I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman

Since it's officially Oscar weekend, I think it's the right time to make a confession.

I love Natalie Portman.  

When you think in your head of the actress or actor that you would like to live your life as, for me that's Natalie Portman.  I really hope I'm not the only one who does this.  Otherwise, this is about to get really embarrassing.

There it is, folks, the magazine
that started it all. I would have killed
for those perfectly rolled bangs and
that purple jacket.  

It started in November 1995.  I was in sixth grade, and Natalie was on the cover of Seventeen magazine, which was my favorite publication at the time.  I even dealt with my dad asking me every month if you needed ID to buy one.  Oh, dads -- they're the best.  She was wearing what I thought was the awesomest outfit ever.  It was lavender.  It was iridescent. It was fantastic.  She also had the greatest haircut in the world.  I kept the magazine until I went to college, bringing it to the salon every time I got my haircut so that I could look just like Natalie.  (Unfortunately, this was a time in my life before I discovered the beauty of styling products and learned how to use a round brush.  Most of my efforts were for naught.)

Anyway, that was in for me and Natalie.  I've loved her ever since.  Some of the other things that I love about her are that she went to Harvard (Veritas, bitches.) and one time, I passed her in Harvard Yard and it. was. magical.  I mean, I'm pretty sure it was her.  It was night time in the winter, so there were lots of hats and down coats and stuff.  Plus, Harvard Yard isn't actually super well-lit at night.  But in my head it was her and it was awesome.  She's also classy and poised but doesn't seem to take herself too seriously, which I think is great.  For example, I think her SNL digital short is hilarious.

Ms. Portman is undeniably beautiful, fashionable and can even pull off pregnancy glam and a shaved head.  (Some of my other celebrity friends don't do this as well.  I'm looking at you, Britney.)  She's been in nearly every genre of film and done significant theatre work.  We ain't just talking rom coms here, folks.  She campaigned for Obama, and spoke publicly about how much Hillary Clinton inspires her as a woman. (Wellesley blue, through and through.) Also, she has some of my favorite movie lines ever in Garden State (and not the one about the retarded quarterback):

Who would you want to live your life as,
wildcats?  Leave your answers in the comments.

...What do you do? You laugh. I'm not saying I don't cry, but in between I laugh and I realize how silly it is to take anything too seriously. Plus, I look forward to a good cry. It feels pretty good. 

That's life. If nothing else, it's life. It's real, and sometimes it fuckin' hurts, but it's sort of all we have.

Besides all this other awesome stuff that she does, Natalie Portman is also in the title of one of my very favorite songs, I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman.   That gives me a great name of this blog post, and also an opportunity to introduce those of you who are unfamiliar to k-os, a Canadian rapper/producer that I love.  True story: I discovered k-os because I used to be really into songs that had my name in them, (hence my ongoing affection for Trisha Yearwood's She's in Love With the Boy) so every once in awhile I would search iTunes for different combinations of Kate, Katie, Katherine, etc.  I stumbled upon k-os's Joyful Rebellion album because k-o are my initials.  Turns out he's awesome, so I continued to follow him and in 2009 he put out his fourth album, Yes! featuring I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman, which doesn't actually have anything to do with Natalie Portman, but does sample the theme song from The OC.  If you like what you hear, I also recommend Burning Bridges, The Love Song and The Man I Used to Be.

At any rate, all these confessions and stories are really to say, Natalie, you're officially in my wolfpack.  And that means you're a winner no matter what happens at the Oscars. 

xo kate