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Kate Garry Hudson (born April 19, 1979 in Los Angeles, California) is an American film actress. She came to fame in 2000, after an Oscar-nominated role in the drama Almost Famous, and has since established herself as a Hollywood lead actress, starring in several successful films, including How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and The Skeleton Key.
 

Early life

Hudson was born in Los Angeles to Bill Hudson (a singer, comedian and member of the Hudson Brothers) and Goldie Hawn (a well-known film actress). Her mother has Hungarian Jewish ancestry while her paternal grandmother was of Italian descent and her paternal grandfather's ancestry traces to 15th-century England. Hudson was raised in the Jewish religion, though her family also practiced Buddhism.

Hudson's parents divorced eighteen months after her birth, and she and her brother, actor Oliver Hudson, were raised in Colorado by her mother and her mother's long-time boyfriend, actor Kurt Russell. Because Hudson's biological father was absent during most of her childhood, the two are estranged from each other. Hudson has stated that her biological father "doesn't know me from a hole in the wall", and that she considers her mother's partner, Kurt Russell, to be her father. Hudson has described her mother as "the woman that I've learned the most from, and who I look up to, who has conducted her life in a way that I can look up to". She has three half-siblings, Emily and Zachary Hudson, from her biological father's subsequent marriage to actress Cindy Williams, and Wyatt, from her mother's relationship with Kurt Russell. Her cousin is singer Sarah Hudson.

Hudson graduated from Crossroads, a performing school in Santa Monica, in 1997. She was accepted to New York University, but chose to pursue an acting career instead of attending.

Career

Hudson's breakthrough role was as Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She had previously appeared in the lesser-known films Gossip, a teenage drama, and 200 Cigarettes, a New Year's-set comedy with a large cast of actors. Regarding her early career and succees, Hudson has noted that she is a "hard worker", and did not want to be associated with her well-known parents, wishing to avoid the perception that she "rode on somebody's coattails".

Hudson turned down the part of Mary Jane Watson in the 2002 film version of Spider-Man, and instead starred in remake of the historical romance The Four Feathers, a film which was not well received by critics or audiences. Her next film, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, a romantic comedy, became a big success at the box office, grossing over $100 million after its February 2003 release. Hudson subsequently appeared in several romantic comedies, including Alex and Emma and Raising Helen; the films met with varying degrees of success.

Hudson headlined a thriller called The Skeleton Key in 2005. The film, which had a production budget of $43 million, enjoyed box office success, grossing over $91.9 million worldwide ($47.9 million in the US alone). Her latest film, a comedy titled You, Me and Dupree and co-starring Owen Wilson and Matt Dillon, grossed $21.5 million on its opening weekend of 14 July 2006, within industry expectations.

Hudson has long expressed an interest in producing films, and is currently finalizing a deal to produce and star in the film A Dream of Red Mansions, opposite Ken Watanabe, in which she will play Diana Mellors, a real-life photojournalist who moved to China and became a Communist; filming will begin in the fall of 2006. Two projects in which Hudson was previously scheduled to star in, the comedy Can You Keep a Secret? and the drama Sleight of Mind, are still in development.

Personal life

In 2000, Hudson married Chris Robinson, a frontman for The Black Crowes. She gave birth to their son, Ryder Russell Robinson, on January 7, 2004. The couple lived in a house that was once owned by director James Whale and traveled together during Hudson's film shoots or Robinson's music tours. On August 14, 2006, Hudson's publicist announced that Hudson and Robinson had separated.

Hudson has noted that she is "not very religious,"although she still describes herself as Jewish. She has also said that she does not enjoy watching herself on screen, specifying that she "get[s] cold... shake[s] and... sweat[s]" when watching her performances for the first time.

In July 2006, Hudson sued the British version of the National Enquirer after they had stated that she has an eating disorder and described her as "painfully thin." Hudson said that the tabloid's actions were "completely inappropriate" and a "blatant lie," and specified her concern relating the impressions about weight that she feels the tabloid could have on young girls.