesterday. Jessica is shown at Whole Foods on July 4th. Images thanks to WENN.com .