Anne Hathaway Is Catwoman

In what may be the best casting decision by Christopher Nolan since picking Heath Ledger as The Joker, Anne Hathaway has been chosen to play Selina Kyle AKA Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. Now at least we know what Batman is rising over.
Hathaway beat out Keira Knightley, Rachel Weisz, Blake Lively and Natalie Portman for the role, all who would've been great choices in their own right. Tom Hardy has also been picked to play Bane...

Anne Hathaway to Play Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises
Sara Hammel
Wednesday January 19, 2011
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20458850,00.html

Kurt Cobain & Natalie Portman: CIA Slaves?

Henry Makow also recently had an interesting review on his website of Black Swan, linking the film to the occult and Satanism. Like the popular web screed "Lady Gaga: The Illuminati Puppet" it is a piece that seems ripe to be passed around the Internet due to its shocking claims and the popularity of its target.

This leads to two articles I stumbled onto recently, which are both part of that curious "Blank is a CIA mind control victim" form of literature where Blank is the name of a famous celebrity. Indeed, the Lady Gaga-Illuminati connection is merely the most famous of these tales. There is a Mad Libs quality to these stories, but the best written of them at least note the occult symbolism in the celebrities work that makes these tales at least eerily plausible.

On celebrity linked to the CIA MK Ultra program is Natalie Portman, star of Black Swan. The article, found on PseudocCultMedia.blogspot.com, has an interesting analysis of her films and her roles from the perspective that she is a brainwashed CIA slave. If nothing else, there's a lot of hot pictures of Portman as a teenager in the article, which is reason enough to check it out.

The other article is on Kurt Cobain, and this theory is even more expansive:

A more believable theory about Cobain's death suggests he was the victim of a CIA mind control experiment. An individual claiming to represent 'a private network of researchers' contacted me about this and arranged a meeting in the Temple Church on Fleet Street. Once I'd settled in a pew, a very nervous young man seated himself beside me. According to my contact, the CIA is deeply concerned about the subversive influence of popular music on young people, that's why 'they murdered Brian Jones, John Lennon and Jim Morrison'.

What's been worrying the spooks lately is the sway black radicalism has gained over the minds of white teenagers, to counter this 'they've been pushing Nation of Islam style separatism among rappers'. Likewise, the white Grunge movement spearheaded by Nirvana was backed by the CIA because 'they wanted to divide youngsters on racial lines, if black and white kids linked up, they'd pose a serious threat to the system. The whole point of Grunge is to instill in teenagers a sense of hopelessness, to fill them with self-hate and prevent them from changing the world.'

Apparently, the CIA got hold of Cobain when he was still unknown, then using drugs, hypnosis and medical torture, they broke his will and rebuilt his personality. 'Most of the time he'd act relatively normal,' I was told, 'but all it took was a few key words spoken over the phone and Cobain would carry out the deeds he'd been programmed to enact.' My contact was convinced that the singer had been brainwashed into committing suicide at the peak of his success because the CIA figured this would reduce his potentially rebellious fans to complete despair.


Let me be clear here: by mentioning these articles, I'm not endorsing them, but I'm not dismissing them either. In any case, by looking at these conspiracy theories or urban legends, maybe it will lead you to questioning some assumptions of our culture...

"Black Swan"-- Hollywood Preaches Satanism
January 16, 2011
http://www.henrymakow.com/black_swan.html

Sunday, 22 November 2009
Natalie Portman Kabbalistic Kitten
http://pseudoccultmedia.blogspot.com/2009/11/natalie-portman-kabbalistic-kitten.html

NO MORE ROCK 'N' ROLL
Stewart Home
http://www.altx.com/interzones2/london/rock.n.roll.html

BabeWatch: Golden Globes Edition

Sofia Vergara

Eva Longoria

January Jones

Hayden Panettiere

Anne Hathaway

Angelina Jolie

And last, but not least, Natalie Portman

Film review: The art-house horror of 'Black Swan'

http://www.thisisbrandx.com/2010/11/film-review-black-swan.html

December 01, 2010
Film review: The art-house horror of 'Black Swan'
Andy Klein

Director Darren Aronofsky's “Black Swan” may share a few thematic elements with his last film, “The Wrestler” – such as performers self-destructing before our eyes – but it has much more in common with his earlier films (“Pi,” “Requiem for a Dream”).

Natalie Portman stars as 28-year-old ballerina Nina, who appears to have had no life outside of dance. Her mother (Barbara Hershey) gave up a similar career to raise her and has an ambiguous mixture of stage mother emotions — maternal pride, genuine love, and more than a little jealousy. Choreographer Thomas (Vincent Cassel) — a cross between George Balanchine and the Peter O'Toole character in “The Stunt Man” — unexpectedly chooses Nina for the star-making lead role in “Swan Lake”.

To Thomas, Nina's utter dedication and perfect technique make her a natural for the innocent, suffering Swan Queen; but she has none of dark passion necessary for the Black Swan (traditionally portrayed by the same dancer). As he pushes her into discovering her dark side, she is also tempted by Lily (Mila Kunis), who may or may not be trying to sabotage her and take over the role.

Nina doesn't really need their help. Thanks to 28 years of utter suppression of everything but dance, her id and libido have fermented and festered; she's already about to blow even before the new gig cranks up the pressure.

“Black Swan” is an art-house horror film — 10% “The Red Shoes,” 20% “Pi,” and 70% Polanski's “Repulsion.” Aronofsky adopts much of the technique, the perspective, and the concept of the latter, which makes a great model. “Repulsion” has the advantage of a bit more ambiguity at the end, but there's plenty enough here to keep things intriguing.

Aronofsky's tendency toward deepdish pretension is less of a problem here than in “Pi,” because he elicits terrific performances all around. Since we are locked into Nina's POV, Hershey and Cassel can only hint at who they may really be, unfiltered through Nina's growing lunacy; Kunis even manages to redeem herself after her dreadful work in “The Book of Eli.”

But mostly, Portman is “Black Swan.” Outside of the Star Wars films, she has never given a bad performance, but the material here gives her the chance to break through to another level. It is inconceivable that she won't win the Oscar for Best Actress. (On the other hand, it was inconceivable that Naomi Watts wouldn't win for her similar role in “Mulholland Dr.”... and she wasn't even nominated.)

Natalie Portman Recalls 'Awkward' Mila Kunis Sex Scene In 'Black Swan'

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1653290/20101130/story.jhtml

Dec 1 2010
Natalie Portman Recalls 'Awkward' Mila Kunis Sex Scene In 'Black Swan'
'I didn't really think through the fact that I was going to have to have sex with her,' she tells MTV News of suggesting her good friend for the role.
Brianne Riviello, with reporting by Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz)

Darren Aronofsky's much-anticipated "Black Swan," which is set to hit theaters Friday, has the movie world abuzz. The ballet flick, starring Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers, promises to be both disturbingly dark and stunningly beautiful, as the prima ballerina fights for the coveted lead role in "Swan Lake." When a new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), vies for the top spot, Portman's character is swept into an intense psychological competition, rife with sexual connotations, including the much buzzed-about love scene between Portman and Kunis.

From what we've seen, the battle of the wills between the dancers is ruthless, and their ensuing sexual encounters are equally intense. One would be hard-pressed to believe that Portman and Kunis are, in fact, close friends in real life. When MTV News caught up with the lead actress recently, she discussed the experience of shooting such difficult scenes with someone she knew so well.

Portman was quick to praise her friend in the villainous role, revealing that it had been her suggestion to Aronofsky that led to Kunis being cast in the part. "It was really crazy, because Mila and I were very good friends," she said. "And when Darren asked me, 'Who do you think could do this part? Who has sort of a similar height, coloring, physique?' I was like, 'Oh, Mila, Mila, Mila!' He met her and obviously flipped over her, and she's super talented and does an amazing job in the movie." Portman later realized what the pairing would entail, however. "I didn't really think through the fact that I was going to have to have sex with her in the movie," she admitted.

The actress revealed that it was slightly uncomfortable to work on those scenes but said that having Kunis around was a positive experience as well. "It was pretty awkward. I almost feel like it would be easier to do it with someone you didn't know," she said. "But, having said that, it was great to have a friend there who, we could laugh and make jokes and get over it together."

Despite Aronofsky's efforts to increase the rivalry by separating the pals on set, the pair stayed in close contact. "He didn't want us to be friends while we were shooting, because we're rivals in the movie," Portman said of the director. "So we both had to do this ballet training, but he would make it at different times, and then he would tell me, 'She's doing really well,' and then tell her, 'Natalie's doing so much better than you,' " she laughed. "But we would share the information, so we were like, 'He's messing with us. This isn't real, this isn't real.' "

BabeWatch

Natalie Portman & Mila Kunis

Anne Hathaway

Katy Perry

Kathy Griffin, Age 50

Eva Mendes

BabeWatch: Natalie Portman

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1330605/Your-Highness-Natalie-Portman-wears-VERY-tiny-bikini-new-film.html

"Black Swan": Aronofsky's spectacular dance thriller

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/andrew_ohehir/2010/09/10/black_swan/index.html

Friday, Sep 10, 2010
"Black Swan": Aronofsky's spectacular dance thriller
Natalie Portman plays a driven but damaged ballet star in the gorgeous, erotic, outlandish "Black Swan"
Andrew O'Hehir

TORONTO -- Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller "Black Swan," which screened for the press on Friday morning at the Toronto International Film Festival, is one of those movies that demand big adjectives. It's outlandish and melodramatic and spectacular. It aspires to be a 1970s-style event movie, of the kind nobody makes anymore -- a movie that will be chattered about at upscale cocktail parties (the kinds of parties nobody has anymore) and also draw large audiences who just want to be terrified and aroused and told a fantastic story. Set entirely within the cloistered, sadomasochistic world of ballet, it definitely won't be everybody's cup of tea, and those who don't like it can make a great show of being populists bored to tears by the tedious self-involvement of high culture.

But that will not be me. I'm here to tell you that I found "Black Swan's" tale of madness, music and sexual repression utterly overpowering from the first few frames of the film. I forgot about the notebook in my lap and totally abandoned that sense I sometimes get that I'm trying to write the review in my head before the movie's over. I was completely swept up and just wanted to ride along on Aronofsky's hallucinatory journey with Nina Thayer (Natalie Portman), a rising young ballerina who emerges as the star of a leading New York ballet company just as she may also be undergoing a mental breakdown.

I will happily acknowledge my bias, in that I'm a pretty big ballet fan (although no aficionado) and an even bigger fan of "The Red Shoes," the Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger masterpiece from 1948 that Aronofsky and his screenwriters (Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz and John McLaughlin) are echoing or channeling or otherwise not-exactly-remaking here. I'll leave it to genuine balletomanes to judge the quality of Portman's dancing, but I can tell you that she's had solid training and that Aronofsky and cinematographer Matthew Libatique make her look sensational. Or maybe "sensational" isn't the right word; "Black Swan" features some of the most magnificent ballet sequences ever created for cinema, but Nina is supposed to be a dancer whose prodigious technique is a little cold, mechanical and even fearful.

Nina is one of those girls who have been trained for ballet stardom since early childhood, and she has embraced that as her sole purpose in life (since that's the only way you're plausibly going to achieve it). She lives with her archetypal adoring-yet-smothering stage mom (Barbara Hershey) in a small Upper West Side apartment, and she's painfully shy around the other girls in the corps, who have boyfriends and go out to nightclubs and do the other things young women in Manhattan are likely to do. If Nina isn't a virgin, she's doing an awfully good impression of one, and when the wandering eye of company impresario Thomas Leroy (French actor Vincent Cassel, who is superb as usual) alights on her, everyone knows what to expect.

Ambiguous, sexualized master-student relationships abound in the world of dance (not to mention the world, period) but Cassel's character is clearly meant to evoke legendary choreographer George Balanchine, who tended to view the young female dancers at New York City Ballet as his own private hunting preserve. For Cassel's Leroy (as, I believe, it was for Balanchine) it's all part of the artistic process; if Nina is going to dance both the pure and virginal White Swan and the dark, seductive Black Swan in Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake," she's going to have to learn some things about herself she doesn't know yet. He's just the guy to teach her, of course.

But some strange things happen on the way to what ought to be a simple conquest. For one thing, elevating Nina to prima ballerina means casting aside Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder, in a brief but memorable role), who is both the company's reigning star and Leroy's longtime lover. Perhaps deliberately, Leroy also propels Nina into a tense, rivalrous friendship with the company's newest arrival, Lily (Mila Kunis), a tattooed free spirit from the West Coast who lacks Nina's drive and precision but has charisma and sexual energy to burn. And by the time Lily lures Nina away from mom's apartment for a long night of booze, Ecstasy, non-ballet-oriented dancing and some steamy bisexual exploration, we've already cottoned on to the dangerous truth that Nina can't tell the difference between the real world and what's in her head.

Nina has troubling dreams and a history of hurting herself (we gather) and a tendency not to recognize the girl she sees in the mirror. She's haunted by every other woman in the movie -- by her mother, by Beth, by Lily, and especially by the one she sees occasionally on the street or the subway train, the one who looks almost exactly like her. "Black Swan" sometimes has the buzz and chill of a classic horror film, and definitely contains elements of a clinical, Hitchcockian yarn about a nutso girl who damages other people and herself. But there's a lot more heart and beauty to it, a lot more Balanchine and "Swan Lake" and "The Red Shoes," than that description implies.

Aronofsky's fable about Nina's quest to transform herself from the White Swan into the Black Swan captures so much about the physical reality of ballet -- the blood and bruises, the tortured toes and twisted ligaments -- that it feels intimate, sympathetic and even loving. It's a terrible cliché to say that a movie about artistic creation is itself an autobiography of its creator, but this is one of those rare movies in which director, actor, character and story all fuse into a big and powerful allegorical somethingness. "Black Swan" certainly has its flaws -- it's overcooked, and implausible in places -- but I don't care. It's a magnificent blend of pop and art cinema, the breakthrough we've been waiting for from both Portman and Aronofsky, and an instant classic that people will be arguing about all winter.

"Black Swan" will open in theaters in December.

Sean Penn warns Barack Obama at Cannes

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/1955538/Sean-Penn-endorses-Barack-Obama-at-Cannes-Film-Festival-opening.html

Sean Penn warns Barack Obama at Cannes Film Festival opening
By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
15/05/2008

The Cannes Film Festival got off to a lively start with Sean Penn, president of this year's jury, sounding off about US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama and the opening movie almost being upstaged by a bunch of performing pandas.

Penn joined fellow judge Natalie Portman on the red carpet for the premiere of the first night film, Blindness, a thriller starring Julianne Moore.

At a press conference beforehand, the actor, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, offered his views on the Democratic nomination race.

Asked if he would be joining other Hollywood A-listers in pledging support for Obama, Penn gave him a less than ringing endorsement and warned that he has an awful lot to live up to.

”I don't have a candidate I'm supporting and I'm certainly interested and excited by the hope that Barack Obama is inspiring,” he said, but went on to accuse him of a “phenomenally inhuman and unconstitutional” voting record.

”I hope that he will understand, if he is the nominee, the degree of disillusionment that will happen if he doesn't become a greater man than he will ever be,” Penn said. “This is the most important election, certainly in my lifetime, and maybe ever.”

Portman, 26, said she would not be endorsing Obama or his rival, Hillary Clinton, but added: “I think it's a very exciting year for our politics, that for the first time in a while we have a choice of who we like better instead of who we hate least.”

Penn said it was impossible to separate film from politics, and promised that the winning film would be a reflection of the current climate.

“One way or another, when we select the Palme d'Or winner, I think we are going to feel very confident that the film-maker who made the film is very aware of the times in which he or she lives.”

There are 22 films in competition for the Palme d'Or and the jury will watch them over the next 12 days. “The idea is to be wide awake with an empty bladder for the start of everything,” explained Penn.

Asked if he was enjoying it so far, he complained that he had been “discouraged from smoking” – France's smoking ban was introduced last year – before lighting up and chain-smoking his way through the press conference.

The opening film, Blindness, is a thriller from director Fernando Meirelles about a town struck down by a mysterious epidemic, leaving Moore the only character with the ability to see.

Based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago, its story of a community hit by disaster and receiving no government help draws obvious parallels with Hurricane Katrina.

Moore said the film was timely: “I think there's sometimes something in the zeitgeist. There's a tremendous amount of tragedy right now, physical tragedy and man-made tragedy, and we are feeling anxious.”

The 47-year-old actress dyed her famous red hair blonde for the role. She said: “I'm a redhead and I'm always a redhead, except for this movie. I don't want to do it again. I didn't like it very much.”

Away from the main competition, comic actor Jack Black launched his latest movie, DreamWorks animation Kung Fu Panda, by performing martial arts moves on the beach in the company of 40 extras in panda suits. Black, who lends his voice to the film along with the likes of Angelina Jolie and Lucy Liu, explained that he was there to create “panda-monium”.

The film creating the most buzz on the Croisette remains Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which has its world premiere on Sunday. Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett and director Steven Spielberg will fly in later this week for the summer's most eagerly-awaited sequel.

10 Most Mismatched Movie Couples

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/10mostmismatchedcouples.html

10 Most Mismatched Movie Couples

Nick Nolte & Julia Roberts
I Love Trouble - 1994
In the early 90's, Julia came out of nowhere to become the biggest female star in the world. Nick was named People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1992. So why not pair them together in a screwball comedy about dueling reporters? Because he was nearly twice her age, and both of them appeared to be painfully aware of that fact.

Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez
Gigli - 2003
Ah, "Gigli." The makers of "Ishtar" thank you for replacing their movie title as the funny word that means "embarrassing flop." Ben and J.Lo met on the set of their ill-conceived gangster-meets-lesbian love story, and the tabloids were packed with stories about them every week thereafter. Still, real life sparks don't always translate to the screen, and the movie's failure killed the couple's future.

Harrison Ford & Anne Heche
Six Days, Seven Nights - 1998
When Anne Heche was cast in this romantic action movie, she was a little-known but well-respected actress. By the time the film hit screens, everybody knew her as Ellen DeGeneres' girlfriend. But even without the real world intruding, there's no way anyone would buy the 29-year-old Heche and 56-year-old Ford ending up together, no matter how much time they spent on a desert island.

Kevin Spacey & Kate Bosworth
Beyond the Sea - 2004
The real Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee were quite an odd couple. He was a balding singer from the Bronx; she was a 16-year-old movie star. But somehow they made it work. In the movie of Darin's life, however, Spacey and Bosworth were completely unbelievable. It didn't help that Spacey was eight years older than the actual Darin ever lived to be. At least his hairline fit the part.

Hayden Christensen & Natalie Portman
Star Wars - Episode II and Episode III - 2002/2005
After watching the uncomfortable scenes with Natalie Portman and 10-year-old Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace, Star Wars fans everywhere thought, "It can't get worse than this." Oh, how little they knew. For the next two prequels, they were faced with Portman and Christensen stiffly reciting George Lucas' leaden dialogue. When the giant lizard Obi-Wan rides is more convincing than their romance, it's enough to make you want to scream "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Madonna & Adriano Giannini
Swept Away - 2002
The original Italian 1974 film "Swept Away," was an examination of class and gender issues. Guy Ritchie's 2002 remake is an examination of his wife's dedication to Pilates. Watching this movie makes you not only question why Madonna would fall for Adriano Giannini's crude and abusive fisherman, but why she thought it'd be a good idea to make another movie with her spouse after having already bombed with her previous husband Sean Penn in "Shanghai Surprise."

Dan Aykroyd & Rosie O'Donnell
Exit to Eden - 1994
"Exit to Eden" was a dark, romantic novel by "Interview With a Vampire" author Anne Rice about bondage and S&M. Who better, then, to turn it into a movie than the creator of "Mork and Mindy?" An even better question: what movie executive thought that the formula for box office gold was putting Dan Aykroyd and Rosie O'Donnell in skimpy studded leather outfits? As the comic relief they are painfully unfunny, and not even the kind of painful that a dominatrix would enjoy.

Justin Guarini & Kelly Clarkson
From Justin to Kelly - 2003
Casting the first and second place finishers of "American Idol" in the lead roles of a movie is sort of like letting the "Top Chef" winners perform your appendectomy. You would think being on a TV show together would make both Justin and Kelly comfortable being in the presence of both a camera and each other, but they look lost without Simon around to berate them. At least the dismal failure of the movie insured that we wouldn't be subjected to "From Jordin to Sanjaya."

Eddie Murphy & Eddie Murphy
Norbit - 2006
It took 25 years of hard work for Eddie Murphy to go from "Saturday Night Live" cast member to Oscar-nominated thespian. But it took just 2-1/2 minutes of the "Norbit" trailer to kill any hope he ever had of being taken seriously again. As both the nerdy title character and his overweight and domineering wife Rasputia, Murphy proved he can be supremely unpleasant no matter what size or gender.

Woody Allen & Any Actress 20+ Years Younger than Him
It was always part of the comedy in Woody Allen's early movies how a bespectacled, awkward guy like him could end up with gorgeous women. Unfortunately, no one ever let Woody in on the joke. And by the time he was casting women like Téa Leoni (31 years younger than him) and Julia Roberts (32), it really stopped being funny. The most absurd: when his character in "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" is seduced by Charlize Theron (four decades younger than Woody).