Queen honors Kate, knights Kenneth
Kate Winslet has been honored by Queen Elizabeth II for her titanic contribution to the arts.
The actress, who won a best actress Academy Award in 2009 for “The Reader” and made her breakthrough as the feisty Rose in the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic,” has been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, in the queen’s Birthday Honors List, published today.
Winslet said the honor made her “very proud to be a Brit.”
“I am both surprised and honored to stand alongside so many men and woman who have achieved great things for our country,” the 36-year-old star said.
Actor and director Kenneth Branagh was made a knight and will be known as Sir Kenneth. A respected Shakespearean actor whose films as a director range from “Henry V” and “Hamlet” to the comic-book fantasy “Thor,” Branagh said he felt “humble, elated and incredibly lucky” to get the honor. It puts him in a pantheon of theatrical knights alongside the late Sir Laurence Olivier, whom Branagh played in “My Life With Marilyn.”
The honors are bestowed twice yearly by the queen – at New Year’s and on her official birthday in June – but recipients are selected by civil servants from nominations made by the government and the public.
Lohan treated for exhaustion
Lindsay Lohan continued to bring drama to the production of her latest film, receiving treatment for exhaustion and dehydration a week after she was involved in a car crash that sent her to the hospital.
Lohan’s publicist Steve Honig says producers of the Lifetime film “Liz and Dick” summoned paramedics to Lohan’s hotel room Friday morning after she did not respond for a shoot. The incident occurred after the actress completed an all-night shoot and had kept up a grueling schedule in recent days, Honig said.
The actress was not transported to the hospital.
The birthday bunch
Actor Bill Cobbs is 77. Author Joyce Carol Oates is 74. Country singer Billy “Crash” Craddock is 73. Songwriter Lamont Dozier is 71. Rhythm-and-blues singer Eddie Levert is 70. Actress Joan Van Ark is 69. Actor Geoff Pierson is 63. Rhythm-and-blues singer James Smith is 62. Boxing Hall of Famer Roberto Duran is 61. Pop singer Gino Vannelli is 60. Actress Laurie Metcalf is 57. Model-actress Jenny Shimizu is 45. Actor James Patrick Stuart is 44. Actor Clifton Collins Jr. is 42. Actor John Cho is 40. Actor Eddie Cibrian is 39. Actress Olivia Hack is 29. Singer Diana DeGarmo (“American Idol”) is 25.