"Titanic" stars donate to final survivor

"Titanic" stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and the film's director James Cameron have responded to a challenge and donated $30,000 to support the last survivor of the Titanic in her last years, a representative for DiCaprio said on Monday.

The survivor, 97-year-old Millvina Dean, has reportedly resorted to selling her autograph to pay her nursing home bills in Southampton, the English city from which "Titanic" began its fateful maiden voyage in 1912.

Dean was only 9 weeks old when her family traveled on Titanic in hopes of beginning a new life in the United States. Her father was one of the 1,517 casualties after the supposedly unsinkable ship hit an iceberg in the Atlantic.

DiCaprio, Winslet and Cameron made their combined $30,000 donation after Irish author and photographer Don Mullan publicly challenged them to match his donation, said Ken Sunshine, a spokesman for DiCaprio. Mullan, who photographed Dean for an exhibition, made his appeal last month in the Irish Independent newspaper.

The 1997 drama "Titanic" made more than $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing film of all time in figures not adjusted for inflation. It went on to win 11 Oscars, including best picture.

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE54A63J20090511

Kate Winslet wins best actress Oscar for "The Reader"

Kate Winslet won her first Oscar on Sunday for her portrayal of a German woman with a secret Nazi past in the romantic drama "The Reader."

"Titanic" star Winslet, 33, was Oscar-nominated five times in the past 13 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."

http://www.reuters.com/news/entertainment

Winners! A Complete List From the 2009 Oscars

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Actor in a Leading Role: Sean Penn, Milk

Actress in a Leading Role: Kate Winslet, The Reader

Actor in a Supporting Role: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Actress in a Supporting Role: Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, Milk

Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

Animated Feature Film: WALL-E

Foreign Language Film: Departures (Japan)

Original Score: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire

Original Song: "Jai Ho," A.R. Rahman and Gulzar; Slumdog Millionaire

Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire

Costume Design: The Duchess

Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire

Documentary Feature: Man on Wire

Documentary Short Subject: Smile Pinki

Animated Short Film: La Maison en Petits Cubes

Live Action Short Film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Sound Editing: The Dark Knight

Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire

Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Jerry Lewis

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