Does Portman’s Pregnancy Help?

natalier96185640You’d have to be a fool not to wonder whether Natalie Portman assessed her Oscar chances before deciding to go through with her just-announced pregnancy. A pregnancy may cause her to scale back her 2011 schedule (theoretically, she’s in every other Hollywood movie), but it may be part of her ramping up her Best Actress Oscar campaign for “Black Swan.” (Which I saw again — friends in town; being diplomatic — over the weekend: it’s even more ridiculously overwrought the second time.) I’m not sure, however, that when it comes to the Mommy Vote that Portman’s pregnancy trumps Annette Bening‘s brood of four. We can’t really view this race anymore as the Belle of the Ball versus the Veteran Actress. Why? Because Portman’s been in the business forever and because marriage and pregnancy take away some of the Belle luster.

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