I’m writing this because I just can’t watch any more of the Roger Federer-Andy Murray gold medal match, which should be over at any moment because Federer is just… my God, what is happening to Federer? He beat Murray at Wimbledon just a few weeks ago and now Federer is just playing like… GAH. Is it simply that everyone in Britain is just Team Murray? Anyway… Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millpied have gotten married. It’s surprising because there have been rumors floating around for more than a year that Benjamin and Natalie were already married in a quiet, secretive ceremony before she even gave birth to baby Aleph last year. So… I guess this is official now.
Mazel tov! Six months after very quietly debuting wedding bands at the 2012 Oscars, Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied exchanged marital vows in a Jewish ceremony at a private home near Big Sur, Calif., Us Weekly can exclusively confirm. The 8pm wedding took place beneath a chuppah–and in the dark! No other details were immediately available.
The Oscar-winning actress, 31, and French-born dancer-choreographer Millepied, 35, are parents to a 13-month-old son, Aleph.
After meeting on the set of 2010’s Black Swan (Millepied was choreographer and had a small role in the film that won Portman a Best Actress Oscar), the stunning couple announced their engagement and pregnancy in December 2010. (A set source told Us it was “seductive to watch” to couple fall fall for one another . . . There was no way the attraction could be missed.)
During her acceptance speech in February 2011, an emotional Portman called Millepied “my beautiful love,” and thanked him for giving her “the most important role of my life [motherhood].” Aleph was born that June.
The couple returned to the Academy Awards in February of this year and, amidst affectionate red carpet shots together, sported apparent wedding bands. Although the resolutely private couple wouldn’t comment, jeweler Jamie Wolf confirmed to Us: “I designed the rings worn by Benjamin Millepied and Natalie Portman . . . They were made with recycled platinum and conflict free diamonds.”
I love Jewish weddings. I think the traditions are so lovely. I would love to have a wedding with a chuppah and the wine and breaking of the glass and all of that. As for Natalie and Benjamin… it sounds nice. It sounds like they went pretty traditional – her traditions. Because I have no idea what Benjamin is, religion-wise. It’s interesting that there’s still so much confusion as to whether they actually had some kind of wedding ceremony last year too – they might have, you know. This could have been like they’re “real wedding” after a quickie wedding last year.
UPDATE:… And Andy Murrary just won, by the way. Congrats to Andy Murrary, Olympic Gold Medalist.
UPDATE: People Mag confirms – Natalie and Benjamin were married yesterday. I didn’t think you were allowed to have a traditional Jewish wedding on the Sabbath, but apparently it’s allowed. Oh, and Ivanka Trump was at the wedding. WTF?
Photos courtesy of PCN, WENN.
Well, I somehow like Natalie and Benjamin together… all the best to the couple!
Sandy, what is it about them that you like? I’m just curious because I have never been a big Portman fan and her awards season run in 2010 confirmed (to me at least) that she’s the mother of all ice queens. He just seems to be there… and that’s about it. Are you a fan of hers? I find it so hard to like her… she seems like she has a a stick up her arse 90% of the time. Take Rachel McAdams or even Amy Adams for instance, they just radiate sweetness. Ugh, I give up.
+2 She is so full of herself..
She’s attractive and talented and intelligent and I absolutely cannot stand her. Every time I see her I want to slap her smug expression off her face. I refuse to watch The Black Swan because she’s in it. She comes across as a world-class bitch.
@ Janet, sure she’s attractive, but I negate the talented and intelligent part… educated, yes, because she did attend many years of school successfully, but I know many “well-educated” people with Masters and PhDs who are dumb as a bag of hammers. I know a girl who is a DOCTOR who cannot even pluralize her last name properly. And the talented? Natalie has three faces: happy, distraught/sad, and contemplative. I think it was a shame that they gave her an Oscar. She’s an okay actress but this ridiculous hype that surrounds her and her acting skills is WAY overblown.
I really get the feeling that she has an ego the size of Greenland and KNOWS she’s pretty. Yuck.
@kennedy
The kindergarten supervisor of my son radiates sweetness too.And I’ve heard her twice behind a closed door how she radiates let’s say…cayenne pepper.
So what you radiate is not always what you are.
I like them together as a couple. In regards to Natalie’s acting ability, the best role she’s ever done is in The Professional(with Jean Reno). She was god-awful in the Star Wars movies. She and Hayden wrecked that franchise.
It was Hayden. She was just “meh” like the rest of them. Hayden was horrid.
I think for the sake of accuracy it has to be said that George Lucas wrecked that franchise. (But I’m the person who wishes he’d kept making movies like American Graffiti and never started the Star Wars business, so what do I know.)
She sure is smug as hell, also not very intelligent. Educated, maybe, but not intelligent. Her giggles always come across as very weird. I always get some serious conservative vibes from her. Like some rich daughter who was never allowed to play with the street kids, hence her distant and elitist stance. She is not humble and not grounded – which all great artists have. Great art always comes from the people for the people.
if anyone would know, it would be you.
All I know is that I was visiting a friend in Cincinnati and we happened to have a late lunch at the next table to the one where she sat with Benjamin and the baby. Everyone in the place knew it was them, but gave them space. She seemed totally down to earth, smiling, happy, super nice to the wait staff and a few elderly couples nearby. No makeup, tee and jeans, charming with the baby. As a couple they seemed quite happy and in sync. No bitch face, no ice, no attitude. So from what I saw for an hour one spring day, I would say, congrats.
It’s possible that they had a civil wedding ceremony at some point earlier (prior to the Academy Awards) and the religious ceremony followed later on.
many jews marry saturday evening *after* sundown, which is the end of shabbat.
I wonder what he is…it’s interesting to me because I know she is very religious and I thought that would mean that she would have to marry another unless he converted.
They’re a pretty couple, and I actually saw him in “dancing across borders” and I was very impressed with him. It was nice to see him outside of Natalie.
I wish them luck!
isnt natalie an atheist? i guess she is a “cultural jew” but not a religious one.
so i guess it was picked because they liked a jewish wedding more than lets say a christian wedding not neccessarily because they are firm believers.
That’s one of things i dont get about natalie Portman. She is soo proud of her jewish religion and feels all blessed when she was pregnant with the baby but in jewish religion is it not a big no-no to have babies before being married, or to do IT before marriage. I cant stand people who pick and choose things from their religion and call themselves proud followers of their religion.
– I dont think they will last as a couple.
So what was she supposed to do when pregnant? Never go back to her religion and is shunned by the Jewish community for not being perfect?
Thank you, ronnie!
Seriously, how may religions say no to premarital sex and how many people actually follow that? Does that mean that they should be shunned by their faith forever? Give me a f*cking break.
Not Do IT to begin with if she really was a follower of her religion ! She would avoid that. Like i said people pick and choose what they want about their religion.
Err… Then she should have changed /abandoned her religion because she got pregnant without being married?
I am Catholic, but I used contraception and condoms before getting married, I do not go to mass every week, I should confess more often, etc. That makes me a baddish catholic, probably but in no way I am dumping my religion,
oh my Goddd who is saying dump a religion !!!!!! Im not saying that. I love religion ! Just follow everything according….ughhh forget it. I stand by whatever im saying if you understand it or not !
Lira: No one said anything about abandoning one’s religion. UniqJaz made a valid point – some people customize their religion to fit their lifestyle – and stated that she isn’t a fan of the practice.
@ Cape Thank Youuu sooo muchhhh ! I really appreciate it ! That’s what i meant !
With my first comment, Babies are a blessing no matter what, God allowed the baby to happen. It’s a blessing. But i think natalie portman is just happy with all the good that happens through her religion but doesnt follow it really.
@cape: For many (probably most) people, customizing their religion is the only way they can continue to practice it. Over 90% of American Catholics practice birth control. Their dioceses are well aware of it. If they excommunicated all the “Cafeteria Catholics”, there would be no church left.
In this case I’m not blaming the Cafeteria Catholics (especially since I’m one of them), I’m blaming the Church. It’s stuck in a time warp back in the 1300s.
@ Ronnie: never going back to the religion would be a good start. This conversation is a prime example of how irrelevant religion is. People just pick and choose the bits that suit. If they’re going to do what they want anyway they might as well just do away with it altogether rather than pay lip service to it.
She has been very vocal about the Importance of her jewish identity and yet she chose to have pre-marital sex and have a baby out of wedlock. She just likes being jewish and not really follow it. Whatever suits her.
UniqJaz says:
She has been very vocal about the Importance of her jewish identity and yet she chose to have pre-marital sex and have a baby out of wedlock. She just likes being jewish and not really follow it. Whatever suits her.
@ UniqJaz
Natalie, IS Jewish, it IS her identity. Her family is Jewish and most of them live in the Jewish state of Israel. What is wrong with her “liking” her Jewish identity? Jewishness is also secular in nature; humor, food, arts or education for example. Your comment rubs me the wrong way, I can’t see you making the same statement about a woman of a different religion or culture. Jews are very tightly bound to their identity, it is both a religion and/or a culture. You can be Jewish and live a secular life or a religious life! They are two entirely different things, to not know the difference is dangerous. Just like there are many flavors of Christians in the US and around the world, so too are the Jews in the US and around the globe.
In the event you have never been exposed to the different religion movements in Judaism, there is the very conservative to the more modern. It is most likely Natalie follows one of the more modern religious traditions. I can venture this guess because she does not wear the modest clothing of one of the conservative movements.
None of us has the right to judge if someone from another culture or religion is holding up their end of the bargain, especially if we don’t know the rules of the road.
wow UniqJaz, are you from the religion patrol? As Janet already said, people are free to choose their religion and since we are rational beings in a modern civilization, we can also have the intelligence to agree or disagree with some points of it.
Also, it is important for many Jews or
Jewish descendants to be very vocal about it for obvious historical reasons.
Not all the religious people have the need (fortunately) to be extremist about it.
On a bitchy note…do you have a religion? because all that hatred and judgment for someone that doesn’t appear to have committed any real big offense (she had a baby and she married her baby’s father following her religion) is really not OK for most of the religions…
Agreed, but it makes me wonder how many people actually agree 100% with their faiths doctrine? I’ve pretty much given up on the catholic church
@Bellabumbum, “Jewish state of israel”??? LOL you need to get off the drugs. Palestine (what you like to refer to as israel) has a rich history of Muslim, Christian and Jewish people. There’s no such thing as a Jeiwsh state of israel. Just because you’re brainwashed, it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is. And no, America is NOT the rest of the world.
As for portman, she’s a well known zionist who’s a proponent of Palestinian ethnic cleansing. I’ll have to go with not much of a fan.
Any guesses as to why Natalie relocated to Los Angeles instead of remaining in NY, where her parents live?
Well I have a long-time family friend that graduated from Juilliard in May for dance/choreography and he is so amazing, he just moved to LA to work for Benjamin’s company. I’m just saying this because I know Benjamin is currently based out of LA, so maybe Natalie is there with him for that reason??
Definitely I think this is the main reason. 🙂
there are so many more opportunities for dance (concert dance like Millepied does) in NYC. And all his professional connections are there and in France. Seems like he’s making the best of it, rather than leading the way
I can’t get over how much that baby looks exactly like Darren aronofsky and Rachel Weisz son. But who knows it could just be a coincidence. The baby is cute. Congrats on the wedding.
I think he’s the cutest little redhead i ever did see! 🙂
LOL can you imagine if it was really Darren’s? The baby definitely doesn’t look anything like Natalie or her ballet-baby-daddy.
I’m honestly convinced that the child is Darren’s and that was what led to Rachel leaving him. I also seem to remember that Benjamin had a girlfriend when he first hooked up with Natalie.
It’ll be interesting to see how long this marriage lasts.
He also looks a lot like his maternal grandfather. Maybe Aronofsky and Portman had an affair, but since he was born in June, he was procreated in September, long after they finished shooting and when her and Benjamin were already together. I think the probability that Benjamin being his dad is a lot higher than Aronosky.
Yeah SLJD – the baby is the image of NP’s dad. I have no knowledge of any affair with Anofsky, but from probable conception date to birth date, she was with Millipied. And she seems to adore him, and they seem to have no doubt he is the dad. What do I know though?
Weizs and Aronofsky also broke after DREAM HOUSE ‘s filming(and Rachel W was alone in Canne Fest)and Aronofsky yet had a new girlfriend in september 2010
No, Rachel’s and Darren’s last red carpet appearance was in September 2010
http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Rachel+Weisz/35th+Annual+Toronto+International+Film+Festival/C3LB6X3fbkN
Actually, after seeing photos of Portman’s parents, Aleph looks a lot of more of his grandfather -The resemblance are almost at 100%-. Both have the red hair and the face details like nose and chin.
meh.
Congrats! And the baby is gorgeous!
Mazel Tov. And congrats to Andy, too.
I love weddings esp traditional ones! One friend had a Korean ceremony after her western wedding. She kept trying to stop their parents from throwing pebbles into her dress. I was funny. My other friend had an Indian wedding. 3 whole days of food and fun and more food. I was totally Indian, for 3days! lol
Indian weddings are the best, days of traditions, and yes the food is outstanding
That baby looks like Cynthia Nixon!
Lol 🙂
She has a beautiful face and I’ve tried so hard to like her over the years, but I just can’t.
Oh, for some reason I thought they had gotten married a long time ago already. *yawn*
Wow, another redhead baby! (Adorable!) question, is it common for babies to be born with red hair when the parents don’t have any (as a temporary color or something?) or is Fassbender secretly impregnating every woman in Hollywood?
It is VERY common for the highly recessive red-haired gene to skip generations (it did in my case) and for neither parent to display that hair color. It actually may be more common than not. That baby looks just like Portman’s red-haired father, right down to his little chin.
other pictures from the set with aleph show natalies father and grandfather and grandson look alike.
Zoid, my parents both had very dark brown hair (almost black), but I had reddish hair when I was a baby. Within a couple years, though, my hair turned light brown (then super dark brown, like my parents).
Jessica Alba daughter is red headed and Cash is half black.Cash father is Michael Warren from Hill St Blues
Another example of recessive genes
Thanks for the responses guys! I hope this happens in my case, that coloring is so adorable. (I have red heads in the family, I was not so lucky). Hope the little one gets to keep it.
Yeah, I had to turn off the Federer-Murray match, too, because it felt like Roger wasn’t even trying. Congratulations to Andy, of course, but I wanted Federer to win!
I hope she has a good pre-nup. Oh, and Mazal tov. And I think baby Aleph is adorable. 🙂
+1
I think she has, she doesn’t seem a twinkly-eye imbecile, her Oscars speech was about solidifying sympathy, a Oscar winner that doesnt deny “motherhood and family”. She may profess the motherhood stuff, but I think it was for effect.
maybe someone in one of heir families has red hair or strawberry blonde so Aleph inherited it from that person it’s like Melissa Newman used to have strawberry blonde hair and her son Peter is a redhead and her other son Henry is a sandy blonde. as for the marriage good luck their going to need it hollywood marriages are usually nortoriously short
Portman’s dad is a redhead. There are recent photos of him on Celebitchy and elsewhere, I am sure. Their profiles are even duplicates of each other. Remarkable-looking similarity.
Congratulations! I wish them both happiness, love, respect and friendship!
Such a talented actress – the oscar for Black Swan was well deserved she was very convincing.
I love that they got married in the dark! Natalie trumps the paparazzi again!
I’m sure they had candles etc. but it must have made it hard for the paps to get a good photo or to even know it was happening! Yay Natalie!
That’s sweet news, they look good together and he hasn’t used her fame as yet, as many thought he would.
Re- the tennis. I think Roger was exhausted after his semi final, he’s getting on a bit in tennis years. Also, I wouldn’t want to compete against a Brit in the Olympics right now and I’m a Brit. We’re all Olympic crazy here, the atmosphere and the support for Team GB is amazing, loving it.
i find him so attractive, even with the somewhat douche vibe.
they took time to wed because he needed to convert to her religion, Benjamin is initially a Catholic, from a catholic family so they married under HER traditions not his.
For the record, in traditional Judaism, religion is matrilineal. You are a Jew because your mother is Jewish. Your father’s religion is irrelevant. Reform Judaism says you are Jewish as long as one parent is Jewish – and it can be the father. Many rabbis refuse to officiate at weddings between Jews and gentiles. Not defending the practice! Simply pointing out that Benjamin M’s religion may have been irrelevant.
I actually (like I suppose anyone) already knew that.
But a lot of rabbis “prefer” to mary 2 jews and you are in the case of Natalie as much attached to a traditional view of judaism, you want to mary a jewish man.
(example: Rashida Jones who is a very close friend with Natalie and who is super committed to a traditional judaïsm once said that besides finding marriage super difficult to achieve and for anyone to find the perfect catch for her there is an extra difficulty: she cannot imagine not marrying a jew!)
So technically your point is absoluetly correct but unfortunatly human beings in general try to make everything way more complicated!
Cute baby, congrats to the couple. It’s nice that they kept it quiet. They don’t seem to use their relationship to get press like other engaged couples do, so good for them.
congrats!
1st time seeing that baby…GORGEOUS!!! you know i love dem reds, lol.
totally agree with the Jewish weddings comment. the 1st one i ever saw
(don’t laugh) was Charlotte marrying Harry on SATC, remember?
Anthony said, ” You’re Audrey Hepburn… owitz!” 😆
i thought all of the traditional wedding rituals were really lovely.
although i never got into the Star Wars tril…i’ve loved her since ‘The Professional’.
congrats to Black Swan & her Prince in shining ‘tutu’?
btw- i can totally see Ivanka being friends with Nat…they’re both super sassy braniacs. 😉
Another reason: Ivanka’s husband is from a prominent NY Jewish family. She also converted to Judaism to marry him.
If she is really friends with Ivanka then I think I’m gonna barf. Ivanka is gross – hopefully it’s because of some other reason like they care about the same charity or Natalie is actually friends with Ivanka’s husband or something…
@ Mrs. Ari Gold
i think that Ivanka, Ivana & the Trumps in general kick a*s. i love the fact that with all that education & $$$ she rocks that hard a*s NYC accent. it makes me laugh. 😆 i know some peeps think they are gaudy & gauche…but the truth of it is ‘those’ ppl would’nt know such things if it bit them in the arse. jussayin. 😉
Cute and beautiful, but terrible actress.
Funny how now noone remember how his girlfriend was also blindsided by their relationship, and had to move out or something like that… I don’t dislike Natalie, and he was the one who was in a live-in relationship but he probably jumped at the chance of being with NP.
Do you remmeber how she was laughing and saying that he wanted to have sex with her or something at the GG awards?
I remember, which is why i don’t think they will last.
“Benjamin choreographed the film, and also you might remember him in the movie as the guy when they ask, ‘Would you sleep with that girl?’ And he’s like, ‘Pffsh, no.’ He’s the best actor. It’s not true: He totally wants to sleep with me!” she laughed heartily.”
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1656079/natalie-portman-shouts-out-fiance-during-golden-globes-speech.jhtml
Yes that was quite a slap in the face to Isabelle, Benjamin’s live in girlfriend who he left for Natalie. Funny how people pick and choose who they vilify in the media. Some are slut shamed so badly it’s ridiculous. But then we have someone like Natalie who gives off the ‘woman of intelligence and class’ vibe whenever possible and her and Benji basically get no press whatsoever for their affair which was quite intimate given the pregnancy. But that quote ‘he really wanted to fuck me!’ was just crude.
I thought these two already got married like six months ago. Oh well, congrats anyway.
such a meh couple. but, congrats!
Re: getting married on the Sabbath… The Sabbath officially begins at sundown on Friday night and ends at sundown on Saturday night. If they got married in the dark then it was after sundown, and no longer the Sabbath, so it’s all kosher, if you’ll excuse the pun.
You’re right, weddings cannot take place on the sabbath. The Jewish sabbath runs from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday; the sun had set by that time on Saturday night, therefore, sabbath was over. Natalie has always been very vocal about the importance of her Jewish identity – not surprised she wanted a religious service.
Yes, I’ve been to many Saturday night weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs. It is actually the most expensive night to have an “affair” (as we call them here), and always formal dress. Not unusual at all.
Congrats for the couple and maybe it’s just me and my fascination with french men -Especially with this year with Jean Dujardin ;P and the French swimming team with Agnel, Manaudou, Maillet, Levresque and Bernard- but I found Millipied sexy – Please, don’t judge me LOL
I haven’t read through all the comments, but Sabbath/Shabbat ends at sundown. So, if the wedding was after sundown, (as many Jewish weddings are) then it didn’t conflict with Sabbath.
That said, mazel tov to the newlyweds!
Congrats to them!
Their little one is adorable.
Well, I’ve been a major Portman fan for years and years. I see her as a major acting talent and an Audrey Hepburn kind of classy beauty. I hope everything goes well with her, but I wonder how much of a strain the fame and the financial difference between Millepied and her will make as time passes.
Ivanka Trump was probably there because of her husband, who is Jewish as is she because she converted in order to marry him. He and Natalie – or their families – probably run in the same circles in NYC.
Her smile is getting weird. Whut is up with that?
Plastic surgery, my dear.
Do you remember the latest Dior campain she did ? She didn’t only looked like an alien because of massive use of Photoshop but I do believe she’s starting to do too much surgery – and it starts to show.
She is so fake, it’s unbelievable.
I’m glad it’s not just me then, I was thinking her smile and her nose look off.
I don’t get how people can say with such certainty–at this stage–that the baby is a dead ringer for Natalie’s dad. None of the features on that child are developed yet. The red hair is the only similarity. If anything, a baby’s eyes and facial expressions will bear the most semblance to other family members. I, for one, don’t see the likeness. It might get easier to tell who little Aleph really does take after once he’s a bit bigger.
congrats to the couple. Everthing seems to be falling into place for Natalie! I think-thought Mila and Natlie are very close friends. if so why did Mila agree to go to Bali during this very important event? Just wondering.
I enjoy watching her act, but I can’t stand the persona she gives off when off-screen. She gives off a pretentious vibe, he gives off a douche vibe, Aleph is adorable and soooooo Aronofsky’s baby.