Cate Blanchett

CATE BLANCHETT considered her venti decaf nonfat latte. "Things are so big in America," she said. Four young studio publicists had squabbled over who would have to fetch this mega coffee for her. "What should I do with this? Hit someone over the head?" Her New York press day in December for "Notes on a Scandal" could have been worse. "I don't have cancer," she said when proffered pity.

THERE are few more iconic figures in some circles than Queen Elizabeth I and Bob Dylan. One was England's famous Virgin Queen, who vigorously guarded her country's independence during the age of Shakespeare and the Spanish Armada; the other America's rumbly voiced bard. Nothing connects them in the popular imagination, but a pair of concurrently released films shows these figures struggling with their phantom alter egos, the mythic selves that live free-form in the culture.

When we last saw the Virgin Queen (as incarnated by Cate Blanchett), it was 1558 (in 1998) and she had just completed her transformation from girl monarch to royal icon. The transformation that took place in "Elizabeth" seemed to stem from two wise decisions: remaining unmarried and switching to kabuki makeup.

HOORAY for Cate ["A Golden Touch," Oct. 7]! There is no other actress out there doing it like Cate Blanchett right now. She defiantly brings the heat with every performance. I can still remember thinking what a joke it was when she lost the Oscar for the first "Elizabeth" to Gwyneth Paltrow. What does a girl have to do to prove that performance was worthy of an Oscar? Do it again? Apparently so. Go get 'em, Cate! NyKethia Taylor Panorama City

IN 1999, a young, unknown Australian actress named Cate Blanchett made one of the most memorable entrances on the Academy Awards red carpet. And she hasn't stopped stunning us. Nominated for her lead role in "Elizabeth," she wore an unusual, unstructured violet Dior gown designed by John Galliano, embroidered with a Garden of Eden design of flowers, vines and hummingbirds.

A suburban American mother struck by random gunfire in a remote Moroccan village. A North London art teacher swept into an affair with a 15-year-old boy. A married German woman in 1945 Berlin who's romantically entangled with an American war correspondent. In a string of films that open before the end of the year, Cate Blanchett inhabits a collection of characters offering a strong sampling of her range.