Is Cate Blanchett’s Relationships With Women Confession Just A Publicity Stunt?

Cate Blanchett is getting a bit of attention right now for a sudden and unexplained confession that she’s had several relationships with women in the past.

But this revelation is being met with some skepticism, since Cate is promoting a film, Carol, in which she plays a sexually curious woman in the 1950s. In fact, that’s why the topic even came up in the first place, when the actress was interviewed by Variety.

The magazine asked if her steamy love scene with Rooney Mara – Blanchett’s love interest in Carol – was her first sexual experience with a woman. And the response was unexpected: No, it wasn’t, People reported.

Off-screen, the actress admitted to having a relationship with women “many times,” but backed off providing more details. But the mother of four likely didn’t elaborate because it’s a non-issue. According to the New York Daily News, she said she doesn’t label her sexuality.

“I never thought about it,” she said.

For some naysayers, this is all very convenient – a ploy to get attention long enough to foment interest in Carol, the Herald Sun‘s Susie O’Brien wrote.

“It seems odd that this issue hasn’t come up before now. She has been married for 18 years and has never before hinted that she was a lesbian, or possibly bisexual, when she was younger.”

The journalist criticized her for what she considered a “cheap way” to promote a flick, by confessing real-life lesbian relationships to augment her fictional one on screen. Trouble is – no one is bothered by it, though sexuality is still interesting enough to get the world to listen.

For O’Brien, Cate immediately going mum on the topic is somehow proof that she’s trying to drum up support. However, perhaps it’s as Blanchett said herself – relationships with women aren’t a big deal. And more to the point, the details of those relationships aren’t anyone’s business.

All this skepticism also highlights an issue that has her riled up before – sexism in the movie industry. And perhaps the question posed by Variety is the problem – it fits neatly in that inane category of questions female stars are often posed.

At the end of the day, getting the industry to promote a female-centered movie is very tough and “tricky to finance. There are a lot of people laboring under the misapprehension that (the audience doesn’t) want to see them, which isn’t true,” she noted.

In the past, Blanchett has been quick to express her opinion about how women in the industry are treated – like how even respected actresses in Hollywood get paid less than their male counterparts, the Independent added. Her bisexual revelation, then brushing that fact off as trivial and uninteresting, may be part of Cate’s general opinion about how her gender is treated in general.

Like unwanted and inappropriate attention on the red carpet.

Publicity stunt? Probably not. But it definitely has everyone talking.

[Photo Courtesy Jacopo Raule/Getty Images]