Sam Mendes and Kate Winslet Separate

A U.K. law firm has confirmed that screen star Kate Winslet, and her stage and screen director husband Sam Mendes have amicably separated.  The pair had been married for seven years and have a son together (Winslet's daughter is from a previous marriage). According to their lawyers, the separation is "entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement" and both Winslet and Mendes are "fully committed to the future joint parenting of their children."

It is unknown as to whether or not divorce proceedings have begun.  Winslet and Mendes wed in a small ceremony in 2003 in the Caribbean.  They currently share a home in Greenwich Village in New York Cityand a home in Gloucestershire England.

Sam Mendes is best known for whis work as the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, and his direction of the film American Beauty and the Broadway production of Cabaret on Broadway starring Alan Cumming. His production of Oliver! became the longest running show ever to play at the London Palladium. Additional stage credits includeTennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, Stephen Sondheim's Company (which had the first ever African American "Bobby"), Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus and his farewell duo of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night, which transferred to the Brooklyn Academy Of Music and Gypsy on Broadway starring Bernadette Peters.  An equal powerhouse on screen, Mendes directed such films as American Beauty, for which he won an Academy Award for best director, Road to Perdition and recently, Revolutionary Road with starring Leonardo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet. He is currently in talks to direct the 23rd installment of the James Bond franchise. 

Kate Winslet rose to small-time fame in Sense and Sensabilty and became an international sensation after Titanic (1997).  An award season favorite, Winslet has additionally starred in  Quills (2000), Iris (2001), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Finding Neverland (2004), Little Children (2006), The Holiday (2006), Flushed Away (2006), The Reader (2008) and Revolutionary Road (2008). 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.