Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of Natalie news to cover today, save for this small 17 Photos of Isabel-related mention. Several news sources are reporting of recent paparazzi footage of Natalie at LAX airport. While we will not be posting any photos here, the fact that she is indeed in Los Angeles, CA could indicate that filming for 17 Photos of Isabel has wrapped at last in New York. Interesting. We’ll keep you posted!

Finally, Portman Source wishes everyone a Happy New Year 2009! Stay safe, y’all, and stay tuned to Portman Source for huge photo updates in coming weeks.

Four updates in one day! Here’s our fourth and final Natalie news update, which should bring us up-to-date with the latest happenings in Nat-land. Enjoy!

In mid-October, Just Jared reported Natalie Portman was in Paris, France to shoot an unknown perfume commercial. In all likelihood, this shoot was for Natalie’s latest project — a Francesco Vezzoli faux “Greed” perfume commercial, co-starring actress Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) and directed by the critically acclaimed Roman Polanski (The Pianist). The commercial will debut at the Gagosian Gallery in Rome, Italy in February 2009, however the first medium-res photos have already surfaced. From NYMag.com:

Francesco Vezzoli, the Italian video artist known for his lavish parodies, has a new project: a faux perfume ad starring Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams, filmed by Roman Polanski. It’ll debut in February at the Gagosian Gallery in Rome.

“Lately the art world has become a place where there is a lot of effort to create desire, so I thought Greed”—the name of the scent—“was an appropriate theme,” Vezzoli says. He recruited Portman and Williams because they’re “two A-list celebrities who have never endorsed a perfume,” he explains. “Natalie plays the good girl and Michelle plays the greedy one, and they start having a catfight over the perfume. They bite each other, pull each other’s hair, throw themselves on the floor, and all of that is filmed by Polanski in his epitomizing style.”

The commercial is currently featured in the December 2008 issue of Italian magazine Panorama First, featuring photos from the production of the commercial — a preview of the breathtakingly gorgeous cover at our gallery. If anyone is able to send in scans of this issue, please do so! Thank you.

New Photo Albums:

• Magazines in 2008 > ‘Panorama First’ (It) December 2008 Cover
• Unsorted Productions > Francesco Vezzoli “Greed” Faux Perfume Ad Stills

Here’s our third news catch-up of the day. Kicking things off with the upcoming Don Roos dramedy, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, according to the Internet Movie Database, the film has been renamed to 17 Photos of Isabel, which seems to be the title they’ll be sticking with for the time being. Personally, I preferred the previous title, but oh well.

In other news, it would seem actress Lisa Kudrow (of Friends fame) is the latest addition to the cast of 17 Photos of Isabel. Kudrow has been photographed shooting scenes with co-stars Natalie Portman, Scott Cohen and Charlie Tahan on the New York set of the film, which brings us…

… to the latest media from the set. The gallery has been updated with medium- and hi-res footage from three new days of filming: December 6, December 18 and December 22 respectively. The December 18 set of photos is particularly stunning, but all are definitely worth a look if you share an interest in the film. Enjoy!

New Photo Albums:

• On Set ‘17 Photos of Isabel’ in New York on Dec 6
• On Set ‘17 Photos of Isabel’ in New York on Dec 18
• On Set ‘17 Photos of Isabel’ in New York on Dec 22

Some will surely recall Natalie and actress Rashida Jones’ FunnyOrDie.com puppies and kitties PSAs from some time back. Now, the duo has appeared once more in a third FOD mock PSA, this time promoting world peace in the Holiday season — with chickens. Stay tuned for screen caps of all three clips at our gallery! In the mean time, check out the chicken “PSA” at FunnyOrDie.com, and don’t forget Natalie and Rashida Jones’ two earlier PSA spoofs, either:

Off-site Video Links:

• Natalie Portman & Rashida Jones Mock PSA 1 — Puppies
• Natalie Portman & Rashida Jones Mock PSA 2 — Kitties
• Natalie Portman & Rashida Jones Mock PSA 3 — Chickens

Time to begin updating with some of the latest news we’ve missed during my absence! Kicking off today’s news and media updates is Jim Sheridan’s Afghanistan War drama, Brothers, which according to some sources was originally slated for a December 2008 U.S. release. Well, December is almost at an end, and no sign of a premiere. So what’s going on with Brothers?

In a recent interview with Herald.ie, director Sheridan gave us some insight into the upcoming theatrical release of the film, which currently looks to be sometime in August 2009. Damn! From Herald.ie:

But Sheridan, who is renowned for making off-beat movies, looks set to score another critical hit in 2009. He revealed how he has just completed filming on a big-budget film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire. A remake of Susanne Bier’s acclaimed Danish flick Brothers, it tells the story of a man, played by Maguire, who is sent to fight in Afghanistan while his black-sheep brother (Gyllenhaal) cares for his wife and child. It co-stars big names including Natalie Portman and Sam Shepard.

Sheridan continued: “We were in Santa Fe in New Mexico filming it for more than five months and we had a fabulous time. It’s a great town and was good fun to make. I think that we’re going to release that in August of next year.“

Meanwhile, the film’s Internet Movie Database page has been updated with new release date info: while the December 2008 U.S. premiere date estimate has been replaced with the rather generous timeframe of “2009″, according to the site, Brothers has a UK premiere date of February 27 2009, while countries such as The Netherlands and Denmark will have to settle for a late Fall ‘09 release. Honestly, though, how likely they are really to release Brothers in the UK 5-6 months before the U.S. premiere?… I remain skeptical. Sorry, guys! I wish I had better news to offer.

Hooray for the return of regular updates! Although I have little time to spare at the moment, a quick heads-up to one and all that unlogged gallery access and user registration is once again available. I.e. unregistered users are now once again able to access most of the gallery, and register a username at need.

However, there’s quite a bit of Natalie news I confess have not had the time or energy to cover of late. Expect more updates in coming days! Topics include Love and Other Impossible Pursuits and a fake perfume ad à la Francesco Vezzoli. Stay tuned!

Attention everyone! The holidays are upon us once again, and I will be out of the country 16-25.12.2008. In this period, the site will unfortunately go largely, if not wholly, without updates and I will be unable to read or or respond to any emails sent to me in or shortly before this time. Sorry, guys!

Furthermore, for a number of practical reasons, unregistered photo gallery access will be closed throughout the aforementioned time period. This means that only already registered and logged in members will be able to view the contents of the gallery during my absence. Please do not email me with questions regarding gallery user registration and/or access in this time as such emails will not be responded to. Access and user registration will be reopened at the earliest available time. Thanks for your patience, guys!

Finally, happy holidays, y’all!

E! Online reports that Té Casan, with which Natalie launched her vegan shoe collection earlier this year, is closed for business. From E! Online:

The critter-free line of footwear, announced by the longtime vegetarian back in January, was launched in February of this year to the delight of animal-loving fashionistas but not so much to the credit-crunched masses—each pair retailed on average for $200.

However, Portman’s line didn’t fail on its own merits, instead was a casualty of the folding of its parent company, Té Casan, which closed up shop for good last month.