Last week, while shopping on Bleeker Street in New Yorks City's West Village, I saw Natalie Portman. Not on a TV screen or an advertisement, but in real life. As you can imagine this was very exciting for me. I mean I can legitimately tell people that "I have shopped in the same store as Natalie Portman and her dog".
It is only recently that I have become a Natalie Portman fan. Forgive me, but I find Star Wars excessively boring - and even though Clive Owen and Jude Law are in Closer, I hated that movie too. Ohh...and don't even get me started on the travesty that is Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman in Anywhere But Here.
Maybe I'm sizist, but people just shouldn't be allowed to be so short and so skinny - it makes the rest of us look like overweight giants. Natalie Portman is even smaller in real life than she looks on TV...and her dog is one of those tiny chihuahua-like dogs. Seeing her with her dog reminded me of the scene in 101 Dalmations when all the owners look like their animals.
But at the beginnig of this year my dislike of Natalie Portman started to dissipate, all because plane boredom forced me to watch Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. This is actually one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen - yes it is a children's movie, but it is wonderful!
I cried more than once watching it, and even made a friend watch it with me again later that week. So when I saw Natalie Portman I really wanted to blurt out how much I loved that movie, how it made me laugh and cry and believe in the magic of toys and childhood.
Thankfully, I restrained myself.
But I did, I am ashamed to say, hover awkwardly in the small boutique (pretending to be interested in overpriced accessories) just so I could see how Natalie Portamn shopped. And I have to give her snaps - she is an excellent shopper. Not only did she bring along a friend, she offered that friend very practical advice about the wisdom of buying a sparkly black shift dress which was not at all bra friendly. Kudos Natalie Portman...you are not only a great actress, you are a superb shopper and friend too!
So I did actually do more than stalk Natalie Portman in New York. I had the quintesential New York experience...seeing Rent and Wicked on Broadway, eating delicious cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, shopping on 5th Avenue and getting lost in Tiffanys, eating Hot Dogs in Central Park, listening to buskers on the Subway and, of course, celebrity sighting!