“Titanic” star Winslet, 33, was Oscar-nominated five times in the past 13 years years but had always returned home empty-handed.

Her best actress Oscar joins two Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild award, a British BAFTA and a handful of U.S. critics awards that Winslet has won this season.

“To the academy, thank you so much,” she said. Winslet gave credit to her fellow best actress nominees — Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Angelina Jolie and Melissa Leo — calling them “goddesses.”

“I think we all can’t believe we are in the category with Meryl Streep at all,” Winslet said.

In addition to Winslet’s acclaimed turn in “The Reader,” she won plaudits this awards season for her performance as a disillusioned housewife in “Revolutionary Road.” The two films were released only weeks apart.

Winslet told the Academy Award audience she would be lying if she said she hadn’t practiced an Oscar acceptance speech before.

“I think I was probably 8 years old and staring into the bathroom mirror, and this would have been a shampoo bottle,” she said gesturing to her golden statuette. “Well, it’s not a shampoo bottle now!”

‘HARD, LONELY’

Winslet has said that portraying Hanna Schmitz, a former Nazi prison guard who embarks on an affair with a teen-age boy more than a decade later, was the most challenging role she had ever played because she had little in her own life to draw on.

“Just getting underneath the skin of such a complex person who had lived such an isolated life for so many different reasons, it was hard and quite lonely at times,” she told Reuters in a recent interview.

Winslet found international fame as the co-star of the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic” but rather than embracing Hollywood’s big time, she opted for smaller, art house movies often made in her native Britain.

In parts ranging from the quirky girlfriend in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” to the laundress in an 18th century insane asylum in “Quills,” Winslet made a point of avoiding the cute blonde actress career trap.

She is a close friend of her “Titanic” co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, but it took the pair more than ten years to team up again, this time in the anti-romance “Revolutionary Road.”

Winslet is married to Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes and has two young children. On Sunday she thanked all three for “letting me do what I love and who love me just the way that I am.”

Kate Winslet wins best actress Oscar for ‘The Reader’

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She continued to appear in family films over the next three years, with lead roles in Ella Enchanted and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement in 2004. Hathaway would later venture away from the “G-rated” image her early acting career bestowed upon her, starring in the films Havoc and Brokeback Mountain. She later starred in The Devil Wears Prada, opposite Meryl Streep; Becoming Jane, in which she portrays Jane Austen, and Get Smart, opposite Steve Carell. In 2008 she earned widespread critical acclaim for her star turn in the film Rachel Getting Married, for which she won numerous awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.Her acting style has been compared to that of Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn and she cites Hepburn as her favorite actress and Streep as her idol. People magazine named her one of 2001′s breakthrough stars, and in 2006, she was listed as one of the world’s 50 Most Beautiful People.

Other Information

• Birth name: Anne Jacqueline Hathaway
• Born: November 12, 1982
• Birth place: Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
• Years active: 1999 – present
• Awards won: Other awards: NBR Award for Best Cast – 2002 Nicholas Nickleby; NBR Award for Best Actress – for Rachel Getting Married; SEFCA Award for Best Actress – 2008 Rachel Getting Married; Austin Film Critics Association Awards 2008 — Best Actress – 2008 Rachel Getting Married; Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress – 2008 Rachel Getting Married; BFCA Award for Best Actress – 2008 Rachel Getting Married

Links

• Anne Hathaway at the Internet Movie Database
• Anne Hathaway at TV.com
• Anne Hathaway at the Open Directory Project

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The film stars Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Candice Bergen, Bryan Greenberg, Chris Pratt, Steve Howey and Kristen Johnston.

Premise

Emma (Hathaway) and Liv (Hudson) are best friends who have planned every detail of their weddings since childhood. At the top of their bridal “must have” list: a ceremony at New York’s ultimate bridal destination, the Plaza Hotel. Now, at age 26, they’re both about to get married, they’re about to realize their dreams, and they’re about to live happily ever after. Or maybe not. When a clerical error causes a clash in wedding dates–they’re now to be married on the same day!–Liv, Emma and their lifelong friendship are put to the ultimate test. Liv, a successful lawyer who is used to getting what she wants, including the perfect job and the perfect man, won’t settle for anything less than the perfect wedding she has dreamed of for years. Emma, a schoolteacher who has always been good at taking care of others, but not so much in looking after herself, discovers her inner Bridezilla and comes out swinging when her own dream wedding is imperiled. Now, the two best friends who’d do anything for each other find themselves in a no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners struggle that threatens to erupt into all-out war. The girls both attempt to “sabotage” the other’s wedding, including Liv making Emma’s tan go bright red, and Emma sending Liv a “treat” of chocolate cookies in order to make her fat. These shenanigans go on, then when the wedding day comes, Liv gives someone a DVD of Emma dancing drunkenly during a Spring Break bash. The DVD shows up at Emma’s wedding as she walks down the aisle, making Emma angrily storm into Liv’s wedding and tackle Liv. Liv bursts into tears and apologizes for ruining Emma’s big day. Emma’s boyfriend announces that Emma isn’t the girl he thought he was marrying. Emma then tells him that he is in love with the Emma he met 10 years ago, not the Emma that she is now. She realizes that the guy she was going to marry isn’t the right guy for her, and calls off the wedding. They share a hug as she takes off the ring, and he walks out of the hall. Emma and Liv make up and the wedding is restarted, this time having Emma give away Liv. During the wedding dance after Liv gets married, Emma is asked to dance by Nate (Greenberg), Liv’s brother, and the two hit it off. As the film ends, Liv and Emma catch up about a year later: Emma is now married to Nate and the past is forgotten. Both ladies announce that they are pregnant, and they learn that both babies are due on the same day. This time instead of arguing, both women rejoice at being parents for the first time.

Production

Raphael and Wilson completed the shooting script of Bride Wars, from an original script by Greg DePaul, before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike began. Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith also contributed to the screenplay.

Some principal photography took place at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. Most filming occurred in Boston, Massachusetts, New York City, New York, and in Salem, Massachusetts.

Other Information

• Genres : Comedy
• MPAA Rating : PG
• Tagline : Even best friends can’t share the same wedding day.
• Sound Mix : Dolby Digital, SDDS, DTS
• Certification : USA:PG (certificate #44718), Ireland:PG, UK:PG (cut), Australia:PG, Singapore:NC-16, Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB), Finland:S, Singapore:PG (edited version), South Korea:12
• Filming Locations : Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Company : Firm Films
• Distributors :  20th Century Fox Distribution
• U.S. Box Office :  $48,570,928
• Release date : January 9, 2009 (US/UK), January 15, 2009 (Australia)
• Running time :  89 min.
• Country : United States
• Language : English
• Budget : $30 million
• Gross revenue : $40,393,658 (US), $50,508,713 (Worldwide)

Cast and Credits

• Directed by : Gary Winick
• Produced by : Kate Hudson, Matt Luber, Alan Riche, Peter Riche, Julie Yorn
• Written by : Greg DePaul, June Raphael, Casey Wilson, Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith
• Starring : Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson, Candice Bergen, Chris Pratt, Bryan Greenberg, Steve Howey, Kristen Johnston
• Music by : Edward Shearmur
• Distributed by : 20th Century Fox, New Regency, Firm Films

Trivia

• Several wives and girlfriends of current Red Sox players were extras in the wedding shower scene.
• Boom mic visible: In one of the scenes in the wedding planner’s office, the boom mike is visible in the top of the frame.

Related Articles

• The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009

Links

• Bride Wars – Official Website
• Bride Wars at Allmovie
• Bride Wars at the Internet Movie Database
• Bride Wars – Wikipedia.org