Third World Finance Dept

At least one blogger attending Natalie Portman’s recent Columbia University lecture about micro-lending wasn’t exactly blown away the actress’s appeal for debt forgiveness: “Then he showed a video featuring Natalie Portman somewhere in Africa, on top of a mountain, her knees pulled to her chest, intimately looking into the camera (as the sound person apparently knocked the mic into various objects), musing about the poor people she’d met on her journey and how they’ve taught her that exploitative micro-finance organizations like FINCA need to forgive all their loans. The real Natalie Portman in the room didn’t seem to know what to do while this video played. Sometimes she looked at the ground, sometimes at the audience, and sometimes at the screen. It would have been less awkward if she had lip-synced to herself speaking in the video. The video was short, and afterward Natalie Portman apologised for “not being as articulate as might have been expected” in it. Expected by whom?” This strikes us a little harsh, especially considering how generously Portman has given of herself lately. [I Heart Not You]