I’m pretty sure the single greatest advantage to being a celebrity is getting to date other celebrities. Let’s face it, they’re hot, they’re rich, and the odds are pretty good you won’t have to be with them more than a year or two. Talk about variety. Plus you can use them in your projects (advantageous if they’re hotter than you) or try to talk them into using you in their projects (advantageous if you’re hotter than them).
I’m not going to say who’s less hot (and thus reaping the greater advantage) in the Natalie Portman/Devendra Banhart relationship (though we’ve all got eyes and know it’s clearly the latter), but the two have joined together to create the music video for Banhart’s latest single “Carmensita.”
Folk rocker Devendra Banhart has enlisted girlfriend Natalie Portman in his latest project: the music video for his new single, “Carmensita.”
Styled as a Bollywood send-up – with cheeky subtitles and silly special effects to boot – the musician casts Portman as a princess whom he must save with his “rebellious beard.” (You just have to see it!)
When they’re not in sync onscreen, battling snakes and fire, the happy couple have been spotted together, hanging out everywhere from New York’s West Village to Israel.
[From People]
Banhart and Portman have been dating since about March, according to most reports. They’re frequently spotted around New York City looking all lovey-dovey, but not in a nauseating, I-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face way. Because Natalie Portman is too classy for that.
Here’s their new music video.
Perhaps the most surprising part of this story is that Devendra is a boy’s name.
Great video…”interesting” looking BF she’s got there…
Seriously, I think Devendra is a beautiful guy, or he would be without the beard and the long hair. But it is his pubic hair what can be seen at the beginning? I hope this is a tatoo.
Anyone else think this could be viewed as rather insulting to Bollywood/Indian culture?
She is hot!!!
Too bad she must be broke. This video is the worst thing I’ve ever seen or listened too. I’m suprised they didn’t make her wear a beard too…
I thought the music was pretty good but I did find the video asinine. It also might be pseudo-arty or whatever but when they break up this is going to bite them in the ass like “Jenny from The Block.” I also really didn’t need to see that guy’s pubes poking out of the top of his pants. He is way too hairy overall.
I don’t find it insulting..jmo BTW, They are speaking in spanish.
I had to go google that guy…interesting.
i loved it. and no, it isnt insulting to bollywood or indian culture. as someone who just had a few courses in indian cinema,, there are plenty of films that look that campy (better dancing of course) but that choppy and weird and low budge. i loved the certificate from the board of censors at the beginning! every indian film has that before it begins. i think devandra is brilliant and his music is so good.
She is an incredibly boring creature.And I found it insulting.
where are you from, sue? I dind’t find it insulting are all.
Is it just me or does he look a lot like Charles Manson. Either way, she can do so much better.
Because people aren’t worth dating unless they’re pretty, huh?
🙄
Anyway…. VERY interesting guy, that Devendra! And I agree, under the hippie hair he’s pretty striking!
I thought the video was great!
She doesn’t rub suntan lotion on his ass on a boat so I doubt it would have the same sort of outcome as “Jenny from the Block”, lol. Couples and friends did videos together long before Ben and Jen and it’s all good! I don’t think Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley get red in the face when Uptown Girl comes on an “I love the 80’s” show.
Oh, how nice… my comment is awaiting moderation again.
It made me smile 🙂
It’s insulting. He couldn’t find a ‘genuine’ Indian woman? There again, Indian culture isn’t renowned for its appreciation of its darker-skinned female citizens. She looks more or less as what is represented as a beautiful Indian woman in Bollywood film and the society at large. Fair(er) skin is considered more beautiful.
I tried to be open minded about this video. One because like Barhhart I’m a Venezuelan-american and two because I love Natalie Portman. However, both the song and the video were horrible. I think that Natalie, in time, will look at this video and cringe in embarrassment.
Will this be on MTV? God, I hope not. Crap like this cheapens real Indian culture and music. Every uneducated american who sees this will have a low opinion of Bollywood and therefor not give Indian music and movies a second thought.
People, stop taking it so seriously. It was meant to be fun.
Devendra is a very typical man’s name in India. That video was a great send-up of low-budget Bollywood films and I thought Natalie Portman was good in it. I do wish Dev had hitched up his pants, though.
Is it strange that Devendra Banhart is a good friend of Gael García Bernal? They sang together in a video once. Hmm…
I think Devendra’s music is great – and I like this song. And the video – it’s delightfully campy. And there is no culture or genre of film-making that is immune from parody, nor should there be as far as I’m concerned, especially when it’s a fairly gentle one like this.
I really liked the video and the music both. What’s insulting about it? How dare you insult my sense of entertainment! I shall turn the fires of my rage into a river of incineration on your sofa. 8)
Big sense of humour failure on the part of some posters here. It’s completely tongue-in-cheek and hilarious. Some people obviously know SFA about Bollywood if they’re finding something to be offended by here.
thank you geronimo and mairead. exactly. some people seem to think the final cut of this music video was accidentally campy and cheap looking-a failure. thats the whole freaking point.
Gahh. Yes, the music is agreeable enough, but the video is far too Love Guru for my sensibilities.
Mike Myers has ruined a lot lately. 8)
Sadly, Devendra Banhart actually looks slightly better here than he usually does.
I would have stayed with Gael Garcia Bernal
She has one of the best nose jobs in Hollywood. She must have went to the same surgeon as Angelina Jolie.
🙄 🙄 🙄 well done you Nan. You win a banana.
All these celebs having work done – they’re doing it just to spite you, you know. 😐
Now while I think Gael Garcia Bernal is the business and one of the best actors around – who’s to say that Dev there isn’t a nicer boyfriend? 😛
*pssst* I have a confession to make. I saw the Love Guru at the weekend. I didn’t hate it 😳 But – before I must immolate myself over the infidelity to my better judgement – if it’s any consolation, I didn’t see it in a sanctioned cinema *ahem* 😈
For those of you who find the music video insulting – Have you ever seen a genuine Bollywood film/music video? My boyfriend and I spent several months in India earlier this year, (we were even cast in a Bollywood film!) and this little ditty stays very true to the delightfully campy, low budget Indian music video that we have both grown to know and love.
Bollywood and Chenai produce more media entertainment than major Western studios combined. The sheer volume of films produced each year is indicative that not all films are going to be epic summer blockbusters. Indeed, in the Indian entertainment business, quantity trumps quality tenfold. And unlike Western film makers, Bollywood and her sister studios aren’t terribly concerned about communicating a message to the masses. The point of the entertainment industry is to entertain, not comment on social inequities or wax philosophical. (India is a beautiful, but harsh land. The more in-depth Indian films often fail to make numbers at the box office, perhaps in part because no one wants to be reminded of everyday life when they head to the theater and hand over hard earned rupee for a couple hours worth of escapism.)
As a result, the genre is delightfully campy – the actors are beautiful and over-the-top, the film quality is notoriously low, the subtitles (if they have any) are flowery and verbose, and the plotlines are very, very “recycled”. (Like any genre, however, there are some films that are more sophistcated than others, and at the turn of the century, film producers have started to put more time, money, energy and love into their films – Johda Ackbar, for example, was absoultely stunning and could hold its own out here in the States. My boyfriend and I sat through all 3 and a half hours of it, dispite the lack of subtitles. )
The only thing Indians may find “insulting” in this particular music video is the portrayal of the Gods. I think I’ve read somewhere that it is sacrilegious to portray the deities in human form (ie with actors). But with an ever-changing culture fueled by Western influence, I’m not sure how serious an offense this is, if it is at all, or if it is akin to “light blasphemy”. (Some people might be pissed that Kali is shown cavorting with a human and is missing four of her six arms – I know I was.)
They may also be a little put off that there’s no tree/waterfall scene in this music video. I’ve seen a lot of Indian music videos (both retro and current) and they all manage to ingeniously incorporate a variation of “lovebirds playing in a waterfall” or “lovebirds sitting in a tree”. Or a field! Lovebirds running and dancing in an open field. (Gangsta rap has bling-bling and booty-shakin’; Hair bands have head-banging and 30 minute long guitar solos; Emo has mournful stares and cliched love letters; Indian music has dancing and nature. It’s science, people!)
Gah. Sorry for the rant. India is very near and dear to me, and I could go on about Her for hours, but I’ll stop here for now. 🙂
Actually the video is more reminiscent of South Indian films in Tamil and Malayalam. They tend to be crude, more illogical, and low-budget. And the snakes jumping out to destroy your enemies – very characteristic!
Bollywood these days produces some pretty slick, state-of-the-art movies. There’s also been a move towards more conventional (Western-influenced) filmmaking with more of an emphasis on original plots, dialogue, etc. If you’ve ever seen any of Aamir Khan’s movies, you’ll know what I mean (Lagaan, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par are good ones to start).
In the last five or seven years there have been a lot of movies about Indian expatriates living in various countries: the US, UK, and Australia for example. I’m not a big fan of Bollywood but we get their movies on cable twenty-four hours a day (I live in neighboring Pakistan).
This video was just a bit of fun, though. I seriously doubt anyone except maybe Hindu hardliners would find it offensive. In fact, there had to have been some Indian people involved in the production (choreography, hair and makeup, costumes, as well as just to give a general feel of an Indian movie).
she is so beautiful.. inside and outside!
I don’t find it an insulting aspect of bollywood culture.and in recent indian cinema is getting more liberal.
dilmanzil.com
She is hot and beautiful.