Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied at the Oscars
Best Actress winner Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied (at the time, Portman’s husband-to-be)* arrive at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony held on Feb. 27 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Portman took home the Oscar for her performance as a mentally unstable ballerina in Darren Aronofsky’s psychological drama Black Swan.
An international box office hit, Black Swan was also a Best Picture nominee, ultimately losing the Oscar to Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech.
Besides Natalie Portman and dancer-choreographer Benjamin Millepied, also in the Black Swan cast are Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder, Barbara Hershey, and Vincent Cassel.
Portman’s fellow Best Actress contenders were:
- Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right.
- Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine.
- Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole.
- Jennifer Lawrence for Winter’s Bone.
Natalie Portman had been previously nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for Mike Nichols’ 2004 drama Closer, co-starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, and Clive Owen.
* Update: Natalie Portman and husband Benjamin Millepied were married in Aug. ’12.
Photo of Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied on the Oscars’ Red Carpet: Ivan Vejar / © A.M.P.A.S.
Natalie Portman and husband Benjamin Millepied (walking behind her).
Natalie Portman movies
Pictured above is a very pregnant Natalie Portman, with husband-to-be Benjamin Millepied walking behind her, on the Oscar 2011 Red Carpet just outside the Kodak Theatre. Millepied had a featured role in Black Swan, in addition to helping with the film’s choreography.
Natalie Portman movies in 2011 are the following Kenneth Branagh’s Thor, with Chris Hemsworth; Ivan Reitman’s sleeper hit No Strings Attached, with Ashton Kutcher; and David Gordon Green’s Your Highness, with James Franco.
Earlier today, Portman, who also happens to be Miss Dior Cherie’s poster girl, released a statement condemning fifty-year-old British fashion designer John Galliano, who can be seen in a video making several viciously anti-Semitic remarks while apparently intoxicated. (“People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be fucking gassed.”) The women he was talking to laughed at Galliano’s remarks – or perhaps at his effete manner and slurred speech.
Natalie Portman didn’t find any of that funny. Her statement read:
“I am deeply shocked and disgusted by the video of John Galliano’s comments that surfaced today.
“In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr. Galliano in any way. I hope at the very least, these terrible comments remind us to reflect and act upon combating these still-existing prejudices that are the opposite of all that is beautiful.”
Photo of Natalie Portman and husband-to-be Benjamin Millepied: Ivan Vejar | © A.M.P.A.S.
Natalie Portman pregnant in a purple dress.Pregnant Oscar-winning actresses
Once again, a pregnant Natalie Portman in a purple dress can be seen on the Oscars’ Red Carpet.
Portman is reportedly the fifth pregnant Oscar winner in the acting categories. Her predecessors were:
- Best Supporting Actress Eva Marie Saint for On the Waterfront (1954).
- Best Actress Meryl Streep for Sophie’s Choice (1982).
- Best Supporting Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago (2002).
- Best Supporting Actress Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener (2005).
And here are a handful of pregnant Oscar losers in the acting categories.
- Best Actress nominee Glenn Close for Fatal Attraction (1987).
She lost to Cher in Moonstruck. - Best Actress nominee Susan Sarandon for Thelma & Louise (1991).
She lost to Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs. - Best Actress nominee Annette Bening for American Beauty (1999).
She lost to Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry. - Best Supporting Actress nominee Marcia Gay Harden for Mystic River (2003).
She lost to Renée Zellweger in Cold Mountain. - Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominee Cate Blanchett for, respectively, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and I’m Not There (2007).
She lost to, respectively, Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose and Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton.
There was also Best Actress nominee Judy Garland, shortlisted for George Cukor’s A Star Is Born (1954). Garland wasn’t at the 1955 Oscar ceremony, but as she was the expected winner, media crews were stationed at her hospital.
However, the Best Actress winner turned out to be Grace Kelly for The Country Girl.
Pregnant Natalie Portman photo: Ivan Vejar | © A.M.P.A.S.
Tim Metzger and Jennifer Redfearn: ‘Sun Come Up’ documentary filmmakers.‘Sun Come Up’ Best Documentary Short nominees Tim Metzger and Jennifer Redfearn
Oscar nominees Tim Metzger and Jennifer Redfearn, whose Sun Come Up was a Best Documentary Short Subject Oscar 2011 contender, are seen above on the 83rd Academy Awards’ Red Carpet outside the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Sun Come Up was directed by Redfearn, and produced by Redfearn and Metzger.
The documentary short depicts the plight of the Carteret Islanders, some of the planet’s first environmental refugees. The film focuses on a group of families looking for new homes in inhospitable, war-torn Bougainville, an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea.
Needless to say, Sun Come Up has nothing to do with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 1949 “family” movie The Sun Comes Up, directed by Richard Thorpe, and starring Jeanette MacDonald, Claude Jarman Jr., and Lassie.
The 2011 Oscar winner in the Best Documentary Short Subject category was Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon’s Strangers No More.
Sun Come Up Oscar nominees Tim Metzger and Jennifer Redfearn photo: Ivan Vejar / © A.M.P.A.S.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (A.M.P.A.S.) website.