A couple cool tidbits for you guys this evening.

– First up, Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky’s follow up film is opening around the world and The Playlist have done a piece compiling a list of the best performances in his films. Natalie obviously gets a mention, as does her screen mom, Barbara Hershey. Below is an excerpt of the really nice write up.

Portman had been an enormously promising actress since her breakthrough in “Léon,” but for every turn that fulfilled that promise, there’d be another with flat line readings or ill-advised choices. But “Black Swan” put any doubt to rest, with Portman perfectly cast as the demure ballerina with a dark side. Her downtrodden, naive little girl in the film’s opening scenes plays nicely into her child star background, and the actress sketches out Nina, and her white swan side, deftly and economically. But very gradually, she lets the black swan out too (Aronofsky often described the film as a werewolf movie in all but name), and we see the cold ambition, the repressed sexuality, and the near-feral darkness that Nina appears to have been hiding for so long. It’s very unlike anything that Portman has done before or since, and all the more terrifying for it: the way she moves in the final dance sequence, regal and withering and monstrous, more reptile than bird, chills the blood. And yet Portman doesn’t let it slip into pure genre either, as the hint of the girl she used to be returns as Nina dances her last number.

– Next up is an opportunity for anyone out there with a healthy bank balance. Natalie’s gown from The Other Boleyn Girl is up for auction. There are no bids yet. Yay! But the opening bid has to be $4000. Boo! If you’re interested, click the image below.