‘Elizabeth’ Star Cate Blanchett Has First Baby

Published December 9th, 2001 - 03:00 GMT

Australian star Cate Blanchett, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role as an English queen in the 1998 picture Elizabeth, and screenwriter husband Andrew Upton have welcomed their first child, her publicist said here Thursday.

The 32-year-old actress delivered a son, Dashiell John, in London, publicist Lisa Kasteler said.

But busy Blanchett, who features in the screen version of the classic fantasy tale Lord of the Rings, opening later this month, does not plan to be confined to home for long.

In February, she is due to begin filming in the title role of “Chasing the Dragon: The Veronica Guerin Story," a picture about an Irish investigative journalist murdered after she probed Ireland's criminal underworld.

She is also due to hit the screen again soon in the Warner Bros. venture Charlotte Gray, in which she stars as a Scot who joins fighters in the French resistance in World War II.

Another Blanchett picture, Heaven from director Tom Tykwer, will premiere at the Berlin film festival in February, and the alabaster-skinned redhead is also to star with Kevin Spacey in the film version of the Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Shipping News -- AFP