Shapely Cate shuns her 'skeletal' look

But it was a curvy Cate Blanchett who stepped out to promote her latest film in Rome.

The 38-year-old Australian actress showed off an impressive hour-glass figure in a revealing strapless gown at the premiere of Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

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In May she had raised eyebrows for all the wrong reasons when she arrived at a New York gala with wispy hair, very evident shoulder and collar bones, and make-up that made her eyes and cheeks look sunken.

She later said she had lost a lot of weight to play the unlikely part of a young Bob Dylan in the film I'm Not There.

The more womanly figure she displayed as she promoted her latest movie, in which she plays Queen Elizabeth I for the second time, prompted some to wonder whether the Oscar-winner, a mother of two, may be expecting another child.

Radiant: Cate Blanchett at the Rome premiere of her new film Elizabeth: The Golden Age

However such crystal ball-gazing must come with the knowledge that she had to lose to much weight for a previous role as playing Bob Dylan, of which part she said: 'He was very androgynous in the time that I was playing him. I had to lose weight to do it.'

The Hollywood A-lister, who won an Academy Award for The Aviator, is widely tipped to receive another nomination for this latest role.

She has said the part allowed her to look carefully at attitudes to aging and 'facing the aging process'.

She said: "I could see the potential to discuss the aging process. I found that very interesting: the sense of reflection, the middle point of someone's life."

She added: "If Botox had been available then, Elizabeth would have been first in line. Her beauty regime was like an actress's on Oscar day."

The film's all-star cast includes Clive Owen, Samantha Morton and up-and-coming Australian actress Abbie Cornish and British actor Eddie Redmayne, while Geoffrey Rush returns as Sir Francis Walsingham.

Blanchett is poised to take over the Sydney Theatre Company with her husband Andrew Upton in early 2008 as artistic co-directors.

The couple will move, with their two sons aged six and two, back to Australia for the three year contract after temporarily setting up home in Brighton during filming.