Mila Kunis & Justin Timberlake on The Chatty Man Show

Mila Kunis Mega-Post

Glamour UK September cover +  'It's fantastic being attractive' + talks bodies and exercise

Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake Russian FWB Interview

Untitled from Mia Bostic on Vimeo.

Mila Kunis to guest star on 'Good Vibes' on MTV

In the grand animation tradition, MTV's new cartoon show "Good Vibes" will be featuring plenty of celebrity guest stars alongside its all-star cast of Josh Gad, Adam Brody, Debi Mazar, Alan Tudyk, Tony Hale, and more.

At the Television Critics Association Press Tour on Friday, executive producer David Gordon Green announced their first visitor: "Friends With Benefits" and "Black Swan" star Mila Kunis.

Of course, animation fans are familiar with Kunis's work as Meg on "Family Guy," but on "Good Vibes," Kunis will be playing herself. When Hale's nerdy character Wadska saves her from a paparazzi attack on the beach, she owes him one -- and agrees to go with him to the prom.

"Good Vibes" is set to premiere this fall directly following the newly resurrected "Beavis and Butt-Head." Watch the trailer below!

More Good Vibes Videos

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Vincent Cassel Join James McAvoy in Danny Boyle’s TRANCE

Danny Boyle has found two more leads for his heist-thriller Trance. Deadline reports that Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel will join James McAvoy in the film which centers on an art heist that goes sideways when its mastermind (McAvoy) gets amnesia and can’t remember where he stashed the loot. Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson were previously rumored for the other lead roles, but now it looks like Cassel will play the leader of the heist team while Dawson will play the hypnotist tasked with recovering the mastermind’s memories. The modestly-budgeted and harder-edged picture will be more in line with Boyle’s earlier films Trainspotting and Shallow Grave.

Filming on Trance is set to begin in September and then will be put on a shelf while Boyle directs the summer Olympics. He’ll pick it back up again in August 2012 for editing and then release it in March 2013. Both Dawson and Cassel will next be seen at the Toronto International Film Festival with Ten Year and A Dangerous Method, respectively.

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Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake in Moscow

Friends with Benefits Premiere in Moscow, Jul 26










Friends with Benefits Photocall in Moscow, July 27







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"Black Swan" and the cast gets Teen Choice Nominations

Recently announced were the Teen Choice Awards nominations. Black Swan and several of the cast members received nominations.

Voting can be conducted here.

Benjamin Millepied tries his hand at modelling

Yay or nay?

"Friends with Beneftis" Unscripted Interview

"Friends With Benefits" Megapost

Premiere + Mila in Cancun + Mila on Jimmy Fallon

Lindsay Lohan wanted lead role in "Black Swan"

According to recent news items, controversial actress Lindsay Lohan, famous for her roles in movies such as The Parent Trap remake, Mean Girls, and I Know Who Killed Me and also for her well-publicized court/rehab life, feels as though she "deserves" the role Natalie Portman had in Black Swan - that of a schizophrenic ballerina suffering from an eating disorder and stress.

Lohan reportedly took ballet until she was 19.

Do you think Lohan would have been a good choice for Nina, or too close to real-life for comfort?

...And She's Funny, Too: A GQ&A with Mila Kunis

Mila Kunis covers FLARE + interview with Timberlake in ELLE

Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake in ELLE Magazine

Has Nat's baby's name been revealed?

According to an article found in an Israeli newspaper, Natalie and her fiancee Benjamin Millepied have named their son Alef.

Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and can also mean "leader".

Neither Portman nor Millepied have commented on the name, which was supposedly revealed by Nat's cousin.

Do you like the name Alef? Do you think this report is true?


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Darren Aronofsky and "Hobgoblin" + a boy for Natalie!

Darren Aronofsky, the director of Black Swan, will be directing the HBO drama Hobgoblin, written by Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) and his wife, Ayelet Waldman.

The series tells the fictional story of a group of con men and wizards who fight against Hitler and the Nazis during World War II.

This will be Aronofsky's first work since dropping out of Fox's The Wolverine, the sequel to 2009's successful X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Natalie has finally given birth! Her and fiance Benjamin Millepied welcomed a baby boy earlier this morning. It has not yet been revealed what the name of the baby is.

Congratulations to them!

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Is Natalie Portman going to quit acting?

In a recent interview, Nat revealed that she may give up acting to raise her child, following in the footsteps on screen legend Audrey Hepburn.

She told The Sun's Buzz Magazine: "Audrey made some good choices in life... More and more I realize how unimportant it is to be in the history books or anything like that. Putting time and energy into your children - that's valuable."

A part of me is sad, considering how well her career has been going lately, especially with the Oscar and Golden Globe wins, but as long as she's happy with her life, I can't complain.

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No Strings Attached Announced for Blu-ray and DVD

A minor hit when it was dropped into theaters in late January (as opposed to Valentine’s Day), No Strings Attached will see its release as a BD/DVD combo pack on May 10. So just as the school year ends and summer lovin’ begins, it will be done so with “no strings attached.”

Academy Award winner Natalie Portman (Black Swan) and Ashton Kutcher star in this R-rated romantic comedy, directed by Ivan Reitman, that gives an “intimate look” at the ups and down of being sex buddies.

To promote the disc, Paramount Home Entertainment has teamed with online dating and relationship site PerfectMatch.com. An insert in the Blu-ray package will offer singles looking to pursue their own modern-day relationship a free three-month premium subscription to PerfectMatch ($179 value).

The DVD and BD release will include a commentary from director Ivan Reitman, two featurettes (Sex Friends: Getting Together and Inside the Sassy Halls of Secret High), deleted scenes and alternate storylines. The BD comes with a single exclusive, a featurette titled Modern Love.

The DVD will be priced to own at $19.99, while the combo release will retail for $29.99.

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New trailer for Friends With Benefits

"The Other Woman" On DVD

The Other Woman had a blink and miss it release into theatres a few weeks ago, and before that a more successful release to Video On Demand. Now the film, originally titled Love And Other Pursuits, will finally get a DVD and Blu-ray release on May 17.

Personally, I'm quite curious to finally check this film out. Probably more so than I am in seeing No Strings Attached. If you're also curious, you can order via our Amazon links here - Blu-ray and DVD.

With the release comes a new cover image.

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New banner for "Thor" featuring Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman wins Oscar for "Black Swan"

A visibly nervous and very pregnant Natalie Portman was near tears after winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Oscars Sunday night (February 27) for her performance as a ballerina on the verge of a mental breakdown in Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan."


"Thank you. Thank you so much. This is insane!" the 29-year-old first-time Oscar winner enthused after taking the stage. "I truly and sincerely wish that the prize tonight was to get to work with my fellow nominees."

Although just the second-youngest of her co-nominees, Portman was previously nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Closer" and has been working with some of the best directors in the business since childhood — and in a rambling speech she nearly managed to thank all of them.

"Luc Besson, who gave me my first job [in 'The Professional']," Portman began. "['Closer' director] Mike Nichols, who has been my hero. And to everyone who's ever hired me!"

"Darren Aronofsky, you are a visionary," she added of her "Black Swan" director. "I am so blessed to have gotten to work for you."

Portman saved her most effusive gratitude, however, for her parents, who were in the audience, and especially for her fiancé Benjamin Millepied, with whom she is having a child.

"I want to thank my parents for giving me the opportunity to work from such an early age. My beautiful love, Benjamin, who has now given me my most important role of my life," she gushed. "Most importantly, my family, my friends, and my love, thank you so much."

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"Black Swan" wins big at the Independent Spirit Awards

Tonight Black Swan won Best Cinematgoraphy, Best Director, Best Female Lead, and best Picture at the Independent Spirit Awards. Natalie Portman and Darren Aronofsky were in attendance for the event.

Pictures of Portman's and Aronofsky's red carpet attire under the cut.

"Hesher" trailer starring Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman has hung up her tutu for big glasses in the movie Hesher, co-starring Inception star Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film is about a family that loses their matriarch, and their way. Rainn Wilson stars as a father broken and distraught over the loss of his wife, while Gordon-Levitt plays an aimless, angry man who befriends Wilson's son. Then, enter Portman, whom the boy may or may not have a crush on.

Mila Kunis cast as the Wicked Witch of the West

Black Swan actress Mila Kunis has been cast as Theodora, the eventual Wicked Witch of the West, alongside James Franco in Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful, a prequel to the classic story, The Wizard of Oz.

According to Vulture, Franco and Raimi (who worked together on the Spider-Man series) met and discussed Kunis’ involvement before he officially signed to star as the fast-talking magician who flees from a traveling circus in a hot air balloon only to wind up in the magical land of Oz.

Theodora, who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West in the familiar story, begins as a good witch, torn by her affections for Oz and the corrupting influences of her powerful sister Evanora (of the East). When war breaks out between the evil witches and the various creatures of Oz, the magician (mistaken as a wizard) joins the forces of good with Glinda (of the North) for an epic battle — reminiscent of the stand-off in Burton’s recent Alice in Wonderland.

In the script, which underwent revisions recently by David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole), Theodora is described as beautiful, dressed in an open-collared white shirt, black pants, and black knee-high boots with “quick eyes, quick movements, and a quick, lively mind.”

Vulture also says Kunis was being considered for a part in WB’s live-action Akira remake, which signed the Hughes brothers to direct over a year ago. Warner Bros president Jeff Robinov reportedly (and rather randomly) offered the lead, Kaneda, to Brad Pitt, who passed. Franco was also rumored for the part, as was Zac Efron. It’s unclear when, or if, the expensive Akira redo will get off the ground, but Disney’s Oz prequel shoots this July.

The ubiquitous Franco, 32, and Kunis, 27, played supporting roles together in Date Night, a rather disposable romantic comedy that starred Steve Carell and Tina Fey but wasn’t quite the hilarious flick its star-studded ensemble deserved.

This announcement partially confirms suspicions that Kunis is using some kind of witchcraft and/or wizardry in order to appear exponentially more sexy every day. However, we’ve been unable to confirm this because she will not respond to our numerous calls to her personal cell phone.

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New "Thor" Trailer and Natalie Screenshot

Rihanna channels Black Swan in new Reb'l Fleur perfume ad

Does anybody else reckon that Rihanna had Black Swan in mind when she was making the new advert to her perfume?
We couldn't stop thinking of the Oscar-nominated Natalie Portman movie Black Swan when we saw Rihanna's Reb'l Fleur perfume advert.

Red-haired RiRi emerges from a sea of peach-coloured feathers at the start of the clip looking simply divine in a flesh-coloured mini dress (this is the white swan moment).

The Barbadian songstress steps out of the feathers into a garden with a maze where she spots a hunky man in a suit *phwoar*.

But before long Ri has stepped through a mirror onto the 'bad' side where her dress changes colour to black (this is her black swan moment) and she seduces the stallion.

Unlike the movie, though, Rihanna crosses back to the good side and back into her flower. Beautiful.

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Kunis: 'I will never dance again' after 'Black Swan'

Mila Kunis has retired her tutu.

"I will never dance again!" the "Black Swan" star tells the March issue of W Magazine. "The first time I saw the movie, I was like it’s great that the performance has been captured on film, because I will never put on those pointe shoes again."

Kunis, 27, explains that before she was cast in the Oscar-nominated thriller, she had absolutely no ballet experience.

"I trained four months, seven days a week, five hours a day," she says. "I lost 20 pounds, I tore a ligament, I dislocated my shoulder. I have two scars on my back but it was worth every minute."

The biggest shocker? Walking around in designer footwear hadn't prepared her to be a prima ballerina.

"I was like, I wear heels; I can do this," says Kunis. "I was wrong. Christian Louboutins are uncomfortable, but I screamed the first time I put on a pointe shoe!"

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Russian Family Still Strong for Aronofsky

Film director Darren Aronofsky, whose latest movie “Black Swan” opened in Russia on Saturday, gained inspiration for the film from a visit to St. Petersburg, he said in a recent interview.

“Black Swan” is set in the New York ballet world and stars Natalie Portman as the perfectionist ballerina Nina. Cast in the lead role of a new production of “Swan Lake,” Nina is the ideal Odette, the innocent white swan princess, but is pushed by choreographer Thomas (played by Vincent Cassel) to develop her portrayal of Odette’s double Odile — the seductive black swan.

It is one thing to lose yourself in your art. Caught up in a web of intrigue involving a younger rival, Lily, who effortlessly embodies the black swan (Ukrainian-born actress Mila Kunis), Portman’s ballerina loses her mind.

“Mila’s Slavonic ancestry did influence us at the start,” Aronofsky said. “ We thought about her having an accent, since ballet is so international, but as we worked on the character we liked her coming from San Francisco better.”

The Brooklyn-born Aronofsky is keenly conscious of his Russian heritage.

“I feel a deep connection to Russia,” he said. “My grandparents came from Russia and so many of my family traditions are connected to the country.”

The director, whose previous films include “Requiem for a Dream” (2000), and “The Wrestler” (2008), said he had originally been attracted to ballet because of his connection to actors.

“When you are in front of the curtain, it’s all beauty and light. When you go backstage, you see the dancers are out of breath and sweaty — it’s anything but effortless. And you realize there is all this competition. As a director, that got me really excited.”

What were the major influences on the film? “More than any other film I’ve done, this one has been compared to other’s people work,” he said. “The biggest influence was Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘Swan Lake.’ We tried to build the entire film from the fairy tale.”

Aronofsky visited St. Petersburg several years ago when he brought his last film, “The Wrestler,” which was nominated for two Oscars, to the city.

“I loved St. Petersburg when I visited with ‘The Wrestler;’ I can’t wait to get back,” he said. “I hope to bring ‘Black Swan’ to the city. When I was in St. Petersburg, I took in a production of ‘Swan Lake.’ The ballet was amazing, the dancers were staggeringly beautiful, and the musicians were tremendous. But I was stunned that the production had a happy ending. I’d never seen it before! And in Russia? Needless to say, my film’s ending isn’t as bright.”

Aronofsky is now working on his next project, a new adventure thriller titled “The Tiger.” The movie, based on John Vaillant’s book “The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival,” has been optioned by Focus Features, with Brad Pitt potentially taking a leading role.

The story tells the tale of poachers in the Primorye region in Russia’s Far East who are tracked and hunted by an “almost” supernaturally powerful Siberian tiger.

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Clint Mansell Working On Mass Effect 3

Clint Mansell Working On Mass Effect 3 Composer Clint Mansell, best known for his work on films like Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan, is branching into video game music. He's currently collaborating with BioWare on Mass Effect 3.

Mansell confirmed his work on ME3 in an interview with The Quietus. He also discussed the process of making a game soundtrack a bit, comparing it to being a DJ.

"You've got the holding pattern, then the big explosion where you need the score to kick in," said Mansell. "Then you need to take it off on a tangent. You've got all these different elements that change depending on what the player does. You have to figure out an overall symphony, but be able to break it down into component parts. You can bring the pain when required."

Wall of Sound's Jack Wall served as composer for the previous two ME games. He confirmed on the BioWare forums that he's not involved with the third game.

"As you may have noticed by now, I am not returning to score the final game. The reasons are much too complicated to explain here, but suffice to say that the people at BioWare and I are still friends and we all really still like each other a lot," said Wall. "More importantly, the score for ME3 will be great and even more important than that, the game will likely be (being BioWare and all) super duper fantastic."

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advertisement Mila Kunis Before 'Black Swan': 'I Had Never Danced in My Life'

Mila Kunis flaunts her style in a new spread for W magazine's March Spring Fashion issue, on stands nationwide February 25, and the 'Black Swan' star reveals she had never danced before her breakthrough ballet role.

"I had never danced in my life," says Mila. "I trained for four months, seven days a week, five hours a day. I had one day off on my birthday. I lost 20 pounds. I tore a ligament. I dislocated my shoulder. I have two scars on my back. And it was worth every minute."

Asked if she'd be willing to continue dancing, she counters, "I will never dance again... I was like, 'Well -- I wear heels; I can do this.' I was wrong: Christian Louboutins are uncomfortable, but I screamed the first time I put on a pointe shoe."

The 27-year-old Ukrainian-born beauty -- who admits that she's the first person in her family to not be a college graduate -- also details her career crossroads when her contract with "That '70s Show" ended.

"I had to make a conscious decision about what I wanted to do with my life," she explains. "During the show, I had attempted to go to college, but I realized that the traffic in L.A. made it too difficult for me to go to school at 6 a.m. and be back at work at 10 a.m. I asked my parents if it was okay if I dropped out. They said okay, you can defer until after your contract with 'That '70s Show' ends. And then it ended. I realized for the first time that I couldn't imagine doing anything else. So I had to make acting a career -- to make smart choices instead of choices made for fun."

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Darren Aronofsky To Script 'Noah' Comic Book Based On Biblical Tale

Between the graphic novel for The Fountain and, more recently, taking the director's chair on The Wolverine, not to mention his frequent talk on the subject, filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has always had a thing for comic books. Now he's got his new comic lined up, Noah, which will feature artwork from Pride of Baghdad artist Nico Henrichon.


The news comes from Bleeding Cool, which first reported on the upcoming comic back in January. The story focuses on the Biblical Noah, who under the Almighty's orders built himself a massive ship meant to house every species of animal in the world while the wicked ways of man were wiped from the face of the Earth by an apocalyptic flood. Though it seems that Aronofsky's tale will focus more on the events that occurred after the flood.


"Noah was the first person to plant vineyards and drink wine and get drunk," the filmmaker said in his earlier interview. "It’s there in the Bible – it was one of the first things he did when he reached land. There was some real survivor’s guilt going on there. He’s a dark, complicated character."

Aronofsky also hopes to bring the story to film, calling Noah's Ark "the second most famous ship since the Titanic." That's further out for now, what with The Wolverine in early production, but the comic seems to be gearing up with the addition of a talent like Henrichon.

Pride of Baghdad is a Brian K. Vaughan-penned graphic novel released in 2006. The story follows a pride of lions that escape from the Baghdad Zoo during the 2003 invasion of the Iraqi capital. The award-winning graphic novel has been praised for Henrichon's striking artwork, and he's now bringing those talents to Aronofsky's Noah.

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Mark Wahlberg teased Darren Aronofsky about Oscar noms

Mark Wahlberg has revealed that he teased Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky about The Fighter's superior showing in the Oscar nominations.

Aronofsky was once attached to direct the boxing drama, but quit the project and was replaced by Wahlberg's Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees helmer David O. Russell.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about a recent encounter with Aronofsky on the awards circuit, Wahlberg said: "[He told me] that Black Swan was making more money at the box office... He was thrilled at [The Fighter's] success, but I pointed out that we had more Oscar nominations."

The actor admitted that he never discussed with Aronofsky the reasons why he chose to walk away from the project.

"I'm just assuming that it was because of other experiences he'd had in the past, or he felt that if it wasn't going to be done in the right way it wasn't worth doing," Wahlberg said. "But I never really asked those questions - ultimately it's that person's choice. You've got to do what you've got to do and I completely get that."

The Fighter has secured seven Oscar nominations against Black Swan's five nods.

The film's director Russell said of Aronofsky's previous attachment to the project: "He understands that I made a movie that was very different from the movie he would have made. That's what makes all the different filmmakers interesting."

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Fun fact: Mark Wahlberg and Black Swan's Mila Kunis starred together in the 2008 film Max Payne.

Is Black Swan craze for flat ballet shoes damaging women's feet?

At first glance they seem more sensible than sky-high stilettos or strappy sandals.

But ballet-style shoes can seriously damage the feet, knees, hips and back and may lead to arthritis, experts have warned.

Stylish ‘ballet flats’ have risen in popularity on the High Street thanks to the film Black Swan, which stars Natalie Portman as a ballet dancer.

Fashion forward: Stylish 'ballet flats' have risen in popularity on the High Street thanks to the film Black Swan, which stars Natalie Portman as a ballet dancer

However, they offer little support and should only be worn for short periods, according to the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists.

Lorraine Jones from the society said: ‘Professional dancers are no strangers to the perils of ballet shoes, which offer the feet little cushioning, leaving the lower leg and foot to absorb the full impact of movement.

‘This puts increased pressure on the knees, hips and back, which over time can increase a person’s chance of developing arthritis.

On trend: They may look stylish but ballet-style pumps offer little support and should only be worn for short periods, according to the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists

‘If you embrace ballet fashion then try to opt for a shoe with a slight heel and higher sides which offers the feet a little more support.

‘Try not to wear them for long periods, particularly if you are doing a lot of walking, and make sure you alternate regularly with a more supportive shoe.’

She added that anyone who wore the shoes for dancing should also ‘take precautions’, such as daily calf stretches to keep muscles supple.

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The Many Faces of ‘Black Swan,’ Deconstructed

Few ballet films excite popular fascination and excitement, and almost none to the degree of “Black Swan,” which is up for five Oscars this month. So why has it so intrigued academy voters and the public alike? Surely because it exerts its lurid appeal on multiple levels.

In “Black Swan,” Natalie Portman plays a ballerina who finally wins a lead role only to feel the pressure that accompanies it.

It’s a backstager: Will poor hard-working Nina (Natalie Portman) get the white-black double lead role of “Swan Lake,” pull off its taxing demands, survive till the first night and vanquish her rival, not to mention her terrors? It’s horror: Nina’s life spirals out of control for alarming reasons apparently beyond her control and indeed her comprehension. It’s psychosexual drama: Those forces come from her confused perceptions of her mother, her sexual inhibitions, her ambitions and her increasingly schizoid fantasies. It’s a Tchaikovsky-soundtrack movie: Nothing about it is neater than the way Clint Mansell’s score is almost all taken from “Swan Lake” material, with a marvelous use of the slow chords prefacing the ballet’s most famous pas de deux for an offstage effect of psychological suspense.

Most powerfully it’s a modern example of that old genre, the woman’s movie. Nina’s loves are seen as repressed and illicit, her successes are shown as triumphs in an unnatural and injurious art form, and she is duly punished for these transgressions. Joan Crawford would have killed to play her.

Nina has a female nemesis, but that turns out to be less her sexy, confident frenemy Lily (Mila Kunis) than her own alter ego. Yes, “Black Swan” is the latest example of what the film critic Jeanine Basinger has called the “My god, there’s two of her!” device. Nina develops her own built-in anti-Nina.

And it’s a highly partial — airless — view of ballet’s interior workings. It goes out of its way to contradict the old escapist idea that “everything’s beautiful at the ballet.” Instead it takes energy from the aspects of ballet that are cruel and unfair. Let’s not pretend, however, that those aspects don’t exist.

Let’s also admit there have always been striking parallels between the ballet classics of the 19th century and the Hollywood women’s movies of the mid-20th century. In “A Stolen Life” (1946) passive, sensitive and artistically creative Bette Davis, thanks to her inhibitions, loses Glenn Ford to her active, sexy but heartless twin — played, of course, by Bette Davis. In “Random Harvest” (1942) amnesiac Ronald Colman realizes only at the end that his perfect but cool, unyielding wife, Greer Garson, is also the warm, outgoing and devoted woman whom he married in the love-filled other life long buried in his subconscious. Resemblances between these absurd but deeply enjoyable movies and the full-length “Swan Lake” are easy to spot.

Likewise “Black Swan’s” alter-ego rivalries and divided-ego visions connect intimately to the good-bad, white-black, active-passive Odette-Odile heroines of “Swan Lake.” First Nina is told she doesn’t have it in her to be both the white swan and the black. Eventually, however, it’s disconcerting how much of the contrasting heroines she does contain.

Nina sometimes sees her anti-Nina in the mirror. Ballet has been obsessed with mirrors for centuries, and not just in works like August Bournonville’s “Ventana” (1856) and Jerome Robbins’s “Afternoon of a Faun” (1953). Dancers often spend more of their time in front of the mirror than before an audience, and it’s in the mirror that they see both the ideal versions of themselves they hope to show the public as well as their own failings.

In “Black Swan” Nina’s mirror-image starts to take on an independent life. Away from the classroom Nina continually sees this doppelgänger acting out her hopes and horrors. At the climax of a lesbian fantasy Nina’s lover Lily turns into Nina’s lover Nina: a radical rewrite of the old idea of the dancer as Narcissus.

If Nina is a narcissist, however, she is appalled by it. More obviously she is a self-tormentor. I wish this view of ballet were a lie, but it’s not. It is, though, far from being the whole truth. The “Black Swan” screenplay has surely been prompted by a number of dancers’ memoirs — Gelsey Kirkland’s 1986 best seller, “Dancing on My Grave,” is just the most famous — to convey its neurotic version of the internal life of ballet.

Nina could learn from a dancer she invokes in a dressing-room scene: Margot Fonteyn. In her 1975 “Autobiography” that most reasonable of superstar ballerinas emphasized the crucial distinction between taking work seriously (“imperative”) and taking oneself seriously (“disastrous”). “Black Swan” could have been inspired by elements of Fonteyn’s own story: She wrote emphatically of the “terror” with which she faced every performance of “Swan Lake” (whose central role she danced for some 35 years), and how, after Frederick Ashton told her everything that was missing at the dress rehearsal for his new ballet “Apparitions,” she found “by some alchemy of despair” the artistry to rise to the work’s demands .

One book about Fonteyn quotes her as saying, “I’m sure if everyone knew how physically cruel dancing really is, nobody would watch — only those people who enjoy bullfights!” For some dancers it is the hips that take most strain; some, the spine; for Fonteyn and others it was the feet. “Black Swan” offers just enough imagery to show us why pointwork in ballet can seem as extreme and punitive as the old Chinese custom of binding women’s feet.

“Black Swan” certainly feels hostile to ballet, but I don’t think it means to be. Its real objective — above and beyond that of so many women’s movies — is to imply that a woman’s truest fulfillment is as (heterosexual) lover, wife and mother, and therefore that Nina’s best artistic successes can never compensate for her personal sacrifices. The “Black Swan” view of ballet is that it’s an unnatural art in which women deny too many normal aspects of womanhood.

There is copious evidence to support that view. Witness such dancer autobiographies as Ms. Kirkland’s and Toni Bentley’s “Winter Season” (1982). Ms. Bentley describes how, when she has her third monthly period in a row, colleagues in her dressing room ask, “Are you sure you’re a dancer?” True dancers, according to that attitude, don’t have normal female functions.

To these negatives ballet brings many positives: energy, responsiveness to music, discipline, teamwork, idealism, interpretative fulfillment. Not so “Black Swan.” It’s both irresistible and odious. I was gripped by its melodrama, but its nightmarish view of both ballet and women is not one I’m keen to see again. As a horror movie, it’s not extreme. As a woman’s movie, however, it’s the end of the line.

Most depressingly, Nina is just not a great role. She’s too much a victim — the film makes her helpless, passive — to be seriously involving. Though she enjoys triumph, we never see the willpower that gets her there, just the psychosis and the martyrdom. It’s the latest hit movie for misogynists.

“The Red Shoes” (1948) — to which “Black Swan” owes so much — actually had more psychological depth. Its ballerina heroine found both fame and love, and her torment came from choosing between them. That’s a highly ambiguous attitude toward ballet — she cannot permanently reconcile dance and love — but you can see why it inspired thousands of girls to take up the art. The “Black Swan” idea of ballet is narrower: obsession, torment, inadequacy, paranoia, delusion.

Those things aren’t absent from ballet (or womanhood or life). And so Nina’s interior and exterior lives here spin together into a compelling vortex.

Will “Black Swan” follow “The Red Shoes” in inspiring a new generation of young dancers? Unlikely. It will, however, draw many to “Swan Lake,” to check out the ballet at the heart of the movie. What will they see?

Surely it’s time to go back to staging “Swan Lake” as it used to be before the 1940s, with no black swan at all, but with the antiheroine Odile dressed in strong colors, as a woman of the world. Her seductions lie in seeming not demonic but glamorously — if deceptively — available, unlike the withheld Odette. No ballet of the 19th century goes further into true tragedy: Odette the Swan Queen takes heroic responsibility for herself and also her flock of swan-maidens.

Alas, companies go on presenting “Swan Lake” as a crude choice between a good, loyally loving but passive victim and an evil, active and vampishly duplicitous sorceress. And ballet goes on abounding in sexist, melodramatic clichés. While this remains so, “Black Swan” is the ballet movie our era deserves.

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Mila Kunis: 'I was bullied over looks'

Mila Kunis has revealed that she was bullied at school over her appearance.

The actress, who is 5ft 4in, explained that she was "funny-looking" and was always the shortest in her class.

She told OK: "I had a very funny-looking face when I was little. I had like big eyes, big lips, big ears. But when I was little I was constantly being made fun of for having big eyes and that was awful.

"I used to come home crying, 'Why do I have big eyes?' And my parents were like, 'You're crazy!'"

The 27-year-old went on to say that she has learnt from being taunted.

She added: "I've learned it wasn't a bad thing to be picked on because when you're little is seems awful, like it's the end of the world. I grew into my face."

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Natalie Portman and Darren Aronofsky at the Oscars Luncheon

"Thor" Super Bowl Spot

Former ballerina: I was a real Black Swan...and it nearly killed me

HOLLYWOOD star Natalie Portman is tipped to win an Oscar for playing a tortured ballerina in hit movie Black Swan.

But the film has caused outrage in the ballet world, as Portman's character, Nina, pushes herself to the limits - suffering eating disorders, self-harm and depression in a quest for dance perfection.

For former ballerina Ali Townsend, watching the movie was like seeing a younger version of herself.
The mum-of-one had a glittering 18-year career as one of the country's top ballerinas and danced for the London City Ballet and the English National Ballet.

'It brought back haunting memories' ... Ali Townsend

She even tackled the dual role of the white swan and black swan (Odette and Odile) in Swan Lake - the dance which forces Nina over the edge.

Today, Ali reveals herself as the real-life Black Swan.

Mila Kunis Shows Skin in a White Hot LA Times Magazine Spread

Mila Kunis gives a serious stare and a lot of leg on the cover of this month's Los Angeles Times Magazine. She took a nod from her Black Swan character for the ballet-inspired spread, which was photographed by Ruven Afanador. Mila's currently riding the success of the film with multiple other honors, including a spot in Vanity Fair's Young Hollywood issue. Her movie with Justin Timberlake, Friends With Benefits, is up next and Mila talked to Leslie Gornstein about moving on from her TV career and making comedies, here's more:

• On her career: "I was very lucky to have a show for eight years. Now I can sit back and think about what I want."
• On making comedies: "I love doing comedies. They’re just as hard, if not harder, to make work, compared with a drama. You work 17 hours a day, and you have to try to make things different and funny and relatable onscreen all at the same time."
• Black Swan director Darren Aronofksy on working with Mila: “She’ll try anything . . . [Mila is] very, very playful—really willing to experiment."

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NYT article about Benjamin Millepied

IT was the laugh heard around the Web. Natalie Portman, glowing in a pink Viktor & Rolf gown, bounded onstage at the Golden Globes last month to accept the award for best actress for her role in the psychological thriller “Black Swan.”

The speech began awkwardly — with the requisite nods to the presenter, Jeff Bridges, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — before she thanked her grandmother, her parents and, finally, Benjamin Millepied.

Natalie Portman: Help Educate Girls in Kenya

Natalie Portman has teamed up with Free The Children to launch The Power of a Girl, an initiative to spread the word about educating girls in developing nations.

“With women comprising 70 percent of the world’s poor, investing in the education of girls is one of the best ways to end the cycle of poverty,” Nat said. “I’m thrilled to be working with Free The Children and excited to see the ways in which youth throughout North America and the U.K. will be able to help send girls to school in Kenya, bringing them one step closer to achieving their dreams.”

From now until May 1, young people aged 13-21 are encouraged to raise funds for Kisaruni, Free The Children’s new all-girls’ secondary school in Kenya. Finalists will be chosen in May and asked to share why they think it’s important to empower girls through education.

The winner will take home Natalie’s Rodarte dress from the AFI Fest premiere of Black Swan and the chance to travel to Kenya over the summer!

Mila Kunis featured on the Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue Cover

From L-R: Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, James Franco, Jennifer Lawrence, Anthony Mackie, Olivia Wilde, Jesse Eisenberg, Mila Kunis, Robert Duvall, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Andrew Garfield, Rashida Jones, Garrett Hedlund, and Noomi Rapace.

Natalie Portman is most desirable spouse

Natalie Portman has topped a poll to find Hollywood's most desirable wife - while Charlie Sheen has been named the least wanted husband.

The Black Swan actress saw off competition from Megan Fox, British singer Cheryl Cole and Prince William's bride-to-be, Kate Middleton, to be crowned the Most Desirable Celebrity Wife in a poll by U.K. planning service My OK! Wedding.

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Full lists

Screen Actors Guild Awards

• Natalie Portman wins Best Leading Actress for Black Swan
• Mila Kunis nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Black Swan, loses to Melissa Leo for The Fighter
• Black Swan cast (Portman, Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder, Barbara Hershey) nominated for Best Ensemble Cast, loses to The King's Speech cast
• Portman, Kunis, and Ryder in attendance

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Director's Guild Awards

On Saturday night the Director's Guild Awards were held in Hollywood, California. The winner in the "Best Film" category was Tom Hooper for The King's Speech, one of Black Swan's biggest award competitors about King George VI of England and his fight against speech deficiency. Natalie Portman and Darren Aronofsky were both in attendance for the event. Portman was seen with Amy Adams, who was there to support The Fighter, another Best Picture Oscar nominee about the trials of Mickey Ward and his family.

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Black Swan Co-Writer Writing Sci-Fi Film For Marc Webb

Heat Vision reports that Mark Heyman, an executive producer on Black Swan and the co-writer is currently writing an original science fiction film titled Age Of Rage for Fox Searchlight with Webb directing based on the story he wrote for this film.

Age Of Rage takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where all the adults are dead and a group of teens set about trying to establish a new society.

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"Black Swan" on Blu-Ray March 8?

Just a few weeks ago, some were surprises that Sony seemed to be accelerating the DVD/Blu-ray release of The Social Network. (103 days from theatrical premiere to retail release.) Today we hear the announcement that The King’s Speech will hit store shelves on April 19 (131 days after its Dec 1 premiere). Now I’m finding a site offering (unconfirmed) pre-orders for Black Swan, apparently shipping on March 8 (a mere 81 days after it opened in mid-December, and roughly a week after Oscar night.)

The rule of thumb for estimating home video release dates used to be 17 weeks (119 days). Disney shortened that window considerably for Alice in Wonderland with its theatrical release span of March 5 – June 1 (12.5 weeks, 89 days). This time-frame works to terrific advantage with the current awards season calendar. Films released in the Fall are ready for AMPAS voters in editions that serve as deluxe FYC presentations. Movies that wait for traditional holiday premieres are perfectly positioned for home delivery, striking when the iron is hottest and publicity machines are firing on all cylinders.

Expect me to question this Promote Me & Own Me marketing synergy? No way. I’m too eager to get my hands around Nina’s neck to be skeptical of the Incredible Shrinking Theatrical Window. (Just wondering what’s taking so long for Pulp Fiction, Vertigo, and Lawrence of Arabia to go Blu.)

[Check out the cases after the cut.]

Vincent Cassel and Darren Aronofsky team-up for perfume commercial

Vincent Cassel, the smoking hot French choreographer from psycho-thriller "Black Swan", is reprising his role as the face of Yves Saint Laurent's best selling men's fragrance.

The actor is reteaming with his "Black Swan" director, Darren Aronofsky, for the second ad campaign for the perfume, La Nuit de L'Homme.

Though working with Aronofsky is the same on set as it is for commercials, Cassel admitted to WWD, there is a difference between portraying a character in a film and acting as a face of a fragrance.

"It is another role, but at the same time..when [people] see a movie, they think, 'Oh, it's a character.' When they see an ad, they say, 'Oh, it's him,'" he told the periodical. "But it's not."

The film for the ad, shot in Paris, revolves around Cassel playing the ultimate ladies' man attempting to seduce multiple women across the French city, all in one night. 

The sexy ad campaign is set to air in parts of Europe starting at the end of March and a month or two later in the States.

 From the New York Daily: Source

Darren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman at the Hollywood Reporter Roundtables

Inside the Special Effects of "Black Swan"

Oscar Round-Up

• Natalie Portman nominated for Actress in a Lead Role
• Matthew Libatique nominated for Cinematography
• Darren Aronofsky nominated for Directing
• Andrew Weisblum for Film Editing
• Producers Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, and Scott Franklin and for Best Picture
• Also received five votes for Best Screenplay

The 83rd Academy Awards will air Sunday 27th February at 8PM EST / 5PM PST on ABC
(Red carpet from 6.30PM / 3.30PM)

Darren Aronofsky on his nomination:
"It’s very insane. It’s beyond all our expectations. You don’t go in with expectations, especially when you are making a film that’s scary and psychological and not common. I’m really happy that the Academy is recognizing this kind of movie, it’s very exciting."

Natalie Portman on her nomination:
"I am so honored and grateful to the Academy for this recognition. It is a wonderful culmination of the 10-year journey with Darren to make this film. Making 'Black Swan' is already the most meaningful experience of my career, and the passion shown for the film has completed the process of communication between artists and audience. I am so thankful for the support we have received and I share this honor with the entire cast and crew of the film, especially Darren Aronofsky."

PopWatch on Barbara Hershey being snubbed:
"Speaking of frighteningly miserable characters, better luck next time, Barbara Hershey. Her maniacal mother character in Black Swan might as well have been a super villain named The Nail Clipper, and I loved every second of her creeptastic, wide-eyed performance. Black Swan is obviously Natalie Portman’s movie, but Hershey gave it some emotional context and depth."

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Natalie Portman on CBS

Sample Reviews for "No Strings Attached"

Very little happens in this film that couldn’t realistically happen in the lives of actual beautiful-but-brainy, non-obnoxiously moneyed and ambitious twentysomethings circa now, and at times, No Strings Attached feels almost shockingly attuned to the particular angst of its time and place. Emma’s third-act flight from Adam’s feelings would play as a predictable beat in a rom-com that only wanted to tear its lovers apart so it could bring them together again; it’s to Meriwether and Reitman’s credit that here it feels organic, a testament to the difficulty of accepting love at face value in a culture in which artificiality is the norm, sincere feelings are foreign enough to be frightening, and old-fashioned romance can seem like a suspicious affect [sic].

The uneasy tension between the natural and the contrived is embodied in Reitman's well-chosen real L.A. locations. Feelings that can no longer be contained come spewing out in an outdoor mall, backdropped with a blur of neon signs; a relationship fissure opens within the tight corridors of Chris Burden's “Urban Light” installation in front of LACMA. These vibrant emotional duets set within the city’s highly contrived public spaces subtly sketch Los Angeles as a place where the real is often hiding in plain sight among the profoundly synthetic. - The Village Voice

The prospect was iffy at best: a romantic comedy, from a Hollywood studio, with a premise that smacked of "Last Tango in Paris," the scandalous classic in which Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider have a sexual liaison with no strings—or names—attached. Yet the outcome is delightful. "No Strings Attached" doesn't have the overexposed, washed-out look of a studio comedy—the cinematographer was Rogier Stoffers—and doesn't for a moment feel like one. It's a smart, sexy romcom that turns the neat trick of staying sweetly human. - Wall Street Journal



Ivan Reitman has his best outing in decades with “No Strings Attached,” an amusing flip of the “friends with benefits” sex-leads-to-love romantic comedy formula.
It’s a movie benefiting from another sparkling, sexy and emotionally available performance by Natalie Portman, some clever turns in situations and witty banter that isn’t shy about crossing over into “Hangover” level raunchy.
Portman, almost certainly an Oscar nominee for “Black Swan,” carries this movie with her warmth and her wicked way with an incredibly crude come-on. Kutcher is better at bringing the funny that in carrying the emotional weight. Reitman didn’t suddenly evolve into a warmer, deeper filmmaker, either. But the director surrounds his leads with funny people saying witty things.
3 out of 4 stars - Orlando Sentinel



The movie is rated R, but it's the most watery R I've seen. It's more of a PG-13 playing dress-up.
This is a strange film. Its premise is so much more transgressive than its execution. It's as if the 1970s never happened, let alone subsequent decades. Emma and Adam aren't modern characters. They're sitcom characters allowed to go all the way like grown-ups.
Natalie Portman is perhaps about to win an Academy Award for “Black Swan." Why she helped produce this I cannot say. Ambitious actors usually do dreck like this in order to be able to afford to make a movie like “Black Swan." All the same, she does what she can; she has an edge, aggressive timing, and impressive enthusiasm for sex romping.
Of Ashton Kutcher, I have less to say. He seems to be a very nice guy, a little too large for agile romping and still too young for the Brendan Fraser role. When I saw him in “The Butterfly Effect" (2004), I registered that he could act, but in this material, he's essentially just the Male Unit. There is no character there.
2 out of 4 stars - Roger Ebert



Kutcher and Portman have terrific screen physics, using their 12-inch height difference to considerable slapstick effect. He is a galumphing hulk who comes to heel when the munchkin barks at him. Do they have chemistry? Not exactly. But both are such gorgeous animals that their couplings are frisky fun without being sexually explicit. - The Philadelphia Inquirer



How does this film get right what so many get wrong? You're not going to be startled by any redefinition of the entire notion of a romantic comedy here. It's ultimately a pretty simple, direct little movie. Kutcher seems more engaged and engaging than he has in most of his films, and part of that seems to be a matter of chemistry, him reacting to Natalie Portman. I get it. This is the first time we've seen that girl from the Lonely Island rap video in a feature film, the first time she's brought that same foul-mouthed, cheerfully dirty sense of humor out to play for a film. It makes her doubly adorable, and it feels like in her last few films, we're starting to really see what the adult Portman is capable of. She lets her Black Swan fly here, and her sense of giddy joy at what she's doing carries over into the tone of the film itself. She's having a good time, Kutcher's having a good time, and even Ivan Reitman, whose work has been genuinely awful for his last several films, seems to be having a good time. As a result, I did, too, and that simple surprise is enough to make me recommend this one. - Hitfix



In "No Strings Attached," Natalie Portman plays a beautiful doctor interested in sex without commitment.

Yeah, yeah, the line forms over there. But at the front of it is Ashton Kutcher, playing a dopey guy who still believes in love and figures if he works at it enough, he'll get Portman's character to come around, too.

It's an intriguing idea - if you put an actress as wonderfully talented as Portman in what is in many ways another romantic comedy plucked from the assembly line wherever such things are manufactured (well, Hollywood), will it make a difference? The short answer is yes. Portman proves game for just about anything here, the raunchier the funnier. The long answer is still yes, though quite a bit more qualified.

It's not a stretch to say that dippy good guy is a role Kutcher was born to. More intriguing is Portman as a sexually aggressive woman, particularly on the heels of her brilliant performance as a repressed ballet dancer in "Black Swan." The Oscar folks won't come calling for "No Strings Attached," at least not for Portman. But it is a nice little diversion in a career increasingly filled with outstanding performances.

"Strings" is Ivan Reitman's first directing gig since "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" in 2006 (in fact, his son Jason has been in the spotlight more often). He makes good use of comic timing, particularly among those in the supporting cast.
3 out of 5 stars - AZ Central