NEW LOVE

Kate and Sam Mendes

 

  

 

Brief bio and filmography of Sam Mendes

Lengthy profile -- 'Can Kate Tame Bachelor Sam?'

 

 

 

Following are news articles that were published around the time news broke of Kate's new relationship (most recent articles posted first). Links to more recent articles are posted HERE.

 

 

Can you fall in love too fast?
By Liz Garment

So Kate Winslet is in love again. Less than three months after splitting from her husband, she's fallen head over heels with the Oscar-winning film director, Sam Mendes.

To many of us, starting a new relationship can seem like the best way to get over an old one but what are the dangers of falling in love so soon after a major break-up? Is it natural and healthy or a quick-fix solution, destined for disaster?

Pain relief -- 'Splitting up is painful and distressing and falling in love with someone new initially takes away the hurt,' says relationships expert Julia Cole. 'When you've had this sort of knock, it's natural and understandable to be with someone who makes you feel better but ultimately the healing process takes longer. After a break-up you're not in a fit state to understand what you're doing. Self esteem often plummets and you can end up getting involved with someone who boosts that but before you've had time to work through what went wrong in your previous relationship and what you want in the future.'

Breathing space -- Leaping straight from one relationship to another - especially when there are children involved - can often just complicate things, says Julia. 'You need time to reflect on what happened and time to feel sad about it,' she says. 'If you go directly into a relationship with someone else it just muddies the water and makes it more difficult for you to see things clearly.'

Echoes from the past -- In the first heady days of a new romance it's all too easy to use the present to blot out the painful past but this honeymoon time is invariably short-lived, says Julia. 'Although everything is usually rosy to begin with, tensions can start to appear if you haven't worked through how you feel about your past relationship as well as your role, and your ex's, in the break-up. This is the time when old unresolved feelings can come back to haunt you and arguments with your new partner tend to start as you take out on him all the issues and emotions that weren't sorted out with your ex.'

Post break-up blues -- Sometimes the sadness and depression which accompany virtually every relationship breakdown don't kick in until six to nine months later and this difficult time can be made even more painful and complex if you're already in another relationship. The emotional effects of a break-up nearly always catch up with you at some point and can have a serious effect on how you behave towards your new partner,' says Julia. 'He may well find your sudden unhappiness bewildering and inexplicable - after all, he thought you were contented with him - and this can place a lot of pressure on both of you.'

Can it ever work? -- But not all experts agree that falling for someone straight after a break-up is necessarily a dangerous thing. Counsellor Mo Shapiro says: 'So-called rebound relationships get a lot of bad press but I think the attitude that they're always risky is an insulting one. Sometimes you have to trust your emotions. You can meet Mr Right straightaway, it does happen, and actually your subconscious can be very good at learning from the past and helping you go out and find exactly the sort of man you need.'

Enjoy the moment -- According to Mo what's important is taking one step at a time. 'If you meet someone and you like them, go with it, enjoy the high, enjoy the buzz, enjoy the fun but don't necessarily think that this is going to the relationship you commit to for the rest of your life. But at the same time, try to analyse your new relationship as it develops. Ask yourself what it is that makes this one different and how it might be in a few years time.'

Slowing the pace -- But Julia Cole believes that in an ideal world, it is best to give yourself a whole year to get over a break-up before even thinking about getting involved with someone new. 'Go on dates, have some fun but if a man you like tries to force the pace, says that he loves you and perhaps wants to live with you, tell him you feel close to him too but still need some space. You have to be very strong to do this but it will be worth it in the long run.'

And Mo Shapiro agrees 'If it feels like it's all going too fast then it is going too fast. Try to put your foot down and set some limits even if you're scared that if you do so he'll up and leave. If he does, he's obviously not right for you - if he can¿t meet your needs now, why should he be able to in five years time?'

* Julia Cole is author of Find the Love of Your Life (Hodder & Stoughton)

* Mo Shapiro is author of Shift Your Thinking Change Your Life (Sheldon Press)

Source: Femail, November 30

 

 

 

Look Who's Dating Kate Winslet

The boy wonder who directed the Oscar-winning American Beauty is cementing his place in Holly wood, while embarking on a romance with the female star of Titanic
Profile -- Sam Mendes

Some guys have all the luck. You'd think that Sam Mendes would be quite content with being the witty, charming, and intelligent wunderkind of British theatre and American cinema. More than enough acclaim for any 35-year-old, surely?

But no. This week it is reported that the brilliant director has found time in his busy schedule to capture the heart of actress Kate Winslet. The Titanic star, currently in the throes of a divorce, is said to be besotted by him. They are, in the parlance of the showbiz gossip column, ''an item''.

So that's the good news about Sam Mendes this week. The bad news - or, at least, the bad news for the more discerning theatre fans - is that, after a 10-year association, he is to split up with another great love of his life, the Donmar Warehouse.

It is an amicable separation, by all accounts. Having transformed the tiny, once-unfashionable, playhouse into the most exciting, innovative, theatre in London, Mendes feels it's time to move on. ''It is time to hand the Donmar on to another generation,'' declared the director, rather sadly.

But not too sadly. For now there is Kate. They first met in September last year when Mendes was casting for two plays he was planning to direct at the Donmar. The young director approached Winslet and interviewed her twice about roles for Shakespeare and Chekhov productions, being staged to celebrate the theatre's 10th birthday.

Their relationship remained purely professional until very recently and developed into something deeper and more personal only after Winslet split from her husband, Jim Threapleton, the assistant director she met on the set of the movie Hideous Kinky in 1997.

Mendes and Winslet, who are currently working on separate projects in America, are said to have spent two nights together at an exclusive country club in Texas. They have also spent time together back home in England.

However, few who know Mendes would wager a bet on how long the relationship will last. His previous record stands at just two years (with the actress Jane Horrocks). He has also been associated with Rachel Weisz and Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart.

The problem for Mendes, whose parents divorced when he was five, is one of commitment. Certainly, the prospect of marriage would appear to be remote. He once said: ''I don't believe in marriage. People from broken homes just don't buy it.''

Indeed, the woman who really matters in Sam Mendes's life is his mother, Valerie. It was with her and her alone that he spent his formative years. She has always been his anchor. It was left to her to encourage him when, with an increasing sense of despair, he opened no fewer than 70 letters of rejection as he tried to make a start in the film and theatre industries.

It came as no surprise to his friends and colleagues that, at last year's Oscars ceremony, when he picked up the best director award for American Beauty, he was accompanied by his mother. His achievements, he declared, were a tribute to her devotion, her determination that he should persevere, and her limitless drive to ensure that he became the best. With a mum like that, who needs a wife?

Sam Mendes - the surname is Portuguese - was born an only child in Reading in 1965. His father, Peter, was a professor of English at Reading University and his mother the author of children's books. After his parents' divorce, Mendes had little contact with his father, though their relationship improved later in life.

His performance at school was mediocre (''I lived in my head a great deal of the time,'' he said) and he was more concerned with cricket and with his TV comedy heroes - John Cleese, Ronnie Barker, and Leonard Rossiter - than he was with his education.

Nevertheless, he made it into Cambridge and emerged with a first in English. By the time he reached university he had developed a fiercely competitive streak. He also fastened on to the world of theatre, regarding it as something of a community, a family. He directed student productions and helped form the Watershed Floating Theatre Company.

After university, when he was receiving all of those employment rejection slips, his talent for playing cricket provided him with the career break he needed. John Gale, the man who ran the Chichester Festival Theatre, was becoming increasingly fed up at the way they kept losing at cricket to the Royal Shakespeare Company every year. Mendes's reputation as a batsman was enough to secure him a job as assistant director (for the record, the RSC was soundly beaten when Mendes made his first appearance).

His next break came in 1989 when a petulant director walked out of a production at Chichester. Mendes, still an AD, was immediately drafted in to take over. Though he later confessed that he hadn't a clue how the play ended when he walked into the rehearsal room, he nevertheless won the confidence of the cast and the production was a sparkling success. The play transferred to London and, within a year, he was directing Judi Dench in The Cherry Orchard, a task which won him the 1989 London Critics' Circle Award for the most promising newcomer.

It seemed to many observers that the boy wonder Mendes could do no wrong. Unfortunately, it was something which also occurred to the boy wonder Mendes himself. For a while, the success went to his head and he acquired a minor reputation for arrogance. Because he never met with failure, he became convinced that he always knew better than anyone else. He would seldom listen to another's point of view.

In 1992 he began his long association with the Donmar, a former banana warehouse which Dame Margot Fonteyn used for rehearsals. When he noticed that the 250-seater theatre was closed he approached the leaseholders and asked if he could take it over. His idea was to use the place as a centre for theat-rical productions which could transfer its successes to the bigger West End playhouses.

As the Donmar's artistic director, he oversaw a string of remarkably successful plays. His productions were hailed as masterly. Among the highly acclaimed works performed in the tiny theatre were Stephen Sondheim's unusual musical, Assassins (1992), a revival of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret (1994), an inspired production of Tennessee Williams's classic The Glass Menagerie (1996), and the controversial David Hare play The Blue Room (1998), in which Mendes cast Nicole Kidman in the main role and thereby started a trend for Hollywood movie stars appearing on the London stage. He did not, however, work exclusively for the Donmar. In 1995 he directed a West End production of the Lionel Bart musical Oliver!. When Steven Spielberg was in London making Saving Private Ryan he went to see the show and was extremely impressed by the experience. Of Mendes he said: ''I sort of banked his name in my mind.''

Three years later, when Mendes's Tony-winning version of Cabaret (by now starring Scots actor Alan Cummings as the MC) reached Broadway, the American director was once again in the audience.

Spielberg invited Mendes for lunch in New York (the latter later recalled that he had stuffed his face while the former sipped a mud-coloured health drink). Spielberg explained that his company, Dreamworks, had just bought the rights to a script for a movie called American Beauty. Would Mendes like to direct?

The Englishman leapt at the chance. Like many great films, it started off as a complete disaster. Mendes adopted the theatrical technique of giving the cast a two-week period of rehearsals. However, when it came to filming the first day-and-a-half of photography was so bad (''Too cartoony,'' said Mendes) that he trashed it and started again.

The resulting movie, a mesmerising examination of a dysfunctional middle-American family starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, was a critical and box office success on both sides of the Atlantic, earning itself five Oscars, including best picture and best director.

Lesser mortals might have followed that kind of glory by making a grab for the Hollywood dream, establishing themselves in LA and scooping up as many movie offers as they could while the going was good.

But not Mendes. Success may have gone to his head in his earlier years, but these days he is affable, contented, and (in a poacher-turned-game-keeper kind of way) very good at mollifying the egos of the fragile stars he works beside.

He remains committed to London and, until today at least, to the Donmar Warehouse. He will continue to work at the theatre for another year.

Though he has no plans for moving permanently to Hollywood, he is at present in America, directing another Spielberg movie project, The Road To Perdition. Based on a graphic novel by ace crime writer Max Allan Collins, it stars Tom Hanks as a hitman who tracks down the killers of his wife and son.

Source: The Herald

 

 

 

Thank Heavens For Celebrity Coupling

By Jane Shilling

Thank heavens there's the Mendes/Winslet coupling to think about - a passion to equal the Olivier/Plowright match. Oh, I do like a nice, home-grown celebrity love affair. Transatlantic doesn’t do it for me at all. Try as I may to take an interest in Julia Roberts's latest squeeze, the only thing that really interests me about her is her startlingly horrible new bright yellow hairdo. As for all those indistinguishable blondes with their cute noses and tousled hairdos - the Megs and Camerons and Drews and Leonardos - frankly, they could all be sleeping with their pet goats and it still wouldn’t make me look up from my copy of Horse & Hound.

Which is not to say that I’m not terrifically interested in celebrity sex.

...Now, thank heavens, there is the Sam Mendes/Kate Winslet coupling to think about - a passion quite the equal, for status and complexity, of the Olivier/Plowright match, I thought, when I first read about it. And such an auspicious pairing, what with him so keen on cricket, and her on bangers and mash, and them both coming from nice, sensible homes in Reading, though some of Miss Winslet's subsequent remarks about love, marriage, passion, motherhood and the novels of Iris Murdoch have since made me wonder if she isn't a bit of a ninny.

Even if she is, I don't suppose it matters. With rare exceptions (Patricia Hodge? Cate Blanchett? Nicole Kidman?) being a ninny is more or less a necessary condition of being an actress, as far as I can tell. And no one loves you any the less for it, quite the opposite, in fact. So Miss Winslet can continue to babble gently, like a nestful of little, cheeping birds, of "the meeting of two minds and souls" and no one will mind, least of all Sam Mendes.

The real problem in that relationship, it strikes me, might not be Winslet's airy-fairy expectations of love, nor Mendes's notorious wariness of marriage, but something altogether more tricky to circumnavigate - the presence in their relationship of a third party: neither Winslet's ex-husband, nor her daughter, but Sam Mendes's mummy, who took it upon herself to have a little chat to the press when the news of the relationship broke. "It's the right age gap," she said. "It's perfect. Kate and Sam are both so wonderful, they work so hard — and for Britain, too. I’m so proud of them. You should hear the joy in his voice."

It's not entirely clear whether this effusion was made with her boy's approval or not. But either way, it looks like the kiss of death to me...

Source: The Times, November 26

[Read the rest of the article HERE.]

 

 

 

Marry Kate, Son

Sam Dad's Plea As He Tells Of His Boy's Love For Winslet

By Shekar Bhatia

Sam Mendes's father has urged the film director to marry his new love Kate Winslet. Peter Mendes says that if his son is sure the Titanic star is "the one" he should take her down the aisle and start a family.

Oscar-winner Sam has previously spoken about his fear of marriage, saying he did not believe in it because his parents divorced when he was five. However, retired college professor Peter, 62, has advised the director of American Beauty to forget his fears.

Sam, 36, had a heart-to-heart conversation with his dad last week, telling him: "I love Kate - she makes me feel at ease and I am very happy."

Peter said: "I hope Kate is the one. By the tone of his voice I think she could well be. I would advise him, despite all his worries, to go ahead, get married and have children if he has found the woman he is happy with. I feel very good about his new relationship. He is very happy and I am happy as well. I haven't met Kate yet, but I am sure I will eventually."

He said he also was looking forward to meeting Kate's one-year-old daughter Mia, and he was not deterred by the actress's impending divorce from her estranged husband Jim Threapleton. "It is not as if we are living in Victorian times. These things happen. It is not as if marriage to a divorced person with a child is unusual these days."

Sam's affair with Kate, 26, was exclusively revealed by the Sunday Mirror last week. We told how they had spent two nights together in an American hotel.

Sam, who flew back to his North London home from America last week, has now told of his relief that his relationship with Kate is not a secret any more. He said he was happy he no longer had "to pretend it's not happening, even though it's short-lived so far". He added: "All I ever cared about was that people knew this started after she and Jim split up. The rest of it is just a straightforward relationship, so in that respect it's nothing special. There's no story really other than about two people - one famous person (Kate) and another who's slightly less famous and slightly less interesting."

He said he first met Kate after she split from assistant film director Jim in September. He saw her when he was considering actresses for productions at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London, where he is artistic director.

Kate's divorce is now expected to be completed next month.

Sam has previously dated a string of glamorous actresses including Cameron Diaz, Rachel Weisz and Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart.

He had blamed his reluctance to marry on his parents' divorce, saying: "The idea of marriage fills me with dread. I don't believe in it. People from broken homes just don't buy it."

Peter split up from Sam's mother Valerie and re-married two years later. Sam was brought up by Valerie in Oxfordshire, but Peter kept in close touch.

The director is also close to his stepmother, also called Valerie, and he invited her and Peter out to America to see him on the set of the movie he is making with Steven Spielberg, The Road to Perdition.

Sam's father tries to talk to him at least once a week on the phone. His wife Valerie, 57, said: "Sam told us a couple of weeks ago about him and Kate getting together. We're looking forward to meeting Kate for the first time, but to be honest we don't know much about her yet because the relationship is in its early stages. I've watched Sam grow up and have become really close to him so I'm as delighted for him as his dad."

She said Sam was a big fan of Arsenal and warned Kate she might have to get used to being a "soccer widow". She added: "When Peter and Sam speak on the phone, they are always chatting about cricket or Arsenal as they're both big fans. They often go to watch cricket together and when he's back in London Sam goes to watch Arsenal on his own."

Kate has confessed to a friend she is besotted with the director, saying: "I love Sam - I just love him so much."

Sam is due to return to the US - where Kate is working on a film in Texas - next week.

Source: The Sunday Mirror, November 25

 

 

 

Cover Story (Culture Magazine) -- Sam Mendes Interview: It's Sam's Grand Glam

Sam Mendes found himself all over the papers thanks to his new relationship with Kate Winslet, but the big news is that he's leaving the Donmar. He tells Matt Wolf about both.

Sam Mendes has been back in London for barely two hours, and already one of Britain's favourite sons - now 36 - is making front-page news. It's not because he is stepping down after 10 years as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse that the paparazzi greeted his arrival from Los Angeles at Heathrow. Nor were photographers hoping to catch a glimpse of Mendes accompanied, perhaps, by Tom Hanks, Paul Newman or Jude Law, the starry line-up of The Road to Perdition, Mendes's first film since American Beauty and due for its world premiere at the Cannes film festival in May. No, obviously it was Kate Winslet who was the draw.

Mendes's latest girlfriend - a fellow Reading native, 10 years his junior - first met him to talk about work, and has ended up becoming part of his life. "I'm relieved to be able to talk about it," says a tousled Mendes, who has come into his Covent Garden office straight from the airport. I find him sipping tea and looking commendably wide awake. He also looks far from the 21st-century playboy - Jane Horrocks! Calista Flockhart! Rachel Weisz! - the British press would have him be (in America, the Winslet romance has caused barely a ripple).

What's pleasing, he says of the revelations, is no longer having "to pretend it's not happening, even though it is short-lived so far. I'm very content, and therefore it's nice to be able to say, 'Yes, it's true', as opposed to, 'Oh, I don't know what you're talking about'. So part of me is very relieved."

In any case, the Kate question dovetails naturally with the real reason for our chat, which is to discuss the 2002 season building up to the Donmar's 10th birthday under Mendes next October, following which he will relinquish the post - on November 30, 2002, to be exact. Mendes had met Winslet to discuss her appearing as Viola and Sonya in his repertory productions of Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya, which are due to open at the Donmar next autumn. Simon Russell Beale will play Malvolio and Vanya, with Nicole Kidman expected to sign on for Olivia and Yelena, the latter Chekhov's supremely beautiful heartbreaker (talk about perfect casting). As for Winslet: "Kate entertained (the offer) for a while," says Mendes, "and she wants to do theatre, but preferably short runs, and this would have been quite a long time commitment."

He seems perfectly unembarrassed talking about Winslet - even animated. "All I ever cared about was that people knew this started after she and Jim (her husband, Jim Threapleton) split up. That's all I've been concerned about. The rest of it is just a straightforward relationship, so, in that respect, it's nothing special. There's no story, really, other than two people: one famous person (by which he means Winslet) and another who's slightly less famous and slightly less interesting (himself)." The director's appealingly modest self-assessment can't disguise a phenomenal career that found him directing Judi Dench in the West End (The Cherry Orchard, early in 1990) when he was only 24. Over time, he has moved easily between the subsidised sector and the commercial mainstream, from Ralph Fiennes and Russell Beale in an RSC Troilus and Cressida to Derek Jacobi at the Old Vic as Edmund Kean, and the London Palladium's Oliver!. It was while working on Troilus that he met the RSC's then head of press, Caro Newling, whom Mendes invited to come aboard as executive producer to relaunch a studio-sized theatre in what was formerly a banana-ripening warehouse. The two opened for business with Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, in October 1992, and the Donmar has scarcely looked back since.

Source: The Sunday Times, November 25

[The rest of the article deals with his work in the theater.]

 

 

 

[Following is the Daily Mail article in which the writer bashes Kate]

Can't Kate Ever Stop Acting?

Lynda Lee-Potter

Kate Winslet is delirious, and Sam Mendes is ecstatic. 'You should just hear the joy in his voice,' says his mother. The hugely-successful, high profile couple are in love and more than ready to admit it.

Kate insists that her affair with the film director hadn’t begun when she left her husband Jim Threapleton. Perhaps technically it hadn’t but possibly his presence was the trigger which made her leave her brief marriage with such peremptory decisiveness. Earlier this year, she said, 'I really do fancy Jim. Every day I look at him and say "you’re damn sexy."' Soon after that she dumped him.

Last week she spent two nights in a hotel with her new lover and her daughter Mia. It was ruthless, selfish and unseemly. A 13-month-old baby should not accompany her mother on a sexual liaison, and it must have devastated her husband who was treated with contempt.

Kate is a self-confessed go-getter, a beauty who knows what she wants and aggressively pursues her goals. A wife rarely leaves a tolerable marriage unless she’s fixed her sights on somebody else. The actress believes what she says at the time, but then changes her mind, her perception and her views. When she was plump, she told women to be proud of their curves, before going on a rigid diet herself. When she married Jim, the wedding breakfast in a local pub was sausages and mash. She wanted to be unspoilt, ordinary, down-to-earth Kate who was going to be a doting wife.

This role soon palled, and she found her husband with his wispy beard and lack of income too suburban for a Hollywood high flier. He tried to please her too much [how does this writer know that and what makes her think so?], which is always a mistake. In movies, she has a magical lustre and intensity. However off screen she sounds phoney because she says such banal things. She’s always acting, but in real life she hasn’t got a script, and frequently spouts rubbish. 'Marriage is about the meeting of two minds and two souls, and hoping that it’s going to work forever,' she said this week sounding like a bad actress in an afternoon soap.

She went on to add: 'But sometimes it doesn’t happen and that’s a shame. Living with somebody should be about not wanting to change anything about that person, and not allowing them to change anything in you.'

If this was the basis of her belief about marriage then the relationship was doomed from the start. Workable marriages are all about change, compromise, give and take and adjustment. People in good relationships learn from each other. They stick around through the inevitable bad times when they irritate and infuriate each other. In the long run, they enrich each other’s lives. Marriage makes them a more complete and better person [not necessarily!]. They don’t see the need to change as a degrading insult but a necessity. It’s impossible to live in harmony with somebody without changing, though it has to be a two-way thing. Kate, I suspect, wanted Jim to change without changing herself [how does she figure that? Kate may have been the one expected to make the changes; we simply don't know]. Certainly, he appears to be the one who did all the adjusting [appearances can be deceiving], and in the end she appeared to despise him.

[It's a shame people have to take sides and place blame on one party when they don't really know what went on behind closed doors. I don't presume to know, but feel bad for anyone who is blamed without all the facts being known.]

 

 

 

Don't Give Up On Sam Yet, Girls

Now, girls - I don't want you fretting because you haven't been lucky enough to meet the irresistible Mr Mendes yet. I know he's currently the most fanciable man in Britain (Nicola Formby: "Self-contained, focused, bright, gentle, funny, clever, strong, unassuming, confident, cosy, creative ... sort of perfect, really"). I know that when he walks into a party "all the girls stop talking to look at him." I know he has a devastating domestic bent (Early girlfriend: "He used to bake cakes and read to me"). I know he loves his mummy (who is longing to be a hands-on granny - always a help when you're between nannies) enough to choose her as his Oscar partner all glammed-up; and he hugged her for the cameras (ooh - sweet). What a guy, eh? Talk about What Do Women Want - he's your answer. Snap him up quicker than a discount pair of Jimmy Choos, wouldn't you?

And I know you thought you might be still in with a chance, where Jane Horrocks and Mariella Frostrup and Calista Flockhart and Rachel Weisz and Cameron Diaz allegedly failed (there are more - many more, but my marker pen's run out).

And now Kate Winslet's nipped in and wrecked everything. She's got Sam; you missed him. And it looks like it might be commitment at last for the so far uncommitting Mr Mendes. His tremulous mamma says, "I'm thrilled for them," and carefully adds, "I don't want anything to go wrong for them."

Well, of course she doesn't. He's her precious only son, he's 36 and single, and Valerie Mendes is a rag-trade princess from Finchley (the beating heart of "We are a grandmother" country, where they not only know how to bake cakes, but force-feed them too). Mendes mère has got all her fingers crossed about Kate.

But you mustn't despair, girls, you really mustn't. Sam Mendes is irresistible because he's one of the rarest creatures on earth - a man who likes women. Most men don't. Fancy them - yeah, sure, not 'arf. Like them? Nope. Stupid tarts. The ur-feminist Germaine Greer gets very cross these days when her ringing sentence "women have very little idea of how much men hate them" (from The Female Eunuch, 1970) is "constantly misquoted" - but she stands by it to this day. "Some men hate all women all of the time; all men hate some women some of the time."

Men who actually like women, who nurture and cherish them and bake them cakes and make them believe that they're the only person in the room, are devastating, heart-stopping and almost mandatory. Women can't resist them. (How could we? They walk on water, treading lightly across the sea of sharks, shrimps and potbellied whales we have to hook our partners out of.)

But they're serial bonkers, that's the thing. Kate Winslet yesterday was gorgeous, slender, shining eyed and "absolutely believes in true love", but - you know. Don't let me rain on a wedding, but for a man who loves women there's always another one on the way. You'll get your chance with Mr Mendes yet.

Source: Vicki Woods for the Evening Standard, November 21

 

 

 

Winslet Dating 'Beauty' Director

By Jeannie Williams

Kate Winslet's new beau is the Oscar-winning director of American Beauty, Sam Mendes, 36. Mendes says, "We are having a relationship. It's in the early days, and we are very happy."

Her spokesman in New York confirmed Tuesday that the British director and English actress have been seeing each other since early October. They met when Mendes suggested a project for her at London's Donmar Warehouse theater, which he runs.

Mendes spent the weekend of Nov. 10 with the Titanic star in Texas, where she is filming a movie with Kevin Spacey.

Winslet, 26, is getting divorced from director James Threapleton, whom she wed in 1998; they have a daughter, Mia, 1. Their breakup was announced in September.

Cambridge-educated Mendes, a major theater director, has dated Calista Flockhart. He told London's Daily Mail he is "deliriously happy" to be involved with Winslet but denied he was the source of marital trouble, saying the couple had split before he met Winslet. "I have nothing to hide, and I want to make sure the truth is clearly stated about us."

He is directing The Road to Perdition, with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. American Beauty, which won five Oscars, was his first feature film. He directed the play The Blue Room, starring Nicole Kidman.

Source: USA Today, November 21

 

 

 

Another broken marriage explained

It's only been three months since she split with her husband, Jim Threapleton, but Kate Winslet apparently has a brand-new boyfriend: "American Beauty" director Sam Mendes.

"Yes, we are having a relationship," Mendes confirmed to the London Daily Mail. "It's early days and we're very happy. It happened and it's happening. I am delighted to express my happiness at being with Kate."

But Mendes would like to make it crystal clear to us all that there was no -- n-o -- hanky-panky before Winslet and her hubby headed to splitsville.

True, he did meet the actress some time ago, when they got together to discuss a project. However, he says, "We didn't acknowledge what we were feeling about each other until sometime in September. It was absolutely appropriate, as I was not in a relationship and neither was Kate. I was very careful to ensure that I was not endangering her marriage. Indeed, it was already over, and I came along well after."

Well, after. I mean, like, at least a week or so ...

Source: Amy Reiter’s column for Salon Magazine, November 20

 

 

 

'I Still Absolutely Believe in True Love' Says Kate Winslet

Celebrated actress Kate Winslet spoke out on Monday in her first major interview since splitting with husband Jim Threapleton nearly three months ago. And while the Titanic beauty admits to suffering some "dark hours" recently, she says she "still absolutely believes in true love".
Kate, now dating American Beauty director Sam Mendes, says that she and Jim tried to change each other which may have ultimately caused the breach. "Life with someone is very much about not wanting to change anything about that person and not allowing them to change anything in you," she told The Mirror in an exclusive interview. "Marriage is about the meeting of two minds and two souls and hoping that it is going to work forever. But sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s a shame."
The two-time Oscar nominee has been in Texas filming The Life Of David Gale with Kevin Spacey. And while her positive outlook and undying spirit have returned, she says that the past few months have been difficult.
"We all have our dark hours, we all go there, but I don’t wallow in it. I’ve always said that you have to hit rock bottom before you can pick yourself up again," reveals the 26-year-old star. "As long as you understand that has to happen and as long as you know you have to get back to where you were, then it is fine."
Kate, who next appears on screen opposite Dame Judi Dench in the Iris Murdoch biopic, credits her strength to the support of close friends and family. "It is important and crucial in life to surround yourself with good friends and people whom you trust and you really love. I’ve always had that from my family and friends, particularly this year and knowing that makes me strong and a good mother."

Source: Hello! magazine

 

 

 

The Man Who Wooed and Won Kate Winslet

Could Winslet and Mendes be the next Kidman and Cruise? John Hiscock met the actress on the day the relationship first became public; Victoria Lambert considers what makes Sam so damned attractive.
telegraphcvrnov20.jpg (17768 bytes)There is a delightful symmetry to the pairing of Sam Mendes and Kate Winslet. The newly single, slimline, Oscar-winning Winslet is probably the most eligible young British actress of the moment; Mendes is the fantastically successful British director who won an Oscar for his first film (American Beauty) and critical acclaim for the Donmar Warehouse theatre, where he is artistic director.

Given Mendes's taste in high-profile, theatrical girlfriends - Jane Horrocks, Rachel Weisz, Calista Flockhart and Cameron Diaz spring to mind - it is unlikely Winslet had to audition for the role, although their first meeting, earlier this year, was to discuss her involvement in the Donmar's 10th anniversary season. But what drew the glamorous Winslet to this 21st-century Roger Vadim? For her, at least, millionaire directors are comparatively commonplace - and she is still in the process of divorcing her assistant director husband, Jim Threapleton.

Mendes's charms are not immediately obvious, according to one woman who knows him well, but his appeal is undeniable. "In a way, he's not that attractive - he has those poppy eyes and he's overweight - and yet he is," she says. "He's very flirtatious. Women just fall for him. He has this extraordinary charm that makes you feel that you're the most important person in the room, even though he might be patting someone else on the bottom at the same time. I've watched him walk into a party, and seen all the girls stop talking to look at him. I saw a girl at The Ivy drape herself over him. But he's used to it - he just sits there."

Nicola Formby, another friend and self-confessed "wishful lover", sums up Mendes's suitability like this: "Self-contained, focused, bright, gentle, funny, clever, strong, unassuming, confident, cosy, creative - he's sort of perfect, really."

For Valerie Mendes, Sam's mother, his charm is based in his genuine interest in other people. "He's very good with people. I don't know if that echoes into his personal life. But he plays a straight game. I brought him up to be very straight, not to mess around or play games with people."

Sam's parents split up when he was five and he has been quoted as saying: "I don't believe in marriage. People from broken homes just don't buy it. The idea of a marriage fills me with dread."

So is Kate just another notch on his casting couch? Sam has a reputation as the commitment-phobe's commitment-phobe. "He's very secretive," says his friend, "and he plays hard to get - he cancels arrangements at the last minute. Friends are always trying to fix him up with people, but he never commits. He's been a textbook commitment-phobe, and I've heard that said by his male friends - you expect to hear women say that, but it's interesting that men say it, too. The fact that he has come out and said they're happy together is a really big thing. Kate Winslet must be a very alluring person."

Valerie Mendes, however, doesn't accept that Sam would find it hard to be serious in his relationship with Kate. "It's the right age gap - he is 36, she is 26 - it's perfect. Before, his girlfriends had been a similar age or slightly older, and he wasn't ready to settle down. He works incredibly hard; he's not afraid of commitment, he's just sensible."

Sensible is a sentiment that Winslet often employs - "I'm just Kate from Reading," she likes to say when life appears to be getting too Hollywood for her tastes. Curiously, her new boyfriend can also be refreshingly down to earth. "The drizzle is my favourite weather," he confided recently, presumably as long as it doesn't stop play - cricket being a favourite hobby. Spookily, he, too, was born in Reading.

Stars that shine this bright, surely, are a match made in theatrical heaven - but could their compatibility be down to shared decent, middle-class values? "Kate and Sam are both so wonderful, they work so hard - and for Britain, too," says Valerie, clearly delighted with her son's good taste. "I'm so proud of them. You should hear the joy in his voice."

Source: Telegraph, November 20

[Sorry I don't yet have a large image of the cover. Kate and Sam are pictured at the top; Valerie's quote, 'you should hear the joy in his voice', is featured.]

 

 

 

Winslet-Mendes Relationship Spawns Speculation

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - Is Titanic star Kate Winslet just another notch on the casting couch of Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes?

Absolutely not, says the mother of the American Beauty director who has dated Cameron Diaz and Calista Flockhart and once said: "The idea of a marriage fills me with dread." The show business writers and agony aunts who queued up to analyze the breakup of Winslet's brief marriage to assistant director Jim Threapleton now breathlessly ask: "Could Winslet and Mendes be the next Kidman and Cruise?"

Amid the daily headlines about war in Afghanistan, Britain's tabloids have devoted acres of newsprint to the affair between the 35-year-old British director and the 26-year-old "English Rose."

Interviews with the two new lovers are given giant spreads. Winslet, currently filming Alan Parker's The Life of David Gale, said: "I still absolutely believe in true love" -- just three months after her marriage split shocked the show business world.

Mendes, Hollywood's new golden boy after the success of American Beauty, insists he is no marriage wrecker. The director, currently making The Road to Perdition for Steven Spielberg's company, said: "I was very careful to ensure that I was not endangering her marriage. Indeed it was already over and I came along well after."

The Daily Telegraph dared to ask: "Is Kate just another notch on his casting couch?"

In its two-page spread on the affair, The Mirror wondered in banner headlines: "Kate finds new love but can she keep hold of her slippery Sam?"

Mendes' mother Valerie, whose marriage broke up when Sam was five, leaped to the defense of her never-married son: "I brought him up to be very straight, not to mess around or play games with people."

But the Mirror's Alexandra Williams is worried. "Deep down Mendes is a troubled man nursing heartache. It would seem the only woman he has ever truly loved is his mother," she said of the lady Mendes took as his date to the glittering Oscars ceremony.

But Sharon Hendry, Woman's Editor of the best-selling Sun, believed that Winslet may have found true love with a big showbiz name after her "split from a lowly third assistant director."

Hailing her as a heroic role model for women, the tabloid editor concluded: "She has become a Hollywood superstar without losing the common touch. Cue Sam Mendes who is a safe bet in the equality stakes at least."

And the tabloids and celebrity magazines can rest assured -- this romantic script looks set to run and run.

 

 

 

Director: I'm kissing Kate

Compiled by Katherine Dillinger

Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes ("American Beauty") has confirmed he is involved with Kate Winslet, BBC News reports.

In September, Winslet split from her husband, assistant film director Jim Threapleton, after less than three years of marriage. But Mendes, 35, who has been linked with a string of stars, including "The Mummy" actress Rachel Weisz, denied that he played a role in ending the 26-year-old's marriage. "I was very careful to ensure that I was not endangering her marriage," he said. "Indeed, it was already over, and I came along well after. I am delighted to express my delight at being with Kate." Mendes said Winslet and Threapleton were having an "ongoing, amicable discussion on how to bring up their daughter." The couple celebrated the birth of their daughter, Mia, last year.

Source: American-Statesman, November 20

[Thanks to Kim to emailing me the article!]

 

 

 

Mendes: We're Happy

By Thomas Whitaker, Showbiz Reporter

samnov19.jpg (13295 bytes)Film director Sam Mendes confirmed yesterday that he is Kate Winslet's new lover.

Sam, 35, said: "Yes, we are having a relationship. It’s early days and we're very happy." But he denied playing a part in wrecking her marriage to assistant director Jim Threapleton, 27.

Brit Sam - who won an Oscar for American Beauty last year - said: "She'd already split from Jim when we met. Sometime in September it went from being friends to something deeper."

Sam spent two nights at a US hotel with Kate and her 14-month-old daughter Mia a week ago. He flew to Heathrow yesterday for talks at London's Donmar Theatre, where he is artistic director. Sam wants to cast Kate in Shakespeare and Chekhov productions next year.

The Titanic star, 26, is working on a film in the US. Her spokesman said her divorce would go through in a few weeks.

Source: The Sun, November 20

 

 

 

No Speaking Role For Kate's Leading Man

The new man in the life of love-split actress Kate Winslet flew into Britain last night, keeping tight-lipped about their affair. Sam Mendes, who directed American Beauty, arrived from the US where Kate is working on a film. The relationship came to light after they spent nights together in a hotel.

Kate, 26, who recently split from husband Jim Threapleton, is reported to have told friends: "I love Sam so much." But at Heathrow yesterday, after arriving on a flight from Los Angeles, Mendes, 35, declined to say if the feeling was mutual. "I'm not going to say anything," he replied when asked if their relationship was serious and when he would be seeing Kate again.

Titanic star Kate is in Austin, Texas with her baby daughter, Mia, shooting Alan Parker's new film The Life Of David Gale, in which she plays a reporter.

Source: The Daily Record, November 20

[Actually, he spoke out quite well, I think, on the matter Sunday.]

 

 

 

Kate Finds Love With Hollywood Hot Shot

By Alexandra Williams

Charming, witty, intelligent... Sam Mendes seems to have it all. A few years ago someone in the theatre business described the director as "very young, very bright, very talented, very sickening". He became Hollywood's golden boy after the success of American Beauty, for which he won an Oscar. And, to cap it all, it has now emerged that Titanic beauty Kate Winslet is besotted with him, telling friends: "I love Sam so much."

The pair recently spent two nights together in an American hotel, having already been on several dates in Britain. And 26-year-old Kate is hoping that the end of her marriage to assistant film director Jim Threapleton, 27, is only "weeks away" after agreeing a pay-off of less than £500,000. But it remains to be seen just how long the blossoming Mendes-Winslet affair will last.

If the past is an indicator, things do not look too rosy. Aside from Kate's failed marriage to Jim, 35-year-old Mendes is all too used to the pain of breaking up. Despite his successful career, deep down Mendes is a troubled man nursing heartache. It would seem that the only woman he has ever truly loved is his mother. Indeed, he took Valerie Mendes as his date to the Oscars. As the only child of parents who divorced when he was young, the transitory nature of many relationships hit him early.

He may have a cheerful presence but he's not particularly sociable. By his own admission he is also wary of long-term commitment, aware of the pain that can result from a break-up. His longest relationship was with actress Jane Horrocks. A year into it, the Little Voice star said: "It's too early to talk about marriage but everything is going really well." Yet they split up the following year, when it became obvious Mendes was not ready to settle down and raise children, which Horrocks desperately wanted.

Since then, however, he has observed his contemporaries enjoying domestic bliss and become increasingly envious. Three years ago, the Cambridge graduate admitted: "I would love to have children." Yet his name has been linked to a string of glamorous women and he has had flirtations with actresses Calista Flockhart, Claire Skinner and Rachel Weisz. But he has failed to settle down with any of them and some of Kate's friends now fear that she may become an addition to that list - just another beautiful actress unable to break the tough, protective shell that Mendes wears. He has said: "I don't believe in marriage. People from broken homes just don't buy it. The idea fills me with panic."

And when he said he "related" to American Beauty, he was speaking from the heart. "The film was about dysfunctional families," he said, "and without wanting to be rude about it, my family was not entirely functional." Peter and Valerie Mendes divorced when he was five and it had a profound effect. "The periods of calm and turmoil with my parents were the most determining things of my childhood," he said.

Mendes has described himself as a troubled fantasist. "I was escaping from my parents' divorce. It was just me and my mother, so I lived in my head a great deal of the time. I learned to go into myself. I wasn't much good at communicating," he confessed. "I took control of my life when I was 16 and kind of said: 'Stuff that, I am not going to depend on anyone else again.' Nothing can compete with the fear that everything stable in your life is out of control."

Mendes may be seeking stability with Kate but the affair is said to have come as a "great shock" to Threapleton, the father of Kate's daughter Mia. He believed that when Mendes and Kate met earlier this year, it was simply to discuss a new project. Little did he know that by November his estranged wife would be telling friends: "I love Sam - I just love him so much."

Kate is currently filming in Austin, Texas, playing a reporter in the new Alan Parker film, The Life Of David Gale.

Mendes is in Los Angeles, directing the new Spielberg film The Road To Perdition. He took time off to be with Kate two weekends ago and the couple, with Mia, stayed in a $700-a-night suite at the Barton Creek Country Club Hotel.

"This affair came as a great shock to Jim," said one of his close friends. "It has totally confused him. He still can't believe that his marriage is over - although he has had to accept it because Kate has been so determined to end it. That was tough enough but knowing that somebody as famous and powerful as Sam Mendes is waiting in the wings is not giving him comfort."

After her filming commitments in the US, Kate is hoping to return to Britain and star opposite Nicole Kidman in a double bill at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London's Covent Garden. Mendes, the Donmar's artistic director, has auditioned Kate twice with a view to her appearing in the two classics, to be staged next year. "At least if this project goes ahead they can spend lots of time together," said an insider. "They have so much in common." Working so closely will also be a huge test of their relationship - that's if both have changed their ways and are still together by then.

Jane Horrocks -- 1993-1995

She had a two-year romance with Mendes that ended in 1995, just as she was talking about having kids. He cast her in the stage version of The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice but, following their split, pulled out of making the film version - saying it was "too closely associated with the past".

Calista Flockhart -- March 1999

Calista began dating Mendes in March 1999, but the relationship lasted only a few weeks. A spokesman for Mendes said: "Yes, they are good friends and they have been seen out together." But a month later a friend of the Ally McBeal star said: "It is ludicrous and untrue to say they are together."

Rachel Weisz -- 2000-2001

The star of The Mummy fell for Mendes in May 2000, having dated him five years previously. This time, friends said they were "passionately in love" and "may marry next year". They set up home together in North London but split after eight months.

Source: Mirror, November 20

 

 

 

Director Sam Mendes Confirms He Is Dating Kate Winslet

Titanic beauty Kate Winslet is dating American Beauty director Sam Mendes, he confirms, just three months after the actress split from husband Jim Threapleton. And while the new couple met to discuss a possible collaboration just weeks before Kate’s stunning divorce announcement, Sam insists he had no part in the break-up.
"I have nothing to hide and I want to make sure the truth is clearly stated about us," he told the Daily Mail. "Yes, we are having a relationship. It’s early days and we’re very happy… It happened and it’s happening. I am delighted to express my happiness at being with Kate."
The two met in August to mull over a possible project at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London, where Sam is artistic director. And while he admits there were sparks from the beginning, the two remained on strictly professional terms. "We didn’t acknowledge what we were feeling about each other until sometime in September," he says. "It was absolutely appropriate as I was not in a relationship and neither was Kate."
Rumours of an affair between the two first surfaced last week when they were spotted Stateside at a luxury hotel. The 36-year-old director is in Los Angeles finishing up The Road To Perdition with Tom Hanks but hopped a short flight to Texas where Kate is busy filming The Life Of David Gale with Kevin Spacey and Alan Parker. The two holed up in a £400-suite at the Barton Creek Country Club Hotel with her baby Mia in tow.
Kate reportedly told Jim of her new love two weeks ago, but when questioned about the affair, he seemed decidedly uninformed. "I didn’t know. I really don’t want to comment, but I will be doing so in due course," he said. The former couple will likely discuss her new boyfriend when Jim crosses the Atlantic in the coming weeks to spend time with Mia.
Though Sam was eager to set the record straight, Kate remained mum on her romantic entanglements. "Mia’s the love of my life and the most important person in my life," she said. "I’m in Texas making a film and her dad is coming out to visit and be with her. He calls all the time and is a very loving dad."
This is not Sam’s first high-profile dalliance. The famed director has stepped out with Jane Horrocks and Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart in the past, and had been dating The Mummy stunner Rachel Weisz up until March.

Source: Hello Magazine, November 19

 

 

 

Mendes: I Didn't Split Up Kate & Jim

American Beauty director Sam Mendes insists he was not a factor in the break-up of new girlfriend Kate Winslet's three-year marriage.

He says their relationship "deepened" in September - the month after she announced her split from fellow Brit director Jim Threapleton.

"I have nothing to hide and want to make sure the truth is clearly stated about us," he said. "Yes, we are having a relationship. It is very early days and we're very happy. We didn't acknowledge what we were feeling for each other until some time in September. It was absolutely appropriate because I was not in a relationship and neither was Kate."

Threapleton is thought to be preparing to fly to Texas, where Kate is currently filming, to discuss his access to their baby daughter, Mia.

Source: Sky News, November 19

 

 

 

Director Mendes Says Having Affair With Winslet

LONDON (Reuters) - Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes has confirmed he is having an affair with "Titanic" star Kate Winslet but insists he is no marriage wrecker.

"Yes we are having a relationship. It's early days and we are very happy," the director of "American Beauty" told the Daily Mail from Los Angeles.

In September, Winslet announced that she was separating from assistant film director Jim Threapleton after less than three years of marriage. They have a baby daughter, Mia.

Mendes said of his new relationship with the 26-year-old actress: "I was very careful to ensure that I was not endangering her marriage. Indeed it was already over and I came along well after," he told the paper.

Of their affair, the 35-year-old director said: "It happened and it is happening. I am delighted to express my happiness at being with Kate."

He said that Winslet and Threapleton were having "an on-going amicable discussion on how to bring up their daughter."

 

 

 

Mendes Confirms Kate Romance Relationship Began After End of Marriage

Sam Mendes has confirmed that he is romantically involved with Kate Winslet. The Oscar-winning director of American Beauty said, 'I have nothing to hide and want to make sure the truth is clearly stated about us. Yes, we are having a relationship. It is very early days and we're very happy.' Mendes revealed that their relationship 'deepened' in September, but insisted that he was not a contributory factor in the end of Winslet's three-year marriage to Jim Threapleton. 'We didn't acknowledge what we were feeling for each other until some time in September,' said Mendes. 'It was absolutely appropriate because I was not in a relationship and neither was Kate.' It is thought that Threapleton is planning to fly out to Texas, where his ex is currently filming, to discuss access to their daughter Mia.

Source: People News, November 19

 

 

 

Little Surprise at Kate Finding Love With a Big Showbiz Name

By Sharon Hendry, Sun Woman Editor

So Sam Mendes is supposed to be the new man in Kate Winslet’s life. Well, is anyone truly surprised? It was only a matter of time before the star split from a lowly third- assistant director and was attracted to someone more her equal.

Part of Kate’s charisma has always been her determination not to be sucked in by the bright lights and big names of showbiz. She has become a Hollywood superstar without losing the common touch.

But despite gushing how she fell in love with Jim Threapleton instantly, reality was different. Kate got big film contracts while Jim looked after baby Mia and felt futile. Any woman who has tipped the success scales in a relationship knows it is not a solid foundation on which to form a lasting love. Kate was no exception. Her dedication to her career, despite her marriage, was apparent in the summer. She lost weight and began stepping out alone at premieres.

After the statement announcing the end of her relationship with Jim, talk of a liaison with married Enigma co-star Dougray Scott proved false.

Cue Sam Mendes, who is a safe bet in the equality stakes at least. He is an acclaimed director whose fame will be a major part of the attraction for Kate.

Meanwhile, her wealth means she can end her relationship with Jim on her terms, and he will be left feeling helpless and devoid of dignity.

Kate will always be admired by women. We are in awe of her beauty, curvaceous figure and awesome ability - but she still seems like someone we could sit and natter to. And she clearly remains a wonderful mother to baby Mia.

Kate is known for her honest approach, so perhaps she should come clean about what she was doing in a hotel with another man. But Mendes has said he is wary of long-term commitment, so even if the pair are involved, shouting it from the rooftops may not be an option.

Either way, charming Kate will no doubt continue her charmed life. Because in the eyes of women, at least, she rarely puts a foot wrong.

Source: The Sun, November 19

 

 

 

New Love For Kate Winslet
by Baz Bamigboye and Tara Conlan

dailymailcvrnov19.jpg (24665 bytes)When she announced her separation from husband Jim Threapleton, Kate Winslet insisted that no one else was involved. Now, less than three months later, and with her divorce in final negotiation, film director Sam Mendes has confirmed that he is having a romance with the actress.

The Oscar-winner last night described himself as "deliriously happy" to be involved with Miss Winslet, but insisted he was no marriage wrecker. 'I have nothing to hide and I want to make sure the truth is clearly stated about us,' he said. 'Yes, we are having a relationship. It's early days and we're very happy. It happened and it's happening. I am delighted to express my happiness at being with Kate.'

He said that Miss Winslet had split from Mr Threapleton before they even met.

Miss Winslet is reported to have told friends that she is 'madly in love' with the British director of American Beauty. The couple spent two nights together in an American hotel a week ago, with Kate's 13-month-old baby, Mia, in tow. They were spotted briefly with Mia on the balcony of Miss Winslet's suite.

Mr Mendes, 35, has dated many famous women - including Calista Flockhart, Jane Horrocks and Rachel Weisz - but has never previously talked about what he describes as 'affairs of the heart'. He said that although he met 26-year-old Miss Winslet shortly before she announced the end of her marriage - on September 3 - the couple's affair did not begin until some time later.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail from Los Angeles, where he has been completing his second film, he said: 'Some time in September it went from being friends to something deeper. We had met just to discuss the tenth anniversary season at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London (where he is artistic director) and whether she wanted to be a part of it. She was very excited about it.'

The director said that his new girlfriend's marriage had been on the rocks for some time before news of her separation was made public. 'She had already split from Jim when we met at my offices in late August, which was about the time they publicly announced the break-up which had taken place some time before. We didn't acknowledge what we were feeling about each other until sometime in September. It was absolutely appropriate as I was not in a relationship and neither was Kate. I was very careful to ensure that I was not endangering her marriage. Indeed, it was already over and I came along well after.'

He said the couple had seen each other several times in Britain and the U.S. Miss Winslet has been working in Austin, Texas, on a film with Kevin Spacey.

News of the affair came as a shock to assistant director Mr Threapleton, 26, who is said to have hoped that the couple might save their three-year marriage. 'I didn't know. I really don't want to comment, but I will be doing in due course,' he said. The couple are said to be nearing the end of divorce discussions which are expected to result in a £500,000 payout to Mr Threapleton.

Miss Winslet insisted yesterday that her daughter was her main priority. 'Mia's the love of my life and the most important person in my life,' she said. 'I'm in Texas making a film and her dad is coming out to visit and be with her. He calls all the time and is a very loving dad.'

Mr Mendes, who directed Nicole Kidman in her West End debut in The Blue Room, added that Miss Winslet and her estranged husband were having 'an on-going amicable discussion on how to bring up their daughter'. He said: 'They've both tried to make a secure environment for Mia but that's not for me to discuss because Mia is their daughter.'

Miss Winslet's sister Anna, who is looking after her flat in North London while the actress is away, said: 'Kate will not be home until Christmas. There's nothing else to add.'

Mr Mendes will return to London this week to look at two forthcoming productions at the Donmar. His new film, The Road to Perdition, starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Jude Law, will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Source: This is London / Daily Mail, November 19

 

 

 

Kate’s Oscar Mate

By Tracey Kandohla

Titanic star Kate Winslet’s new romance with a top movie director won the blessing of her uncle yesterday. Roger Bridges said: "Kate’s been under so much pressure. She needs a shoulder to cry on."

The multi-millionaire actress, 26, is reported to have fallen for Brit Sam Mendes - who won an Oscar for American Beauty - just two months after she left hubby Jim Threapleton. She told a friend: "I love Sam. I just love him so much." The movie beauty and her 14-month-old daughter Mia spent the weekend with Sam, 35, at a luxury hotel in Texas.

Yesterday Roger, 58, said Kate’s family would be delighted if the new romance lasted. He said: "The main thing is that she’s happy and that’s what all her family want. It will be painful for Jim but she can’t sit around like a cabbage. We all thought her marriage to Jim would be everlasting but it wasn’t".

Taxi boss Roger, of Henley, Oxfordshire, added: "One of the problems seemed to be her refusal to get a full-time nanny. The pressure of Jim staying at home looking after the baby while Kate has been around the world filming obviously took its toll." [When was she 'around the world filming' after Mia’s birth? She worked on IRIS for a few weeks - in England - last spring. That’s it!]

Assistant film director Jim, 27, was heartbroken when Kate ended their three-year marriage in September. She is believed to have told Jim she was seeing Sam but stressed the relationship started after their split. Kate and Sam were seen hugging while staying at the Barton Creek hotel in Austin - where they used false names.

She is in Texas acting in director Alan Parker’s new movie The Life of David Gale.

Mendes, whose ex-loves include Hollywood stunners Cameron Diaz and Rachel Weisz, is working in LA.

The two have met several times in England over a West End project.

Source: The Sun, November 19

 

 

 

Kate Winslet Finds Romance With Director Sam Mendes

By Sam Lister

After her marriage break-up, Kate Winslet, the Oscar-nominated star of Titanic, appears to have found comfort with another of Britain’s most-acclaimed film talents, the award-winning director Sam Mendes.

Winslet, 26, who separated from Jim Threapleton in September, is said to be besotted with Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of American Beauty. The couple are working in America, where they recently spent two nights together in a Texas hotel. They are believed to have met several times in Britain, where they have stayed together at the Oxford home of Mendes’s mother, Valerie.

Winslet is completing her divorce from Threapleton, 27, an assistant director she met on the set of Hideous Kinky in 1997. The three-year marriage is expected to end officially in the next month after Winslet agreed to a £500,000 pay-off for her husband.

Mendes, 35, artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London, is currently based in Los Angeles, directing Steven Spielberg’s The Road to Perdition. Winslet has been working in Austin, Texas, on The Life of David Gale, a drama about anti-capital punishment activists.

She was joined by Mendes last weekend, when they were seen embracing at an airport. They spent two days at Barton Creek Country Club Hotel, where Winslet stayed with her 13-month-old daughter, Mia.

Valerie Mendes, asked yesterday about the burgeoning romance, refused to comment. The director has had several famous girlfriends in the past, including British actresses Rachel Weisz and Jane Horrocks. He has also been associated with the Hollywood stars Cameron Diaz and Calista Flockhart.

According to her friends, Winslet has told her husband that the relationship started only after the couple separated this summer. He is reported to be "shocked and confused", believing that the pair were only on professional terms.

The actress was approached by Mendes in September to star opposite Nicole Kidman in a double bill at the Donmar Warehouse, where Kidman has worked with the director in The Blue Room. Winslet was interviewed twice by Mendes about Shakespeare and Chekhov productions next year to celebrate the theatre’s tenth anniversary.

Mendes, named by Tatler this year as Britain’s fifth most eligible bachelor, has previously confessed that he is wary of long-term commitments because of the collapse of his parents’ marriage.

Source: The Times, November 19

 

 

 

Kate Winslet 'Besotted' With New Love Mendes
By Hugh Davies, Entertainment Correspondent
Kate Winslet was reported yesterday to have a new man in her life - Sam Mendes, the acclaimed theatre director who swept the Oscars with his film debut, American Beauty.

A forlorn figure in September after announcing the break-up of her three-year marriage the 26-year-old star of Titanic was quoted by a friend yesterday as being besotted with the British director. "I love Sam," it was claimed she said. "I just love him so much."

Winslet is said to have told her estranged husband, Jim Threapleton, 27, a fortnight ago that she was dating Mendes. She then left their home in north London for Austin, Texas, with their daughter, Mia.

The couple were later seen in America together in an organic food shop, with one-year-old Mia perched on a supermarket trolley. Winslet was on a day off from filming The Life of David Gale, a drama being made in Texas by the British director Alan Parker. She plays a reporter in a story about anti-capital punishment activists.

Mendes is said to have joined her at the £500 a night Barton Creek Country Club Hotel in Austin last week. He has been in Los Angeles editing his second film for Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks studio, The Road To Perdition, a Chicago ganster drama.

Mendes has been linked to a series of actresses including Jane Horrocks, Calista Flockhart and Cameron Diaz. He split up with Rachel Weisz in March. The 35-year-old bachelor has been quoted as saying: "I don't believe in marriage. People from broken homes just don't buy it. The idea of marriage fills me with dread."

Winslet has said that the end of her marriage was extremely sad. She was pictured pale and bleary-eyed outside her home in September and missed the London premiere of Mick Jagger’s £19 million film Enigma, in which she starred.

Threapleton, a film director she met on the set of Hideous Kinky in 1997, is said to have been stunned by her desire to end their marriage quickly. Winslet is said to have settled all the financial details including a £500,000 payment to her husband. He is expected to fly out to Texas to help look after Mia until Christmas when Winslet finishes filming.

Threapleton said last week: "I miss Mia hugely. Things with Kate are fine. We're just restructuring things so that we can both get time with Mia really."

When the couple split, it was speculated that the imbalance in their careers was a major cause. At the time of the break-up she ruled out the possibility of a third party being involved, laughing off suggestions of a romance with her Enigma co-star Dougray Scott.

She has apparently assured her husband that the relationship with Mendes began after she ended the marriage.

Source: The Telegraph, November 19

 

 

 

Charming Sam is too Scared to Settle Down

By Alexandra Williams

Charming, witty, intelligent, Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes seems to have it all. A few years ago, someone in the theatre business described the director as "very young, very bright, very talented, very sickening". Following the runaway success of American Beauty, for which he won his Academy Award, he became Hollywood's golden boy.

Now Titanic beauty Kate Winslet is besotted with him.

But despite all his success, deep down Mendes is a troubled man, wary of commitment. It would seem that the only woman he has ever truly loved is his mother, Valerie, who was his date at the Oscars. His parents divorced when he was young, teaching him how quickly relationships can change.

Sam - currently filming Steven Spielberg's The Road to Perdition - said: "I don't believe in marriage. People from broken homes just don't buy it. "Nothing can compete with the fear that everything stable in your life is out of control."

His longest relationship was with Little Voice star Jane Horrocks but it lasted less than two years as he didn't want to settle down. He has had flings with actresses Calista Flockhart and Rachel Weisz - but neither could keep hold of him very long.

Source: The Daily Record, November 19

 

 

 

Mendes Confirms Winslet Affair

Oscar-winning film director Sam Mendes has confirmed that he is having an affair with the actress Kate Winslet. In September, Winslet announced that she was splitting from her husband, assistant film director Jim Threapleton, after less than three years of marriage.

"Yes, we are having a relationship. It's early days, and we are very happy," he told the Daily Mail newspaper. But American Beauty director Mendes, who has been linked with a string of stars including The Mummy actress Rachel Weisz, denied that he played a role in ending the 26-year-old's marriage.

Speaking in Los Angeles, he said: "I was very careful to ensure that I was not endangering her marriage. Indeed, it was already over, and I came along well after. I am delighted to express my delight at being with Kate."

The 35-year-old said Winslet and Threapleton were having an "on-going, amicable discussion on how to bring up their daughter". The couple, who celebrated the birth of their first child, Mia, last year, married in 1998.

At the time of their split, a spokesman for the actress stressed that no other parties were involved in the "amicable and respectful separation". The separation followed reports of rows between the couple for several weeks.

Winslet, who recently starred in the code-breaking tale Enigma, met Threapleton during the filming of Hideous Kinky in Morocco in 1998.

Winslet "wept a sea of tears" when the couple married in Reading, Berkshire, in November 1998. It was a low-key event at which friends and family, including actress Emma Thompson, ate sausage and mash at the Crooked Billet pub during the reception.

She went on to become an international celebrity after appearing in the blockbuster movie Titanic, and followed up that success with a host of appearances in smaller, low-key movies.

After their wedding, Winslet spoke often of putting her marriage first. Around the time of the split, the star told In Style magazine how her career came second to her home life. "An actor's happiness has to come from something other than work," she said. "I know we're very lucky." She said having a baby had "strengthened the relationship, although there are highs and lows, and at times it's tough".

Source: BBC News, September 19

 

 

 

New Love For Kate
Titanic star Kate Winslet has found new love with an Oscar-winning film director - and the romance has devastated husband Jim Threapleton. Just 75 days after announcing the split from her husband of three years, Winslet is said to be head over heels in love [Who said? The Mirror?] with Sam Mendes, whose film American Beauty won five Oscars last year.

Assistant film director Jim who has been trying to come to terms with the fact his marriage is over [I hope it sinks in soon, for his sake], has been left stunned at the speed with which his wife has found new love. And the 27-year-old is worried about the effect her new relationship will have on their 12-month-old daughter, Mia. One friend said [there’s that same 'friend' who supposedly keeps blabbing to the papers]: "Jim is concerned that Mendes will play a significant role in Mia's life if, as he fears, the relationship with Kate continues to develop. He absolutely adores his daughter and is determined no one will be allowed to weaken the bonds he has built with her. He is such a doting dad and misses her every minute of every day when she isn't around. The last thing that he wants on the scene is another male role model. He's feeling insecure enough at the moment [part of the problem, I hazard to say], without such a famous and influential guy as Mendes entering the fray."

Winslet is believed [by the Mirror] to have enjoyed secret trysts with Mendes at his mother's home near Oxford. And last week, he flew to Texas to be with her in Austin where she is shooting her new film, The Life of David Gale, about capital punishment. They spent two nights together in a pounds 500-a-night suite at the Barton Creek Country Club Hotel, where Kate is staying with Mia during filming. Mendes, 35, was spotted out and about with the 26-year-old and her daughter several times before leaving for Los Angeles.

Threapleton's friend said: "Jim was unhappy that Mia was with Kate and Mendes last week, particularly when his wife told him there would be no contact between the baby and her new man."

The pair met when Mendes, who is also a respected West End theatre director, offered Kate roles in forthcoming productions at his theatre in Covent Garden.

She is said to be keen to end her marriage as quickly as possible. She has already offered her husband a pounds 500,000 pay-off [again, according to the Mirror, yet they state it as fact].

In the past, Mendes has dated a string of glamorous actresses, including Jane Horrocks, Cameron Diaz and Calista Flockhart [the guy must have special qualities about him!].

Source: Daily Record, November 19

 

 

 

Titanic Kate’s Love For Film Boss Sam

By James Wickham

Titanic star Kate Winslet has fallen for an Oscar-winning movie director - just months after splitting from her husband, it was claimed last night.

Kate, 26, enjoyed a romantic weekend stay in Texas with American Beauty creator Sam Mendes.

Mendes and Kate, who split from her assistant director husband Jim Threapleton in September, have reportedly also met up several times in Britain.

Threapleton was heartbroken when they split. But Kate is said to have assured him that her relationship with Mendes began after they parted. Mendes broke off from filming his latest movie The Road To Perdition to join Kate for two nights at the Texas hotel.

The pair, who used side entrances and false names, greeted each other with a long hug. Kate took along her baby daughter Mia.

Her divorce deal is expected to provide a hefty lump sum for Threapleton.

Source: Sunday People, November 18

 

 

 

'Kate Confesses She is Besotted With American Beauty Director'

This is the Sunday Mirror article that started it all!  It is posted on another page and has pics. Thanks to Allan!

 

 

Please forgive my comments in [], I couldn’t help myself!