Winslet causes local stir

Hollywood actress Kate Winslet popped into Masterton this weekend for a cuppa and some quick shopping at a local fashion store.

Had a local photographer not noticed sometime-local film director Peter Jackson wandering barefoot down Queen St with her, it seems almost no one would have noticed.

She didn't attract much attention from locals, which is probably among the attractions (of which there are many others, of course) of visiting Wairarapa.

Despite not causing much of a stir among the Sunday shoppers on Queen St, by yesterday morning Kate and Ned's visit to Masterton was big news.

A quick Google search revealed dozens of hits from news and gossip sites around the world reporting the star's brief shopping trip in small-town New Zealand.

On Twitter, the tweets about Kate's visit were flying through faster than you could read them - most along the vein of this one from Jane King: "Kate Winslet in Masterton, having been shopping at Pagani - next you'll be telling me she's eating KFC in Huntly".

(Which is silly, because she wouldn't need to go all the way to Huntly for KFC, we have that in Masterton).

Of course, Kate knows our other resident film director, James Cameron, rather well too, but we're not sure whether she joined him for fish and chips at Lake Ferry.

I have to admit, if I'd been having a coffee in Queen St on Sunday morning, I probably would have been more excited to bump into the local stars who were in town this weekend for shows at Alana Estate in Martinborough and Tui Brewery in Mangatainoka - Anika Moa, Hollie Smith, Boh Runga, Jon Toogood and others. Saturday night at Alana was a great show. I wonder if Kate was there.