"I Was Natalie Portman's Ass Double"

It turns out Black Swan isn’t the only film where Natalie Portman used a body double.

From the coverage of Your Highness, we’ve gauged two things: it’s terrible, and you see Natalie Portman in a thong. While we’re willing to believe the first part is still true, the second may be in question. Says the always scrupulously accurate Daily Mail, “In fact, the actress is said to have avoided diving into an icy lake in Belfast and a local Irish girl was paid just £250 to take the plunge instead.” (And no, even with the exchange rate, that’s not much.) But, don’t worry: they hired the double, the Sun assures us, “not because her behind isn’t up to scratch.” (There are numerous blurry pics of said ass if you’re really concerned; we weren’t.)

The jumper was apparently one Caroline Davis, a student from Ulster who told The Sun, “I’m a film studies student so I jumped at the chance to be on set.” And, apparently, to be in the icy water. Well, from this we gather that the standing shot is still Portman, for those purists out there, so it doesn’t seem like much of a story. Unless Natalie Portman has been going around, claiming she caught a chill or something, and that the rigors of leaping into this lake should implicitly earn her an Oscar, it kind of has nothing to do with the (actual) Black Swan mini-scandal. It’s only surprising that anyone’s openly allying themselves with this bomb.