Blanchett blasts Rudd, backs candid cameraman

May 27, 2008, 10:28 GMT

Sydney - The controversy over a photographer who specializes in nude shots of children created a rift in the cozy relationship between Hollywood actor Cate Blanchett and new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Tuesday.

Blanchett, who campaigned for Rudd's Labor Party in last year's election and burnished his image by co-chairing a people's summit in Canberra's Parliament House last month, joined fellow local artists in defending beleaguered photographer Bill Hensen and attacking Rudd for calling the portraits of naked children aged 12 and 13 'absolutely revolting.'

The Oscar-winner joined 42 other delegates at Rudd's 2020 Summit in signing an open letter condemning this week's police raid on a Sydney gallery showing Henson's work.

'The potential prosecution of one of our most respected artists is no way to build a creative Australia and does untold damage to our cultural reputation,' the letter read.

'The intention of the art is not to titillate or to gratify perverse sexual desires, but rather to make the viewer consider the fragility, beauty, mystery and inviolability of the human body.'

Rudd was not alone in receiving a stinging rebuke from Blanchett, who this year became creative director of Australia's de facto national theatre, The Sydney Theatre Company.

She also criticized Arts Minister Peter Garrett, the former lead singer of anti-establishment rock band Midnight Oil. Garrett, who has refused comment on the police raid, was urged to defend the arts community against 'a trend of encroaching censorship.'

The signatories, a veritable Who's Who of the nation's arts business, urged the government to ensure that Henson, his dealers and his collectors, don't end up in court in an obscenity trial.

'If an example is made of Bill Henson, one of Australia's most prominent artists, it is hard to believe that those who have sought to bring these charges will stop with him,' the letter said. 'Rather, this action will encourage a repressive climate of hysterical condemnation, backed by the threat of prosecution.'

Rudd has showered Blanchett with compliments and was among the first at her hospital bedside when she gave birth to her third child last month.

The pair have dined together at the prime minister's official harbourside residence in Sydney.