filed under: Natalie Portman

A U.S. magazine has been forced to apologize to actress Natalie Portman after suggesting she's far from happy with her performance in short film Hotel Chevalier. Sunday supplement Parade stated Portman was talking about the movie, in which she appears nude, when she commented about an "uncomfortable" scene she shot in a forthcoming essay she wrote for the publication. But the actress' publicist, Kelly Bush, has pounced on Parade, insisting her client was actually talking about a torture scene in new film Goya's Ghosts. A statement from the magazine's publicist reads, "We say that Portman regrets doing a nude scene in the movie Hotel Chevalier. This is wrong. When Portman writes about this in Parade, she does not mention a specific movie title. She tells us she was referring to a torture scene with a body double in Goya's Ghosts, which was taken out of context and leaked onto the Internet. Portman is very happy with Hotel Chevalier and proud of her work in the film."

"I'm really sorry I didn't listen to my intuition. From now on, I'm going to trust my gut more. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is say no."

In the Wes Anderson short Hotel Chevalier, eight minutes in we have Jason Schwartzman beginning to undress Portman. After taking off her boots, he sits on the bed while she stands in front of him. He pulls down her pants revealing her panties. He then pulls them off and, voila, there's Portman's ass. Full view. No cutaways. No Goya body double. It's a one shot and it's all her. At 10 minutes in there's another shot of Portman standing naked leaning on a dresser. We see just a little bit more ass but her clearly naked body covers strategically covers up the rest.

So there ya go - Natalie Portman nude in Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier, which reportedly is going to be available on either the film's website or Anderson's own website. The details were a little vague. I know it wasn't up on either after we saw it cause we were all looking for it.

According to trade reports, the short will only be shown during festival screenings and will not accompany Darjeeling when it hits theaters on September 29th. I can't say I understand the logic of not including the short in the theatrical release, it's not like Wes Anderson fans would not be willing to sit in their seats for 17 more minutes -- if anything, the addition of the short could help generate a little extra buzz for the film. Although some are saying that Natalie Portman goes nude -- in the flesh -- for the first time, but the film is already rated R so I'm not sure that's a reason. But, if Searchlight decides to keep Hotel Chevalier off the theatrical cut, then at least there is something to look forward to for the DVD release.

Before the Venice screening of Darjeeling [Limited], [director Wes] Anderson presented a seventeen-minute short film called ‘Hotel Chevalier’, which he originally conceived to play before the main feature, although there’s now talk that it will only be available to see online come the film’s UK release in November. This wistful and maudlin short story offers some background to the main attraction as [Jason] Schwartzmann and Natalie Portman play a pair of estranged lovers who square up to each other in the sumptuous surroundings of a Parisian hotel room.

. . . in one shot, Schwartzmann gently pulls off Portman’s clothes to reveal her naked body from behind, and a later shot has Portman, nude, standing still in a doorway, one foot up against the frame.

Dudes who were bummed that Natalie Portman didn't take it all off during her pole dance in "Closer" can look forward to "Goya's Ghost," in which she plays a victim of the Spanish Inquisition. "There's a long shot of a nude woman," she tells Movies.com's Jeanne Wolf. But, sadly, she adds, "It's not me. ... You do see some parts of me unclothed, but if they end up on Web sites making it look like I'm nude, I'm going to be really, really angry." And nothing is hotter than an angry Natalie.