Natalie Portman launches vegan shoe line

Natalie Portman Garners Oscar Buzz for "Black Swan"The actress' performance in Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller "Black Swan," which opened the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday night, has critics already discussing her chances of earning an Academy Award nomination for the role.

In Contention's Guy Lodge called the film "boldly deranged and beautifully despairing," while Peter Debruge at Variety said it was "a wicked, sexy and ultimately devastating study of a young dancer's all-consuming ambition."Portman trained for 10 months to prepare for the role of Nina, an intensely focused ballerina whose passion for dancing takes a toll on her body and her sanity.
The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt said the Portman "bravely ventured out of her comfort zone to play a character slowly losing sight of herself. It's a bravura performance."

"If the film is ultimately too unsettling to snag main prizes, it has at least one nomination in the bag for lead actress Natalie Portman who gives one of "those" performances, transforming herself after 10 months of training into an accomplished ballerina, almost uncomfortable to watch as she consumes her difficult role," Screen International's Mike Goodridge said. "Portman is captivating...Like Catherine Deneuve in "Repulsion" or Mia Farrow in "Rosemary's Baby," she captures the confusion of a repressed young woman thrown into a world of danger and temptation with frightening veracity.

The Telegraph's David Gritten wrote that Portman plays her character with "considerable expertise" and that the role "elevates her from a substantial leading actress to major star likely to be lifting awards in the near future."


Other performances by leading ladies that are being talked about as possible Best Actress contenders are Julianne Moore and Annette Bening ("The Kids are All Right"), Lesley Manville ("Another Year"), Tilda Swinton ("I Am Love"), Michelle Williams ("Blue Valentine"") and Naomi Watts ("Fair Game").

They'll likely have competition, according to New York magazine's Vulture blog, from upcoming roles from Anne Hathaway ("Love and Other Drugs"), Hilary Swank ("Conviction"), Carey Mulligan ("Never Let Me Go"), Helena Bonham Carter ("The King's Speech"), Nicole Kidman ("Rabbit Hole"), Robin Wright ("The Conspirator"), Reese Witherspoon ("How Do You Know") and Helen Mirren ("The Tempest").

Conan O'Brien Coming with His Show Conan

The suspense is over. Television personality Conan O'Brien announced the title of his new late night talk show on Wednesday.

Well, Conan O'Brien didn't end up going with any of the helpful suggestions put forth this morning. And apparently all those stories about the late night host not being able to use the name "Conan" because of the makers of the "Conan" movies were unfounded, as O'Brien announced today that his new show will be called simply "Conan." In a video posted to his show's official TBS site, O'Brien talked about how much the media had been wondering about the title (including one persistent Italian journalist/pizza maker) and how he had come to a simple, elegant conclusion. He also joked about the kick off date for the show (he initially said December 8, but was corrected by somebody off-camera with the actual date, which is November 8 — "Of this year?" O'Brien exclaimed) and noticed that the title he wrote on the piece of paper for the reveal sort of looked like "Conaw."


The solution to O'Brien's problem is indeed simple and elegant. He becomes the only late night host whose show is simply his name, a convention that has never really been used but is actually a brilliant idea. After all, it's unlikely that most fans ever knew the actual titles of any of O'Brien's previous shows — the question was always, "Did you catch Conan last night?" It also puts the focus squarely on O'Brien and the idea that he is a singular personality who can carry a show all by himself (though luckily he won't need to).

With that detail out of the way, we can start speculating on the rest of the show.Will O'Brien recruit a band leader — and if so, who will he tap? Which of the beloved O'Brien characters will be making a comeback? What will the format be? And how will the likes of David Letterman, Jon Stewart and (especially) Jay Leno respond to the latest ratings threat? If it means the late night scene will get back to being as interesting as it was at the beginning of 2010 (and doesn't end in
O'Brien leaving television with his hat in his hand), then the fall will be extra
interesting — and truly special.