History of the Shakespeare authorship question others joined together to create the Shakespeare Fellowship, an organisation devoted to promote discussion and debate on the authorship question but endorsing no particular candidate. Since then a great many candidates have been put forward, including Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway, his supposed girlfriend Anne Whateley, and numerous scholars, aristocrats and poets. New candidates are regularly put forward, such as Mary Sidney (proposed in 1931), Edward Dyer (proposed in 1943), William Nugent (proposed in 1978) and Henry Neville (proposed in 2005). Some candidates have been promoted by single authors, others have gathered several published supporters. Sidney in particular has been promoted
Anne Hathaway "Knocked Up", but dropped out before filming began and was replaced by Katherine Heigl. According to writer-director Judd Apatow, this happened because Hathaway was uncomfortable with the use of real footage of a woman giving birth; Hathaway believed it did not contribute to the film's story. Her only release in 2007 was the biographical romantic drama "Becoming Jane", as the titular English author Jane Austen. A fan of Austen since she was fourteen, Hathaway prepared for the role by rereading Austen's books and conducting historical research, such as perusing the author's letters; she also learned sign language, calligraphy, dance choreography,