People
NEW YORK — Natalie Portman is putting her body through the paces to get into fighting shape for her next Marvel movie. The Oscar winner, preparing to film “Thor: Love and Thunder” in Sydney, Australia, is training hard after a months-long pandemic pause in her diet and exercise regimen.
“It was a free-for-all. I did not exercise at all, I ate all the foods I needed and wanted,” she said, laughing and acknowledging that she's “really tired” of waking up early for the renewed exercise program. Portman said she recognizes she's fortunate that her job keeps her accountable, “so I have no choice but to tough it out.”
Like so many, she's also a busy mom navigating her 9-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter's school and socialization during the pandemic. She pauses an interview to silence her phone, which keeps dinging because her son is on a text chain with his classmates.
Motherhood is what makes her latest project, “Natalie Portman's Fables,” so close to her heart. Portman tweaked three classic children's stories — “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Three Little Pigs” and “Country Mouse and City Mouse” — to make them more gender-inclusive.
In her version, the persistent and confident tortoise who quietly outpaces the hare is a female. “That's almost a message to myself,” Portman said. “Pay attention and slow down.”
“Children's books have this very special place in our lives because we read them over and over and over again like no other books,” the 39-year-old actress said. “They have a way of instilling information and values into both the children and parents.”
She said her goal was to preserve and update the stories to reflect contemporary culture, “which is many genders, and not just a predominantly male world.”
LOS ANGELES — The cast of “Legally Blonde” had no trouble spilling the beans about the hotly anticipated third film in the franchise during their recent virtual cast reunion, nearly two decades after the original film hit theaters.“Legally Blonde 3,” which will be penned by Mindy Kaling and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” co-creator Dan Goor, will sashay its way into theaters in May 2022, the cast announced.Reese Witherspoon, who starred as bubbly blonde Harvard Law student Elle Woods, kicked off the reunion by noting that the 2001 romantic comedy “comes up more than any other” film she's made.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which produced the franchise's first two films, confirmed in a Tuesday night tweet: “Elle Woods is back! Legally Blonde 3 coming May 2022. We rest our case.”“I think she just inspired people to believe in themselves,” Witherspoon, 44, said of her legally minded alter ego. “She just has a true sense of herself and she always wants to see the best in others. ... I think her spirit is something we could all use a little bit more of right now.”The reunion included Luke Wilson, Jennifer Coolidge and Selma Blair.From wire reports
