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The Great Cate
We trace ''Notes on a Scandal'' star Blanchett's career from ''Oscar and Lucinda'' to her Oscar-winning turn in ''The Aviator'' and beyond by
Steve Korn
HOT FOR TEACHER In the new
Notes on a Scandal, Blanchett's Sheba has an affair with one of her students, opening her up to the chilling machinations of seemingly buttoned-down coworker Barbara (Judi Dench)
PAIR OF ACES An early Blanchett breakthrough came in 1997's
Oscar and Lucinda; she and Ralph Fiennes played a couple of misfit gamblers who bet their financial and romantic fortunes on a deal to bring a glass church to remote Australia.
OSCAR AND
ELIZABETH The first of Blanchett's two Academy Award nominations came for this 1998 biopic; in her review, EW's Lisa Schwarzbaum called Blanchett ''the queen of this tony entertainment, pure and simple.''
THE TALENTED MS. BLANCHETT Following her high-profile turn in
Elizabeth, Blanchett popped up in
The Talented Mr. Ripley, a mainstream hit; while her role was small, Schwarzbaum wrote she filled it with ''with note-perfect detail.''
STOLEN HEARTS In Barry Levinson's 2001 ''Bandits,'' Blanchett's Kate deposits herself as love interest between bank-robber brothers Joe (Bruce Willis) and Terry (Billy Bob Thornton, not shown); Blanchett (and Thornton) nabbed Golden Globe nominations
MIDDLE-EARTH MOTHER Fantasy fans who may have missed her in
Elizabeth got to know Blanchett's regal side when she appeared as Lady Galadriel, queen of elves, in 2001's
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
GOOD 'CHARLOTTE' Reteaming with
Lucinda director Gillian Armstrong, Blanchett took the title role in 2001's
Charlotte Gray, sending her into action as an undercover agent supporting the French Resistance in WWII
NEWSPAPER TIGER In 2003, Blanchett headlined
Veronica Guerin, a biopic about the crusading Irish investigative reporter murdered at age 36
FLYING HIGH Martin Scorsese's 2004
The Aviator landed Blanchett her first Academy Award, for her portrayal of Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn opposite Leonardo DiCaprio's Howard Hughes
POINT OF NOIR RETURN Along with
Scandal, Blanchett currently stars in Steven Soderbergh's
The Good German, in a role harkening back to the femmes fatale of post-WWII Hollywood.