Natalie Portman + Benjamin Millepied

choi

本文通过一路BBS站telnet客户端发布


Joshua David Stein, Leaping into the Spotlight; Benjamin Millepied has looks, talent and now a famous girlfriend. How can you not hate him? New York Times, Feb 3, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/fashion/03millepied.html?scp=1&sq=portman%20ballet&st=cse

Excerpt in the window of the print: On the world stage, in his newest and most public role, as companion to Natalie Portman.

My comment:
(a) There are not many unfamiliar words in this article. So perhaps yuo want to read it, to familiar yourself with the ballet world of US.
(b) chortle (vi; probably blend of chuckle and snort; First Known Use: 1872):
" to laugh or chuckle especially in satisfaction or exultation"

All definitions are from www.m-w.com.
(c) catty (adj): "resembling a cat; especially : slyly spiteful : MALICIOUS <made several catty comments>"
(d) The article talks about Mr. Millepied's "fortuitous last name can be roughly interpreted as 'thousand footed,'"

millipede
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millipede
(The name "millipede" is a compound word formed from the Latin roots mille ("thousand") and pes ("foot"). Despite their name, millipedes do not have 1,000 legs)

The corresponding French noun is "mille-pattes."

(e) Please read the first six paragraphs.

Besides she graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's in psychology, in 2003. He went to School of American Ballet, at Manhattan.

I hope one day women in Taiwan can be as comfortable as Ms Portman in publicly talking about their sex--as well as disparity in education, finance (no doubt she earns much more), etc.

(f) One might be curious how they met. Please read paragraphs 13 to 15 on web page 1. Plus:

"Maybe it was all the hours of rehearsals, but Mr. Millepied and Ms. Portman soon began to date. 'We fell in love dancing,' Ms. Portman said on Ellen DeGeneres’s show last month. 'It’s very romantic to dance together.' (Notably, a younger Mr. [Mikhail] Baryshnikov was also known for dating starlets like Liza Minnelli and Jessica Lange.) For months, the couple kept the office romance to themselves. 'I actually was one of the last to find out,' said [film director Darren S] Aronofsky, with a hint of amusement. Then around Christmas, as reports of Ms. Portman’s pregnancy and her engagement to Mr. Millepied hit the blogosphere, the actress released a statement to Entertainment Weekly. In it, she said she was 'indescribably happy.'

(e) I have studied Japan for decades. To be sure, geishas were/are not prostitutes. But they were/are not nuns, either.

What about ballet? The article says:

"To be fair, charming patrons is an integral part of ballet, a genre that grew out of court cultures of 16th-century France and Italy. By the 19th century, the backstage of the Paris Opera was a 'privileged venue for sexual assignation' between dancers and season ticket holders, wrote Judith Lynne Hanna, a dance historian, in her book, 'Dance, Sex and Gender.'  Ballet still relies on patrons and foundations (ticket sales barely cover expenses), and wooing donors is an inevitable part of the profession.

* assignation (n):
"1: the act of assigning or the assignment made
2: an appointment of time and place for a meeting; especially : TRYST <returned from an assignation with his mistress — W. B. Yeats>


--