Kate is kissing out on love
October 3, 1996

By John Millar

JUDE (18)

Fame is killing actress Kate Winslet's love life.

The 20-year-old star of the Thomas Hardy classic Jude says men and her movie career just don't mix.

And she's put relationships on hold after the pain of watching close pal Emma Thompson go through a very public split with Kenneth Branagh.

Kate revealed: "I'm too busy for love.

"I can imagine how difficult it would be moving about all over the place if you were completely in love with somebody and hardly ever saw them.

"You just can't have a relationship over the telephone. I know I wouldn't want to, and I wouldn't want to put the other person in that position."

Kate added: "I think I was always wary of the fact that there is this complete invasion of your private life if you are famous, but it was pretty scary what happened to Emma Thompson.

"I've had a taste of it recently, being followed completely unawares and seeing these pictures I didn't know were being taken. It's horrible."

But the former shop assistant who shot into the big league after her starring role in Sense And Sensibility, is revelling in her latest part.

In Jude - this week's exercise in bringing the classics to the cinema - Christopher Eccleston is the stonemason who desperately wants to climb a few rungs up the intellectual ladder.

But when he starts kissing his comely cousin, played by Kate, you just know there's going to be trouble.

Based on the novel Jude The Obscure, there's a fair dollop of tragedy and tears as the plot unfolds.

And both the stars have won acclaim for their performances in the movie, which sees Kate peeling off in front of the cameras for the first time.

She admitted: "It was hard having to strip off and I don't think it's going to get easier.

"I worried that my bum was too flabby. All the paranoia you expect a person to have about their body, I had it all."

But it's a body that's very much in demand and the young star has already filmed her second nude scene - as Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet.

She's also set to star in in a love story set aboard the Titanic.

But, as the offers pile up, Kate has no plans to head for Hollywood

She said: "It's a different mentality over there, it's just so fast.

"In Hollywood it's all about movies all the time, everybody is about movies.

"It's a great place, but I wouldn't want to live there. I want to stay in Britain."

COPYRIGHT 1996 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday