Off with their head! Gadabout Ian Horner was there at Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett's press conference last Friday morning for her new film, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, when she answered embarrassing public criticisms of her appointment as joint artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company, a post she will share with her husband, playwright and director Andrew Upton, in the New Year.

Actor Colin Moody recently resigned from the company in disgust, saying an Oscar for acting was not a suitable recommendation for running the country's biggest theatre company and referenced "office politics" and "hypocrisy".

There has been recent controversy over the STC's importing big names when local talent is out of work.

When asked about this Blanchett joked about someone deserving a "beheading" and said: "Under [Elizabeth I's] reign, Shakespeare and the English language as we know it flourished. I can only hope that under our tenure at the Sydney Theatre Company that Australian writing flourishes in a similar way."

Fellow Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush was at the press confrence, along with the film's director, Shekhar Kapur, and the film's third Australian actor, Abbie Cornish. Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the long-awaited sequel to the much praised Elizabeth (1998), opens on November 15. See photos from the press conference and hear what Blanchett and Rush had to say.

See more of Ian Horner's Gadabout at stgeorge.yourguide.com.au/blogs/blogarticle_listing.asp?blog_id=329