Would Natalie Hershlag Inspire Equally?

We'll never know, as Ms. Hershlag was born in 1981 in Jerusalem, the daughter of an Israeli medical doctor and an American housewife, changed her name to Portman (her grandmother's maiden name) when she was 12.

The family moved to the United States when Natalie was 3. That year, the little girl started taking dance lessons and performing in local groups. She was an ambitious, serious kid, and at age 12 she was lured into modeling by Revlon.

Portman did an Off-Broadway show in 1993 and subsequently got her big break by appearing in Luc Besson's film The Professional. She was an instant sensation, admired for her beauty as well as her precocious acting talent.

She took acting classes, went to theater camp, and performed onstage for the next few years before being cast as Padme Amidala, aka the girl who broke Darth Vader's heart, in the Star Wars prequels. When The Phantom Menace was released in May 1999, Portman was not quite 18. Almost instantly, there were dozens of websites counting down the days until she became legal -- Right, as if any of these sweatty-palmed, noodle-heads had a chance with a princess. Is the countdown over?

She starred in two chick flicks, Anywhere But Here and Where the Heart Is, around the same time as The Phantom Menace, and then took a break from movies to get smart. She went to Harvard -- home of many, many smart people -- in the fall of 1999 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 2003. During that time the only movie she made was the second Star Wars prequel. How cool is that?