Kate Winslet told me she was looking forward to walking the Oscar red carpet with husband Sam Mendes on a night that could see her win a golden statuette for the first time in her career.

She explained how Sam had been busy preparing to open A Winter’s Tale in Brooklyn and couldn’t attend the Bafta awards, scene of her best actress triumph last Sunday night.

‘He couldn’t come to the Screen Actors Guild Awards, nor could he make the trip to Berlin, where The Reader was screened.

‘I knew for weeks he wouldn’t be able to travel on those dates because of the plays he’s directing,’ Kate told me, while she enjoyed a furtive cigarette break during the Bafta dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel.

‘But just watch him at the Oscars: he’ll be stellar and wonderful. He’s so calming and together, whereas, as far as the Oscars are concerned, I’m so damned nervous.’

Kate seems to be the favourite to win the best actress award on February 22, ahead of Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Melissa Leo and Anne Hathaway. However, she’s certainly not taking it as a given.

‘You just don’t know what’s going to happen. This is my sixth nomination, so it will be the sixth time I’ve attended an Oscar ceremony and that in itself is a great honour.

‘I don’t take the nominations for granted. If it happens, then great. If it doesn’t, then I’m still going to have a party,’ Kate told me.

The 33-year-old has been nominated for her brilliant portrait in The Reader of a German woman, living in the post-war republic, who hides two secrets: one of which guides every move she makes in her life.

She hadn’t expected the film to open for this awards season because she also stars alongside Leonard DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road, directed by Mendes, and there was some discussion about respective release dates.

The actress says she is very proud of both films  -  although it has been tough to promote the pair of them and to find herself being more honoured for the one her husband wasn’t involved in.

It’s clear, though, that the couple have been through some heat over Revolutionary Road and The Reader. ‘We’ve talked and talked and he has told me how proud he is of me with Revolutionary Road and The Reader.

‘What we have been through these past few months has brought us closer together than ever, because we’ve seen each other up close, in a working environment,’ Kate added.

Indeed, I’ve spent some time with the couple recently in Los Angeles and New York and their relationship strikes me as being deeper than when they first met.

Source: Daily Mail, Friday 13th February 2009