Natalie Portman

Mike Huckabee has decided to take on Natalie Portman's unborn baby, which would make Portman the new Murphy Brown and Huckabee the new Dan Quayle. ( Media Matters ) Who would have thought that the season's sweetest reality-show concept would come from Mike Tyson? ( Los Angeles Times ) Here are your top 12 (or 13) "American Idol" contestants for the season. ( Los Angeles Times ) So now Christina Aguilera is a tabloid mess and Britney Spears is a hit-single machine.

SUNDAY From the animated antics of "The Simpsons" to the ratings powerhouse that is "American Idol," a once-upstart network and some of its stars, past and present, will celebrate a quarter-century of TV goodness in "Fox's 25th Anniversary Special. " (Fox, 8 p.m.) She debunked the so-called "Seinfeld" curse with her hit series "The New Adventures of Old Christine," so we've no doubt that Julia Louis-Dreyfus will have us laughing with her — as well as at her — in her new D.C.-set sitcom "Veep.

You'd think this much would have been enough to make 2011 a banner year for Natalie Portman: So far this year, she's won a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe, earned an Oscar nomination and watched as her art-house film "Black Swan" has taken in $90 million domestically (and counting). But her good fortune doesn't stop there. She's also navigating award season with a growing baby bump and an engagement ring from fiancé Benjamin Millepied, whom she met on the set of the psychological thriller about a prima ballerina.

'Swan' flies high "Black Swan" has danced past the $300-million mark at the global box office, a feat few independent films are able to accomplish. The film, which earned star Natalie Portman an Academy Award for lead actress earlier this year, has quietly continued to roll out overseas. This weekend, the movie finally opened in Japanese theaters, where it collected $6.1 million, according to an estimate from distributor Fox Searchlight. That was enough to push its international total to $198.4 million, and its worldwide tally to $305 million.

Natalie Portman perches on a stool at the counter of a vegan restaurant in downtown Manhattan, nibbling on a soy-cheese sandwich and minding her own business. The same cannot be said of her fellow patrons, two of whom grin smugly, imagining they go undetected snapping pictures of her -- still in full makeup from a photo shoot and wrapped in a trench coat -- with their cellphones. Hanging by the counter behind Portman is framed testimony of how often this occurs: A paparazzi shot of the 28-year-old pixie, who is holding a bottle of the restaurant's juice while her dog mistakes her leg for a fire hydrant.

Dancer Benjamin Millepied, 33, comes off as a bit of a highbrow pawn in "Black Swan," Darren Aronofsky's award-winning ballet-horror film. One imagines his character's pale hands, lifting Natalie Portman, as dull and mean and clammy. Off-screen, however, Millepied has the world in a wide, warm embrace. Even before "Black Swan" launched his career as a film choreographer-actor and set in motion a whirlwind romance and engagement with Portman, he was gaining international renown for his dancing and his stylish, architectural choreography at New York City Ballet and beyond.

Natalie Portman was just 11 when she starred in Luc Besson's 1994 film, "The Professional," portraying a child who's taken on as an apprentice by the neighborhood hit man after her family is slaughtered by crooked cops.

Natalie Portman, who plays teenage Queen Amidala in "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace," views the character as something of a role model. Portman, 17, whose feature film debut was in Luc Besson's 1994 "The Professional," is all for it. "The film ["Phantom Menace"] does a great job of creating a positive image for young women," she says. "It's good for young girls to see it because she's [Queen Amidala] very smart, she's very together, she's very compassionate and warm.

Mike Huckabee going all "Black Swan" on Natalie Portman was the capper to what's been an interesting and attention-getting week for the possible 2012 presidential candidate. Along with criticizing the Hollywood star's pregnancy, Huckabee reignited the eternally simmering debate in conservative circles about President Obama's origins, first by claiming the president grew up in Kenya and then by making a disparaging reference to Obama and madrassas. Huckabee's seeming full-on embrace of the Republican Party's most controversial elements didn't begin with those remarks, however.

To fully appreciate the extreme lowness of "Your Highness," it's best to accept that this sometimes witless and sometimes winning comedy has absolutely no socially redeeming value. It begins with grade-school-level graffiti being scrawled across storybook pages and goes up and down from there. Still, the fun can be infectious — but then so is the flu. For maximum midevil [sic] amusement, never forget this is a farce within a farce that neither you nor anyone else drawn to this tawdry tale of the bothered and bewildered Kingdom of Mourne should take seriously.

With a cast including Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rainn Wilson, "Hesher" rode a wave of anticipation into the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010. But when audiences actually got a look at the movie, the response was decidedly mixed, leaving some enthralled and others scratching their heads. The story of a boy and his father dealing with the death of the boy's mother and the arrival of an anarchic speed-metal enthusiast who wanders into their lives, "Hesher" is deliriously odd. Many who saw it at Sundance wondered: Is it a sad comedy or a rambunctious drama?

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never Paramount, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99 Those with chronic cases of Bieber Fever should be well-satisfied by the young pop star's concert film. Intercutting slick live performances with old home movies and new footage of Bieber on tour, "Never Say Never" effectively communicates how the teen idol became a phenomenon, along with showing what it's like to be a mere kid at the center of a multimillion-dollar business. As for the actual music, well, fans will like the energetic stage show, and even skeptics might be impressed by how hard Bieber works.

To fully appreciate the extreme lowness of "Your Highness," it's best to accept that this sometimes witless and sometimes winning comedy has absolutely no socially redeeming value. It begins with grade-school-level graffiti being scrawled across storybook pages and goes up and down from there. Still, the fun can be infectious — but then so is the flu. For maximum midevil [sic] amusement, never forget this is a farce within a farce that neither you nor anyone else drawn to this tawdry tale of the bothered and bewildered Kingdom of Mourne should take seriously.

Dancer Benjamin Millepied, 33, comes off as a bit of a highbrow pawn in "Black Swan," Darren Aronofsky's award-winning ballet-horror film. One imagines his character's pale hands, lifting Natalie Portman, as dull and mean and clammy. Off-screen, however, Millepied has the world in a wide, warm embrace. Even before "Black Swan" launched his career as a film choreographer-actor and set in motion a whirlwind romance and engagement with Portman, he was gaining international renown for his dancing and his stylish, architectural choreography at New York City Ballet and beyond.

Mike Huckabee going all "Black Swan" on Natalie Portman was the capper to what's been an interesting and attention-getting week for the possible 2012 presidential candidate. Along with criticizing the Hollywood star's pregnancy, Huckabee reignited the eternally simmering debate in conservative circles about President Obama's origins, first by claiming the president grew up in Kenya and then by making a disparaging reference to Obama and madrassas. Huckabee's seeming full-on embrace of the Republican Party's most controversial elements didn't begin with those remarks, however.

Mike Huckabee has decided to take on Natalie Portman's unborn baby, which would make Portman the new Murphy Brown and Huckabee the new Dan Quayle. ( Media Matters ) Who would have thought that the season's sweetest reality-show concept would come from Mike Tyson? ( Los Angeles Times ) Here are your top 12 (or 13) "American Idol" contestants for the season. ( Los Angeles Times ) So now Christina Aguilera is a tabloid mess and Britney Spears is a hit-single machine.

We at Premiere are grateful to Patrick Goldstein for pointing out that Premiere pioneered the concept of a Power List ("Powers Behind the Thrones," April 16), and we share his conviction that those with "the commitment to make good movies" should be "exalted." Thus his reiteration of our choices of George Clooney (No. 27), Joel and Ethan Coen (No. 92), Danny DeVito (No. 69), Ang Lee (No. 59) and Working Title (No. 51) is unsurprising. We'll be glad to share our Power Listers with Patrick again next year.

The monarch may have stammered terribly, but Oscar voters spoke loudly and clearly Sunday night, handing "The King's Speech" four Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best original screenplay. OSCARS 2011: Full coverage and photo galleries The come-from-behind "King's Speech" coup concluded a providential journey for the drama about Britain's King George VI (played by Colin Firth, who won the lead actor Oscar) and his unconventional speech therapist, Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush)

In an era of ever-present cameras, including some newly installed backstage this year at the Kodak Theatre, there is still one moment when stars remain breathtakingly unguarded: taking their first steps holding an Academy Award. "Where do I go? Is there any water?" were the first things Natalie Portman said after accepting her lead actress Oscar. Portman then downed a water bottle and stood giggling in the wings, staring at a monitor during Sandra Bullock's presentation of the lead actor Oscar until someone brought a chair.