Ooooh, scandal! The print edition of Us Weekly has an interesting little “behind the scenes” story about this year’s post-Oscar Oprah episode. For years, Oprah managed to do a “morning after” the Oscars show, usually with all of the newly-minted Oscar-winning actors. I noticed that on this year’s show, it was very heavy on the Hathaway and very light on the Natalie Portman. I just figured that it was nothing, though. Turns out, Natalie Portman was scheduled for the show, but she cancelled at the last minute, leaving Oprah at the lurch.
And the award for most blatant blow-off goes to… Natalie Portman! Portman had committed to appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s post-Oscars special, but as the May 22 episode of “Oprah Behind the Scenes” reveals, Portman cancelled just two hours before the taping in LA.
“She’s in a hotel room 15 minutes away,” a staffer sobbed. “But she’s not coming… because she’s pregnant and exhausted.”
The insult to injury? Unlike Winfrey, 57 – who was truly ill and went to bed early – Portman was pooped from partying! As Us Weekly reported, she was out dancing with Madonna at 4 a.m.
[From Us Weekly, print edition]
Not even Julia Roberts stands up Oprah! I mean, on one side, I can understand that Natalie wanted to go out after her Oscar win, as is her right, and why not party until the wee hours? And if she didn’t feel like going on Oprah, fine. But what bugs is that Natalie AGREED to come on and simply didn’t feel like pulling it together for Oprah. Meh… maybe Oprah should have invited Sarah Lane on instead. From what I gather, Lane gave the bulk of the Oscar-winning performance! (haha, let’s see how many people yell at me for that)
Photos courtesy of WENN.
My guess is that she did have every intention of doing the Oprah special but couldn’t muster the energy after being up all night. If she weren’t pregnant I’d be all over her for it, but since she was pregnant I think she gets a pass.
Is someone actually gonna be mad at a pregnant woman because she spent the best night of her career celebrating and then was too tired to do an interview in the morning?
Probably.
I am not mad at her though. I am sure if Nat wasn’t pregnant she would have pulled herself together and gone on Oprah. I have spent many a week night partying and gone to an 8 am class and then work…I couldn’t imagine being pregnant and trying to do that. I mean if January Jones is any indication, pregnancy takes a lot of you. January Jones doesn’t even look like January Jones so I can only imagine what being pregnant is like and winning an Academy Award.
Also good chance this story is complete bullshit…its Us Weekly.
Well I hate to defend Natalie since I think she’s a snot but when you win an Oscar you are kind of obligated to stay up all night schmoozing with the Academy. She’s pregnant so she needs her rest end of story Oprah or no Oprah.
ITA Kaiser- nobody deigns to stand up Oprah Winfrey!!! You show up whether your pregnant, in a wheelchair, hungover from last night, in yesterday’s clothes, etc.
I agree with fellow posters. She’s pregnant and should get a pass.
Good lord, the woman had won an Oscar and had a full day. I would imagine she was exhausted. It’s Oprah, not the Dali Lama for goodness sake!
When you are pregnant, there are those times that you can not muster energy for anything, not even Oprah Winfrey.
It this circumstance, I would probably have done the same as Portman, celebrated Oscar and canceled Oprah.
It’s great that she went out and partied but she knew she had a scheduled commitment the next day and while Oprah isn’t god or anything, she’s a powerful woman with a huge fan base so oprah’s fans are going to be throwing her under the bus. When I was pregnant it was hard to just get out of bed but since I had a job to do (and hers was to go visit Oprah and probably sit on a couch) you get up and do it.
Just because she is Oprah doesn’t mean pregnant women who have legitimately enjoyed their night post Oscar win have no right cancel their presence to her show.
Anybody that b-tch slaps Okra is o-tay in my book. On the other hand don’t make it a habit of breaking promises Natalie. (now cue all the”when I was heavy with fetus” stories)
I know pregnancy makes you tired and if this were someone else then maybe I would have some sympathy but Natalie just seems like the type that would pull the pregnancy card because she just didn’t feel like it. I think she feels that she has won an Oscar and doesn’t have to do Oprah if she doesn’t want to. I can think of a lot of Oscar winners who still need to hustle.
Hmm, lemme’ think on this: You know you’re scheduled to do an interview very early in the morning, but you want to celebrate a very big, important night. You are also pregnant, which means you tire easily…SO DON’T PARTY ‘TIL 4 AM!! Seriously, maybe, call it a night at 1 or 2, (preferably earlier.) It’s called being a responsible adult, especially now that you’re going to be a parent. She does not get a pass from me, and I cannot stand Oprah, so normally I would be delighted if someone had the audacity to blow off her royal haughtiness.
I hate this chick a LOT, but I think when you are pregnant you get a pass, as others have already said. But I really DO hate this chick.
I am on natalie side it was her night to have fun and Oprah needs to get over herself.
I am soooooo glad I don’t have to see her two faced, triple chin, this is what you should do to make your life better B.S. anymore on TV.
I am frequently suspicious of stories like this that come out this far past the event. Why is this a story now all of a sudden? Shouldn’t this have been a big story in February, not June? I am not a fan of the “I am Oprah, so you must kiss my ring” point of view, but Ms. Portman is not high on my list either with her blatant (and probably dishonest) Oscar campaign, which I hate for any actor. Both of them seem to be too full of themselves for my taste.
I just don’t understand what the big deal is concerning this woman. She’s ok looking and is not a nice person.
I wish more people would “diss” Oprah.
Meh she might have had morning sickness or anything. Who knows and really, who cares?
Natalie is a professional and Harvard graduate, and this is her business and she needs to follow through with her business obligations. She should have realized that she was committed to the Oprah show in the morning and she should have planned her evening accordingly. It is not like she was surprised at winning the academy award. I really feel for the production assistants and producers who do all of the work behind the scenes to plan these shows involving narcissistic twits like Portman.
What are you doing staying up until 4am if you are pregnant, Oscar or not? Oy.
Natalie is far from the first actress to win an oscar while pregnant do names like Eva Marie Saint & Meryl Streep ring a bell. plus your forgetting that some pregnant women have morning sickness their entire pregnancy and that determines weather you can travel or not as does if there’s been other complications like pre-term labor ect. plus Nat didn’t win the Oscar out right it was bought and paid for by the studio
This is business. So, she should have shown up.
But….she stood up Oprah hee hee
I echo the commentators who have said that this is her job, and it’s a part of being responsible. I have dragged my hungover, tired ass to every commitment I’ve ever had because my poor behaviour doesn’t give me an excuse to blow off my obligations.
We know she wasn’t drinking and I’m sure she was epically tired. But how about a slightly earlier night and asking Oprah’s staff if there anything they can do to make the interview easier?
Natalie pulled the pregnancy card, pure and simple.
As if Oprah trumps an Oscar night out. Who cares if she skipped. She won, she was celebrating, it’s her life, end of story.
exactly, this story is probably bullshit. Natalie who didn’t go to her first nomination because she was graduating uni, doubt she would have let oprah with such a bully down. she is pregnant, leave her alone 😀
People give too much reverence to Oprah. It’s just a talk show! And if given the choice, I’d much rather celebrate winning an Oscar.
She should have tried to honor her commitment though, but I’m guessing she didn’t realize how tired she’d be.
Well said Garvels and Roma 🙂
It’s also her job to shmooze all night with the directors, producers, and movie execs who will be giving her the next multi-million dollar paycheck.
Nyah, nyah Oprah. Can’t stand her. So happy she is sort of gone. Don’t care about Natalie Portman, just wanted a chance to diss the big O.
The story is true, but Oprah wasn’t upset about it. Her assistants & producers, OTH, lost their shit. They were very upset about it and crying.
This is coming up now, not to hurt poor widdle Natalie’s feelings, but because the Oscar show was featured on the Oprah Behind the Scenes.
I agree with everyone else. So she stayed up and partied and then was too tired to do Oprah…who cares? It’s not like Oprah suffered from the cancellation. Plus as everyone pointed out she’s pregnant.
Plus Kaiser, Sarah Lane may have done the bulk of the dancing, but Natalie didn’t win because of the dancing. She won for her acting.
ffs. Oprah will survive. 🙄
I dunno gang, she kinda wins back some cool points for being a no show on Oprah in my book.
Kaiser.. you cheecky monkey you! “(haha, let’s see how many people yell at me for that)”
BWHAHHAHAHAHA
being pregnant seems like a pain in the ass so it sounds legit to me. and i agree oprah needs to get over herself already.
I watched that ‘Behind the Scenes’ episode and Oprah wasn’t upset at all about it- the staffer was all worked up that it would ruin the show, but Oprah seemed relieved that there would be more time to spend with all of the guests already booked.
When you win an Oscar, as Oprah pointed out, you HAVE to go to all the parties- it’s pretty expected that you hit up the circuit afterwards, and since she’s pregnant, she was probably exhausted. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush admitted on the show that they hadn’t gone to bed yet and partied all night, so that’s pretty much the expected behavior of an Oscar winner- not smart when you’re pregnant.
Being preggo is tricky. You’re so accustomed to being not-pregnant and having the same level of energy, etc. So, she very well may have thought she could both party and do Oprah. I’ve called in sick to work more than once preggo because I over-extended myself unknowingly.
I also take a little glee in that fact that Oprah got dissed. The woman isn’t Jesus or the president.
I hate both Oprah and NP, so I don’t care.
They should have asked her fiancé to be there instead. Something tells me he would have loved the idea of being there.
I don’t like Oprah, but I REALLY don’t like Natalie Portman. So this story is fine by me. A bruised ego for one and bad press for the other. They both suck.
I don’t give her a pass for being pregnant. She backed out on a commitment. Doesn’t matter if it’s Oprah or the Today Show, or the local news…she committed to being there and backed out 15 minutes prior to her scheduled arrival?? That’s just unprofessional. I’ve been pregnant twice. It’s tiring, yes. You get a pass on heavy lifting, yes. It was a talk show! How physically exerting can that possibly be? I’m just shocked she passed up a chance to talk about herself.
I had been a fan of hers for years, loved her in the Professional and thought she’d picked her projects well over the course of her career. But the Sarah Lane controversy did change my mind. All Portman had to say was, look, I did a lot of dancing myself and I want credit for my hard work, but Sarah did a ton of work, too, and there’s no way I could possibly replicate with one year’s conditioning what a ballerina who has trained her entire life does; it’s a disservice to the art form for me or for anyone to assume otherwise. That’s all she had to say. She did put a lot of work in, she does deserve credit for that, but she was very dismissive of her double and that was just bitchy. Like Marianne said, Portman won for her acting (which I thought was superb and absolutely deserved the Oscar), not the dancing, so Portman could have acknowledged the work Sarah Lane did without reducing her own.
no you don’t have to go to all the parties after you win an oscar but most winners choose to. for example in 1958 when Joanne Woodward won best actress there was only the Vanity Fair party and the Governors Ball and she grudgingly went to both. her & Paul weren’t the party type and had just recently lost an unborn child so were in no mood to celebrate. Natalie blowing off Operah was tacky
Well of all the nerve! Who the eff does she think she is? People are supposed to climb out of their coffins for the privilege of appearing on Oprah.
(Glad somebody stood Her Majesty up, even if it was that Portman cow.)
Pregnancy is not a pass. I’ve been pregnant, sick and dead tired and still did nearly 12 hours of work on a regular basis. She was doing doing 5 hours tops and the majority of it was her butt in a chair. Maybe she should have passed at partying so late and honored her commitments to Oprah and otherwise.
Oh courtney I heart you. Never stop referencing Joanne Woodward.
I’ve never been a fan of Oprah, I am not “her audience” whatever that means. Although at a really low point in my life, I remember writing her a letter about my shitty life, I never sent it though, and when I told my friends about it years later they thought it was hilarious that I did that. I guess I did think at that time that she could fix anything. Weird. Anyway, Natalie is pregnant, and staying out till 4:00 a.m. will make you awful tired, so yeah, she didn’t go and had to call in. Big whop.
Be it far from me to hail all things ‘Oprah’, but I have to agree- it was likely her assistants & producers who lost their sh*t. Anyone recall the Behind the Scenes episode when Oprah and Gayle went to Yosemite to suprise the ranger who wrote to her show, hoping to bring awareness of the national park to black folks? The producers thought it would be DIVINE if Oprah showed up to suprise the guy, and catch it all on film. Even had the park staff under strict contracts not to snitch. When the ranger realized Oprah had come to suprise him, he merely thanked her for coming, without making a spectacle of himself, solidifying him as a hero in my book. O & G pretty much looked dumbfounded that this noble gentleman didn’t treat them like royalty (KUDOS!!), while the producers & assistants contemplated a suicide pact.
Rediculous.
Good for Natalie!
So long, Oprah.
Good riddance, Gayle.
“From what I gather, Lane gave the bulk of the Oscar-winning performance! (haha, let’s see how many people yell at me for that)”
Kaiser, made me laugh 🙂
I totally get being beyond tired when pg. It’s not easy. At the same time, Natalie agreed to the interview. Go to bed earlier than you want so you can get up to take care of your commitments. I bet there have been people in years past hung over as f!ck and they made it to the interview. When I was pg and had rough mornings, I got up earlier, moved slower, and still made it to morning classes. Guessing Natalie could’ve done the same.
I hope the people giving Natalie a pass are people who wouldn’t get fired up if someone made a commitment that they would show up to an event of theirs and then bailed at the last minute., leaving them with a big gap in the agenda.
Pregnancy isn’t a pass. She’s a rude, entitled b*tch.
it could have been any talk show,once u commit to an appearance show up or let them know on time that you won’t be able to make it. pregnant or not,it’s just tacky.
Not a big Natalie Portman fan, but good for her! Last-minute cancellations are not the nicest thing, no, but I’m so over Oprah’s sickening fake-a$$ self. She can go away and retire now. Buh-bye!
Tired of Oprah and her sense of godlike entitlement.
I can’t stand Oprah as well, and her shows that were all about losing weight, gaining weight…she’s always obsessed with food.
Having said that, a last minute cancellation is no big deal (even if she wasn’t pregnant) but it may be for those who can’t afford to make mistakes (the peons who work for the Mighty Opes). It can’t or it shouldn’t be technically called their fault, but we know how these things work.
@ Bluhare:
In case anyone ever loses their job because of a last minute cancellation by Portman, and decides to call her out on that later, you know they’ll be called “whiners”, don’t you?
I don’t know why people are up in arms about Oprah and her sense of entitlement. By all accounts, in this particular instance, Oprah didn’t give a sh!t. Oprah has an ego, yes, but she’s earned the right to have it. She occasionally rubs me the wrong way (the James Frey incident for example) but the woman has changed countless lives for the better.
Nobody is gonna lose their lose because the talent didn’t show. That’s just stupid and has nothing to do with this story. People take BS to a whole another level for no reason. We are just hearing about this month after this happened clearly it wasn’t a big deal then it shouldn’t be treated like one now.
I watched that episode and Oprah was basically like…”it’s her loss” and I agree.
@ Kaiser:
I think I can now officially say I’m not allowed to say anything about Portman that doesn’t go along with the lines that she’s perfect. Even if it’s a freaking hypothetical possibility, even if I say it isn’t a big deal, even if I use words like “may”.
This is news why? Oprah is now and has always been obnoxious, and even she didn’t care, so why does anybody else? Sounds like some staffer was PMSing and making a big deal of it now is just playing for drama. Natalie intended to go, didn’t feel up to it, and the reason doesn’t matter. Why should she have to justify herself to anyone, let alone Oprah?
I am pretty sure Natalie doesn’t owe Oprah squat – jesus she isnt God or something
Much ado about nothing I watched the Behind the Scenes Oprah didn’t care she said there was more time for the other guests. US weekly being messy as usual.
Who gives a F*** if she ditched the Oprah train?
Oprah is OVER. Plus, it was HER night. She won an Oscar, and probably was indeed exhausted in the morning.
What is she supposed to do? Not party after winning?
Go when she is exhausted?
She did the right thing as any of us would- party after winning and sleeping through the morning- the next day.
When you’re pregnant, you don’t want to do a damn lot of things that you’d normally like to do. And who honestly cares? Oprah is soooo elitist and entitled. It’s not like Portman decided not to show up at the judgement bar of God come doomsday. She didn’t make the show. So what?
“Lane did the majority of that Oscar performance”
Uh. Yeah. Lane’s feet and legs were soooo amazing and emotionally resonant. They totally should have given the acting award to her dancing beams. *eyeroll* Sorry, you invited the sarcasm.
If Oprah really was all like, “it’s her loss”, then that only makes me side with Portman even more. Loss? Loss for what? She’s got an Oscar for crying out loud. But apparently, this crazy talk-show host thinks that everybody needs her and wants her and must have her show to be relevant. It’s disgusting.
It’s rude and irresponsible regardless. She agreed to do it, and unless she was profusely puking or something, she could have dragged her ass there for a few hours, and then gone back to the hotel and passed out.
Pass
She’s a c*nt. Moving on.
Take Natalie and Oprah out of this, and substitute Kaiser and CB and see if you all agree what Natalie did was cool.
It wasn’t. Backing out at the last minute after you’ve made a commitment is thoughtless and rude. I don’t care who the parties are.
This thread seems governed more by people’s dislike of Oprah than anything else. If she agreed to be on the show in the first place, how does her cancellation prove that she’s taking a stand? She’s pregnant, not a freedom fighter. I’m mostly neutral on Oprah, so if I tried to be objective I would say that I don’t think the response would be the same if this happened with say, Anderson Cooper’s show.
In all honesty, I hate, hate, abhor celebrity love-ins of any kind. If I get roped into watching awards shows (or royal weddings), I (shamefully) make it known to that family member that there will be reprussions, which is to say, no way in frost-bitten Hell was I going to watch this. But, I’m thinking about the events as they unfolded and it doesn’t really add up to me.
1. Guest had an appointment
2. Guest cancelled at last minute
3. All the interviewer’s fault
4. Interviewer had it coming (as cancellations did not exist before March 2011)
5. It’s good that this inconvenience arose because I don’t like her.
Whatever the cause of the cancellation (professional obligation or personal) is immaterial to the larger point. I can’t say for sure why she wasn’t on the show, I don’t even care. I’m not interested in scolding Natalie Portman for enjoying herself or for being sleepy mummy, I remember seeing my sister fall asleep pretty much anywhere during her two pregnancies, and once she emptied the fridge shared by her and her husband, she’d raid the one shared my me and my mother. You have to temper your expectations with these people, and most grown people understand that (until they get hungry, I have rights, too). However, I’m having trouble understanding why it’s Oprah’s fault that 38 months pregnant Natalie Portman was out partying all night. You going to tell me that this was her only chance to meet celebrities? The James Frey thing really bugged me, but what does that have to do with anything? I suppose I’m saying that Natalie Portman isn’t Spartacus because she didn’t appear on a show you don’t like. I don’t see this as an ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ scenario. It’s just an old story about two rich women who don’t give a shit about any of us.
Even if she is a Diva, she is preggo so give her a dang break!
So the pretentious prig without a soul stood up the egomaniacal cow?
hahahahahahahahaha. Thats funny.
WTF with everyone acting like “pregnant” = disabled? Anyone staying out to 4 a.m. dancing is going to be too tired to go to an early morning interview the next day. Natalie was irresponsible & her being “pregnant” isn’t any kind of excuse. She did know she was pregnant BEFORE she committed to going on Oprah & BEFORE she decided to stay out dancing until 4 a.m. Giving her a “pass” because she was pregnant is actually insulting to all the pregnant women who get their butts up every day & go to work up through their 3rd trimester! The only time pregnancy is a valid excuse for missing a work obligation is when your water breaks.
And I, too, am not a fan of Oprah & would usually delight in someone blowing her off. It is the comments equating a pregnant woman to some kind of invalid that are t’ing me off.
I don’t think it’s polite to cancel at the last moment whether it’s Oprah or someone else. If you’re canceling going to a movie or going to a social function as opposed to a planned, national TV show this big, well, there’s a huge difference between these two. Point made. Not excusable.
I guess I just grew up with seriously hard bitches because I do not get women who use pregnancy as an excuse for major lack of consideration unless it’s doc’s orders/bed rest, or they’re in labor. If late-night partying coupled with pregnancy fatigue *was* the reason she was a no-show?-she don’t get no pass from me. To do this re any pre-arranged appearance would be rude, but considering this was Oprah’s last year, and most people would consider it a privilege to be on the show in its last year (or at all), is really rude. When you’re in as demand as Portman is you may take a lot for granted, but it does not mean you should. Oprah is VERY supportive of the industry Portman is in. Damn. Rude.
Usually, I would say that she was pregnant and should get a pass. This is normally the case. However, Natalie Portman KNEW that she had a commitment and stayed up as late as she did, even with an early moment. It’s not completely disrespectful, but it’s not the set of choices I would have made in her shoes.
As a side note, she already got the award/ attended the ceremony, why party? Oprah’s bigger than partying with Madonna.
Oprah may have a big ego, but canceling something 2 hours before it happens, possibly sending the show into a panic (although this was not the case), because she made a bad decision is not fair to the show, Oprah or not.
Hear hear, Venus and Jenni. Don’t get the whole “pregnant women are made of glass” thing lately.
Now I understand: Oprah gave Sarah Lane one of her patented motivational speeches to come out of the closet about Portman. No way she would have done this without someone big on her side. Portman, your career is over, no one messes with daytime Jabba the Hutt. Nobody. You will be dropped into the pit of the monstrous Rancor before you know it.
Some very good points. I guess it comes down to this: was she pregnant when she accepted the invitation? Yes? So what changed? And to you League of the Extraordinary Uteri members: Don’t shove your workload off on us all the time, our time matters too. If others are doing your work, the classy thing to do would be to give them your paychques.
Whatever your opinions of the ladies, it is business. You agree to a show, no reason not to do the show, you do it. In the real world, women work til they have the baby, and not sitting on a couch talking to a nice, famous lady.
I’m six and a half months pregnant, but even I’m not going to defend her on this one. It’s business – you agree to something, you turn up. In the real world we have to turn up for work commitments and, believe me, there are times when I really, really haven’t wanted to. In the last two months of my pregnancy, I’ve got engaged, planned a wedding (next Friday!! Woohoo!), moved house and worked 60hrs a wk. If Diddums didn’t want to do Oprah after being recognised by her work (all things to be happy about) then she shouldn’t have agreed to it.
And she gets paid waaaaaaay more to suck it up then I do!!
Scrolled through the comments, hope I’m no repeating something. This is what I wrote on Oprah, Episode 119 board: My gripe is with booking a very pregnant, exhausted Natalie Portman to come talk with a very ill talk show host and then have a producer cry and lament that Ms. Portman wouldn’t/couldn’t show up, as if how dare Natalie Portman be a “no show” on Oprah’s last Oscar Special! Again, thank goodness Natalie didn’t show and possibly become ill herself while being very pregnant. Oprah should have personally called her, told her she was ill and cancelled the interview, if Natalie hadn’t cancelled first. My god! Pregnant women aren’t supposed to be around sick people, and Oprah even mentioned to Andre that he didn’t have a mask on (presumably so he wouldn’t get sick). If a pregnant woman gets sick there can be serious consequences like preterm labor.
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