LONDON – 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.
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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.”
“When I was a kid, I dreamed of pulling on a shirt for the Northern Ireland football team,” said the Belfast-born, 51-year-old actor. “I could only imagine how proud you might feel.
“Today it feels like they just gave me the shirt, and my heart’s fit to burst.”
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.
Most go to people who are not in the limelight, for services to their community or industry, but they also reward a sprinkling of famous faces.
Lady Gaga’s flag use leaves Thais in knots
BANGKOK – Thailand’s Culture Ministry is criticizing Lady Gaga over what it says was her inappropriate use of a Thai flag during a Bangkok concert last month. Lady Gaga wore a traditional Thai headdress and a bikini and sat on a motorcycle with a Thai flag tied to it.
The ministry says the act was “not appropriate and hurt the feelings of the Thai people.”
The ministry’s Permanent Secretary Somchai Seanglai says his agency gave police a summary of public complaints it received.
Somchai says that is protocol but the ministry does not intend to seek legal action against the American pop diva.
Her Asian tour is wildly popular, but has also raised objections; one Indonesian show was canceled after Muslim hard-liners denounced it.
Lohan treated for exhaustion after no-show
LOS ANGELES – 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 film focuses on the love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Lifetime declined comment. And it was unclear whether the incident led to any delay in the film’s production.
– From news service reports
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