Winslet in 7 for all Mankind

Kate Winslet, on 9 May 2006, shops with her daughter Mia, 5 (dad is Winslet’s first husband, assistant director Jim Threapleton) around NYC. Winslet is wearing 7 for all Mankind jeans.

“All the King’s Men,” in which she stars opposite Sean Penn, will be released in September (2006). The film began shooting in December 2004, and is based on the Robert Penn Warren novel, about the life of populist Southerner Willie Stark, a political creature loosely based on Governor Huey Long of Louisiana. The film was first made in 1949, with Broderick Crawford. Actress Joanne Dru plays Anne Stanton, the role Winslet has in the upcoming feature. In 1958, director Sidney Lumet directed a television version.

Also upcoming is the Todd Field-directed “Little Children,” which Winslet shot last summer. She provides the lead voice for “Rita” in the animated feature “Flushed Away,” which will be released in November (2006). Winslet starred in the “down-and-dirty” musical “Romance and Cigarettes,” directed by John Turturro, that doesn’t appear to have been released in the U.S., but may be available on DVD on Amazon.com in the future.

Winslet was originally cast in Woody Allen’s “Match Point,” now on DVD, but dropped out to spend more time with Mia, and Mia’s baby brother, Joe (Winslet’s son with husband, director Sam Mendes). Allen cast Scarlett Johanssen only a week before shooting began and was able to cast the American in the U.K. shot film because he’d met his quota of British actors.

Interesting fact: Did you know that then 15-year-old Winslet got her start in a quality U.K. TV children’s science-fiction program (programme) called “Dark Season,” in 1991?