Biography: Anne Whitney Hathaway is an American film actress. She has Irish ancestry on her father's side. Hathaway has performed in television series, and gained widespread recognition with her role in The Princess Diaries and its 2004 sequel in which she starred with Julie Andrews, as a young girl who discovers she is a member of royalty. She also had a notable role in the 2002 film production of Nicholas Nickleby, and a starring role in 2004's Ella Enchanted. A former top-ranking soprano in New York, Anne was purportedly a front-runner for the role of "Christine" in the 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. However, due to scheduling conflicts with The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement she couldn't take the role, which was later given to newcomer Emmy Rossum. Besides tackling these acting projects, she also spent several semesters studying at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York before transferring to New York University. Concerned about being typecast as a "Disney princess", Hathaway has started to move away from family-friendly films into grittier productions. One of these is the film Havoc, which was the subject of much Internet-based rumors because of reports of its sexual content. The film, which was not released to theaters in North America but will appear on DVD on November 29, 2005 and has played at several film festivals, includes several nude scenes by Hathaway as well as a couple of moderately explicit love scenes, though most activity takes place off screen. Hathaway has downplayed these scenes in several recent interviews. Hathaway also filmed a supporting role in Brokeback Mountain, a Western film with gay overtones. Hathaway's desire to break out of her Princess Diaries image parallels that of her co-star, Julie Andrews, who went to the (then) extreme length of going topless in the film S.O.B. in order to break away from the image she created for herself in her 1960s musicals.