ACTRESS CATE BLANCHETT EXPECTING HER FIRST CHILD

May 31, 2001May 31, 2001, 11:00 PM GMT+1

Australian beauty Cate Blanchett plays Galadriel, an all-knowing queen and earth mother figure, in the upcoming big screen adaptations of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The part should serve her well as she prepares for her next role as a mother off-screen.

The Oscar nominee and her screenwriter husband have announced that they’re expecting their first child. “It was a wonderful surprise and we couldn’t be happier,” says Cate. “It has been a busy couple of years for us and it looks like things have just got busier, which is great.”

Busy is an understatement. Since wowing critics and audiences alike with her turn in Elizabeth, Cate has been working nonstop. She’s just finished the romantic drama Charlotte Gray and is working on both The Shipping News with Kevin Spacey and Bandits with Bruce Willis.

Cate married Andrew Upton, who is currently at work on an adaptation of Focault’s Pendulum, in 1997.

“It was a wonderful surprise and we couldn’t be happier,” says Cate of her pregnancy, seen here with the chopped look she adopted for the upcoming film Bandits

Cate, seen here at the 1999 Oscars, has been working nonstop since she received a best actress nomination for Elizabeth

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