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Blanchett’s ‘Blue Jasmine’ character based on Allen associate

Best Actress Oscar winner Cate Blanchett studied Ruth Madoff to inspire her riches-to-rags socialite in “Blue Jasmine.”

But rumors swirled in New York social circles that the character was also based on Lorinda Ash, the blond, well-dressed high-end art dealer for whom Allen’s wife Soon-Yi had worked at Gagosian Gallery.

In the movie, Blanchett is dumped by her financier husband, played by Alec Baldwin, for a younger woman. Ash reportedly had a brutal split from late billionaire investment banker Bruce Wasserstein years ago. According to a 2010 Vanity Fair article, “In 1995 [Wasserstein] had his maid pack up the belongings of his girlfriend Lorinda Ash, who had lived with him for three years. Wasserstein had left his second wife . . . for Ash and then summarily dismissed her after he met Claude Becker, a tall, dark-haired French beauty.”

Two years later, Ash married Lazard Frères managing director Peter Ezersky, now of Steven Rattner’s Quadrangle Group. The two filed for divorce in 2010.

A source had told Page Six: “Soon-Yi told Woody about a woman she worked with, and he used her for the character.”

When reached for comment, Ash — who now runs Ash Fine Art — told us, “Your e-mail cracked me up! [Woody] and I have been friends for 25 years. It’s absolutely untrue [he based the character on me]. To an extent I’m flattered. But it’s not me.” She added slyly, “And I did very well in my divorce.” She further theorized the rumor about her being Woody’s muse began at a lunch months ago with Barbara Walters where another guest jokingly raised the idea.

An Allen rep has said, “He will never say anything more than what is already on record. We will never know.” The director has previously shot down theories about women, real and fictional, from Madoff to Blanche DuBois.

Blanchett has played DuBois on Broadway, and said she studied Morley Safer’s “60 Minutes” interview with Madoff. Ash was seen socializing in January with Allen and Soon-Yi on the night of the Golden Globes.