On the move: Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman moved with her family from Israel to America when she was three and grew up in New York. She began dancing lessons at four and by 10 was acting in an off-Broadway show as an understudy with a young Britney Spears. She was cast in her first film two years later. A committed vegetarian, she lives alone in New York and is reportedly dating Nathan Bogle, a male model
Gill Pringle
The Sunday Times
Gill Pringle
The Sunday Times

You have to feel for Natalie Portman. Here is an actress, 26 years old, already nominated for an Oscar, winner of a Golden Globe and with a psychology degree from Harvard. But what made the headlines recently at the release of a short film? Her bottom. "Natalie Portman gets naked", shrieked one; "Portman goes nude", yelled another. The internet went into turbo drive: 500,000 people downloaded the video free from iTunes, and it then found its way onto YouTube and other websites. The film was a 13-minute short directed by Wes Anderson called Hotel Chevalier and was released on the internet as a prequel to the director's big budget feature The Darjeeling Limited, out last month.

Audiences shunned the main event, but the distributor of