RACHEL WEISZ has become the first actress to win an acting award named for the late NATASHA RICHARDSON at a prizegiving recognising the best in London theatre.

The Mummy star received the Natasha Richardson Best Actress trophy for her part in West End play A Streetcar Named Desire at a ceremony hosted by the London Evening Standard newspaper on Monday (23Nov09).

The coveted gong has been renamed to honour Liam Neeson’s wife, who died following a tragic skiing accident in Montreal, Canada in March (09).

Richardson’s mother, veteran performer Vanessa Redgrave, was on hand to present the award to Weisz.

Accepting the award, Weisz said, “It is even more of an honour because this is the first year that the award has been named after the great and much, much-loved Natasha Richardson.”

Sir Ian McKellen was also given a special award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to British theatre throughout his 50-year career.

Rachel is nominated in the Best Actress in a Play category so do go and vote for her.

Reuters:
Weisz brilliantly succeeds in a role that was originated by Jessica Tandy on Broadway in 1947 and played in 1949 in the West End by Vivien Leigh, who went on to win her second Oscar for the Elia Kazan movie version opposite Marlon Brando.

Daily Mail Online:
Rachel Weisz gives a ‘mesmerising’ performance as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire

You can read the article Rachel Weisz, Ready To Try Anything at the Parade site.

She sounds like any other working mother who takes her Oscar-winning self around the globe with her toddler to film movies.

Rachel Weisz — mom to toddler Henry Chance Aronofsky — says that making “The Brothers Bloom” wasn’t just a film experience for her.

It was also a major life moment.

“We filmed in Prague and Romania like a traveling circus moving from country to country,” Weisz says. “My son was with me and he was tiny. Just nine months. One day we woke up and he decided to learn to walk in Belgrade.”

That was an expensive long-distance call home to Dad.

“He’s a seasoned travelers now with international memories in his baby book,” Weisz says with a laugh.

How is it to roam Europe with someone entering his terrible twos? “It was definitely ambitious,” Weisz says. “But you know what? My baby is a seasoned traveler now. Anyway, I think kids are fine as long as their moms or dads are there.”

The 36-year-old lives in New York City with director Darren Aronofsky when she’s not filming movies. “The Brothers Bloom,” now in its opening weekend, stars Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo as the best con men in the world. They swindle millionaires with complex scenarios. Now they have one last job, which is showing a beautiful and eccentric heiress love, romance and adventure … for a price.

Weisz plays poor little rich girl Penelope, who has been raised in an isolated way, meets the Brothers Bloom and falls in love. Continue Reading.

Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz and Robert Pattinson will star in the period drama “Unbound Captives,” with Madeleine Stowe making her directorial debut from a script she wrote.Gil Netter and Grant Hill will produce with Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment. They are eyeing a year-end production start.

Though Stowe’s a newcomer behind the camera, getting the job and landing that cast is a payoff for her risky decision to turn down millions of dollars for the script in 1993. Under pseudonym O.C. Humphrey, Stowe teamed with her husband, actor Brian Benben, to write “Unbound Captives” as a star vehicle for herself.

She would have played a woman (now to be played by Weisz) whose husband is killed and her two children kidnapped by a Comanche war party in 1859. She is rescued by a frontiersman, to be played by Jackman. Pattinson will play the son.

Fox offered Stowe $3 million, and later $5 million, for her script, with Ridley Scott poised to direct and Russell Crowe to star. She turned down what was among the highest sums offered a first-time scribe because there was no promise she would be anything more than screenwriter.

Stowe, who has never publicly spoken about her decision, said she can still remember the surreal moment of turning down all that money over the phone while staring in disbelief at her husband.

“There was never a moment’s hesitation on my part, but it felt unreal, and I can remember my husband putting a finger across his neck to signal not to take the offer,” Stowe said. “There are moments in life where you need to follow your heart. The script remained my singular focus, but directing it myself wasn’t something I ever dreamed of.”

The idea came from Netter as she spent years honing the script and visualizing every scene.

“Gil made me realize it when he said there isn’t anyone who’s going to make the movie you want to make,” said Stowe, who then faced the painful task of finding an actress for a role that was once worth $5 million to her.

“I saw three actresses, and knew after meeting with Rachel that she was the person I wanted to hand this role to,” she said. “Robert said yes last fall, before everything broke with ‘Twilight.’ Hugh said yes a couple of weeks ago.”

Amritraj sparked to the idea of Stowe directing; she’ll be helped by an experienced cinematographer in John Toll, who shot epics “Braveheart” and “The Last Samurai.”

Hyde Park Intl. will sell offshore territories at Cannes, and Endeavor Independent, which packaged the pic, will sell North American distribution rights.

Jackman, fresh from “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” is formulating a sequel to that film for Fox. Weisz next stars in the Peter Jackson-directed “The Lovely Bones” for Paramount, and Pattinson is reprising his role as Edward in the “Twilight” sequel “New Moon” for Summit.

Rachel graces the cover of May 2009 issue of The Black Book Magazine. The magazine can be found at your local newstands and as soon as I get my hands on an issue I will be adding scans to the gallery.

www.blackbookmag.com

Dames Judi Dench and Helen Mirren have been named on a list of the UK’s 20 most powerful women in theatre.

Hollywood stars Gillian Anderson and Rachel Weisz also appear in the list complied by magazine Harper’s Bazaar.

It celebrates the playwrights, leading impresarios and rising stars of the British stage.

Harper’s Bazaar editor Lucy Yeomans said: “The 20 women on our list represent the diversity and brilliance found in this creative industry.”

‘Phenomenal hit’

She added that it was an especially strong year for women in theatre.

“As well as including actresses, our list also takes account of the incredible powerhouses who make the productions happen,” she said.

“Sonia Friedman’s staggering drive has helped make Boeing Boeing a success on Broadway and in London and Sally Greene’s Billy Elliot is a phenomenal worldwide hit.”

Also on list is playwright Bola Agbaje, 27, whose debut play Gone Too Far! won an Olivier Award, set and costume designer Miriam Buether, 39, and casting agent Lisa Makin, 43.

X Files and Bleak House actress Anderson, who is to appear in a production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the Donmar Warehouse in London, was billed as the “honorary Brit” on the list.

She said: “I have wanted to work on the British stage for most of my life.

“The opportunity to turn that lingering dream into a reality is the greatest reward.

“The challenge is to chase that opportunity, despite an equally passionate fear.”