May 23, 2019

Natalie Portman is "surprised" that Moby "characterized the very short time that I knew him as dating because my recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school."

"He said I was 20; I definitely wasn’t. I was a teenager. I had just turned 18. There was no fact checking from him or his publisher – it almost feels deliberate. That he used this story to sell his book was very disturbing to me. It wasn’t the case. There are many factual errors and inventions. I would have liked him or his publisher to reach out to fact check.... I was a fan and went to one of his shows when I had just graduated.... When we met after the show, he said, ‘let’s be friends’. He was on tour and I was working, shooting a film, so we only hung out a handful of times before I realised that this was an older man who was interested in me in a way that felt inappropriate."

From "Natalie Portman on Moby, Harvey Weinstein and the documentary that turned her vegan/Ahead of her new documentary on factory farming, the Oscar-winning actress talks to us about what's on her mind right now" (Harper's Bazaar).

So... she did go out with him a few times and then she realized he was sexually attracted to her? And that makes him "creepy"... just because he was so much older. If she was 18, I think that means he was 34. Does he really deserve to be attacked as creepy? If she was a fan, she knew how old he is. If she went out with him — she, a beautiful woman — how could it come as a surprise to her that he was sexually interested? If she decided she wasn't interested and she broke it off and that was that, why is there anything that requires him to be publicly attacked as a creep?

Now, I happen to already have Moby's memoir. (Some other news story caused me to buy it (I forget what).) I can check. Maybe he portrayed her in a negative light and she needs to take a shot at him. After a show in Austin, she was waiting for him. She asked to meet up with him in New York:
This was confusing. I was a bald binge drinker who lived in an apartment that smelled like mildew and old bricks, and Natalie Portman was a beautiful movie star. But here she was in my dressing room, flirting with me. 
He is the small and meek one. He explains that as "a left-wing punk-rocker," he "had always decried celebrity culture." His "normal existence was flat and filled with doubt" and now, here was this "new life" opening up to him, and it was "magical." He imagines his 19-year-old self questioning him for "buying into this celebrity bullshit." The answer to that (from his 30ish self) was: "But look, there’s Natalie Portman, and she’s being nice to me." We see Moby and Natalie together in her dorm room (at Harvard). They're lying down "on her small bed."
After she fell asleep I carefully extracted myself from her arms and took a taxi back to my hotel. And I started panicking. I tried to assuage the panic with logic, telling myself that it was unwarranted, as I’d only been on a few dates with Natalie. 
Dates! The word to which she objects. Is lying on a dorm bed together not a date — so much not a date that a man is a creep to think that you are dating? In the end, as he tells it, he's engulfed by his panic:
When I was single I was safe, according to the deep, broken neural mechanism that harbored the panic. On some level I understood that my brain was trying to protect me, but unfortunately it categorized emotional intimacy in the same synaptic bunker as fleeing a burning building or being chased by a bear. The sun was rising over Logan airport, so I got out of bed. I went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror: bald, skinny, exhausted, sad.... Then I was scared, because I didn’t know if I was sane.... And sane people didn’t find themselves panicking in hotel rooms because they’d gone on a few pleasant dates with a kind, beautiful, vegetarian movie star...
But before he can tell her that, she calls to say she's found someone else.

That's it. That's what's in the book. Sounds like he's a mess and she's with-it enough to be studying at Harvard. He does mention the age difference: "I was thirty-three and she was twenty, but this was her world." And he does get her age wrong. She's right about that. It's stupid not to fact check something so checkable, and it throws all his softer, less checkable facts into doubt. And — just to take him at his own words — maybe there is something creepy about a man that old imagining that he's really, mentally, the one with the naiveté disadvantage.

109 comments:

whitney said...

I'm more inclined to trust the neurotic musician more than the professional liar

Robert Cook said...

Maybe everything Moby is saying about his interactions with Portman are lies, or his own distorted perceptions of a very different reality. If they are, of course she would deny and object to his characterization of their acquaintanceship.

If, however, his descriptions are accurate, well...who knows?

Michael in ArchDen said...

If this was Twitter, I'd reply with the gif of the shrugging little girl saying, "Why not both?"

Partially because all of us have flawed memories, and mostly because we do really experience the same events in different ways, I suspect they are both right, and both wrong in some weird ways.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

When douchebags collide.

Freder Frederson said...

I go by the rule of half your age plus seven is the minimum age for dating someone. 34/2 + 7 = 24. So yes, it was creepy--by six years.

stevew said...

From what I know and have seen of Moby, he is an awkward and unsophisticated dude. That he could have been the naive one, smitten in some way by a young, beautiful, and somewhat attentive Natalie Portman, seems highly likely.

For Natalie Portman's part in this story, quibbling over her exact age - 20 isn't much different than 18, when compared to someone in their early 30's - and the conflating his use of 'dates' to an assertion by him that they were 'dating' is weird. She's right that given he mentions his book he should have alerted her, even let her read and comment on the text.

Hey, maybe they did talk ahead of time and cooked up a plan to get them both a lot more attention and possibly book sales.

readering said...

Good grief. I thought the whole idea of rock stars is to date teenagers.

rehajm said...

Moby is creepy when his age is not considered. That should have been foreseen. And her, a lawyer.

Nonapod said...

He said, she said.

She admits she was a fan and that she went out of her way to meet him. She then "hung out a handful of times" with him. Were they alone together a bunch when they were "hanging out"? If so, yeah, that could be fairly construed as dating - unless she made it pretty clear at the time that it wasn't.

I suspect she dislikes being basically defined as a groupie. To be fair though, Moby probably should have OK'd the story with her before putting it out. Especally if he was really trying to be the nice, sensitive guy he likes to portray himself to be. Nice guys don't tell tales out of school about their relationships.

rehajm said...

Now that Devendra Banhart video she was in, THAT was creepy...

jerpod said...

I believe Moby. A guy who surreptitiously rubs his exposed cock against unsuspecting strangers, then giggles about it with his gay friend, then tells the whole world about it in a memoir isn't the type who'd lie about this kind of thing.

Kevin said...

Complicating this is the fact that Natalie Portman's debut in the assassin film Leon has pedo undertones and overtones galore, which have been picked up on by that community (and those outside of it) to a very great degree (with artwork, fan fiction, memes, etc).

So if anyone should have been overly sensitive to perceptions of older man/teenage girl, it should have been her.

Nichevo said...

I can't think of anything bad that could happen to Moby that would displeased, disturb or annoy me. I must question Ms. Portman's taste, however.

Kevin said...

And him! He seemed to be well aware of her acting work and should have known how that would come across.

Lucid-Ideas said...

Never pay attention to what women say. Only pay attention to what women do.

Fen said...

I've stopped believing women who claim unwanted attention. The pattern is they lie.

I remember a rapier practice at our coach's house. It was weekly, but this week he was out of town and a girl who rented his guest room was left in charge of the house. We (20 of us) practiced in the back yard, she stayed inside. So no contact with her was necessary. Which is how we preferred - she was a very ugly person, morbidly obese with a huge chip on her shoulder. Even uglier on the inside. Imagine TrigglyPuff and you won't be far off the mark.

Near the end of the practice it became obvious that honoring her landlord's obligation to host practice was an annoyance to her. So as we packed up I walk to the sliding glass door and knocked on the screen. She got up from the couch where she had been painting something and slide the door open but didn't open the screen. So I stayed outside the door.

"What do you want?"

"Hey I just want to say thanks for letting us practice here tonight. We appreciate it"

"I was doing something!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you. I just wanted to say thanks"

And I left as graciously as possible. She's like a wounded animal in pain, there is no need to get offended and snap back at her.

Few weeks later I learned that she told our coach I had made a pass at her. He and a friend had her explain the encounter in detail and explained she had misunderstood, I was simply being nice to her.

I don't know what pissed me off more, 1) I'm married, 2) my act of courtesy was repaid with slander or 3) the idea that I would be so desperate to make a play for a creature like that. It was embarrassing to have my coach even consider it. But it could have ruined my life if I had naively stepped inside the room. Outside, my sparring partners were packing up their gear within earshot.

So in the Age of Kavanaugh, I no longer take a woman's word over a man's. I don't believe Portman's account. She has a history of insanity and, barring some video or audio recording, should be dismissed.

Narr said...

I barely know who either of these people are, but here goes.

The age thing. FF above has it down to a formula (on me it would be 40, though I'd settle for two 20s ha). I don't see why other adults have a need to critique the consensual relations of other adults, regardless of age.

I agree with some other posters, and have argued it myself for years, we're entering an age of prudery and taboo-enforcement that the Victorians could only gasp at.

Narr
A culture of Margaret Dumonts

Kay said...

There may be a lot to this story that’s being left out. One angle that hasn’t been discussed is the that role Moby’s bisexuality may have played in it. A lot of people just don’t believe that bisexuality is real. Could Portman be one of these people who then feels fooled to discover that this man who she thought was just her gay buddy actually has sexual attraction for her?

Fen said...

BTW why are we gossiping about what appear to be two celebrity douchebags anyway?

Everyone already knows that women lie about this kind of thing. Insty even has the #TeachWomenToStopLying hashtag he trots out weekly. Try to post about something that has value, Althouse. Don't be so BORING.

(pardoy of Althouse yesterday)

Geez.

Michael K said...

I don't know who Moby is. I liked Natalie in "Leon" but have not seen anything with her since,

From some casual reading, it seems she has turned into a typical Hollywood type.

More reason why "Susan Slept Here" could not be made today.

Movie critic Freder would be horrified.

Fen said...

Could Portman be one of these people who then feels fooled to discover that this man who she thought was just her gay buddy actually has sexual attraction for her?

I think it's more likely that both honestly believe their version of events. They are watching two different movies. We see it here everyday.

Difference is, MobyWhoever didn't assign malicious intent.

Mike Sylwester said...

I never heard of Moby until now.

rcocean said...

18= Adult
20= Adult + 2 years.

They both seem to agree that there was only a few "dates" or "encounters". He says sex. She says no. Is anyone surprised? How many women have said "Oh, I never had sex with him" when in fact they did.

But I have only the vaguest idea who these people are. I've never listened to Moby and Portman is an actress I can't place. They seem to deserve each other.

William said...

I have a Solomonic solution. Kill both parents and put the truth up for adoption....As Star War Princesses go, she's no Carrie Fisher, but I put her ahead of Daisy Ridley.

Bill Peschel said...

Did he have sex with her? From the excerpt, the worse that happened was that she fell asleep on him, which I can understand.

If he did bang her, I have to wonder why he's not proud of it. Even with all the other worries, he did bang Natalie Portman. Maybe he's not as bisexual as he thought, and she picked up on it.

As for her response, I'll let Tolstoy take over:

"It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness."

Michael K said...

Portman is an actress I can't place. They seem to deserve each other.

The only good movie she was in was when she was about age 10. Maybe that's why,

readering said...

I've heard of Moby and seen many Portman films. Now, Susan Slept Here (1954)--THAT's obscure!!

Fen said...

He probably remembered her as being 20 because she told him she was twenty.

Or are we now going to pretend that women don't also lie about their age?

Kevin said...

So Moby's career is over, right?

Isn't that what happens when creepy older dudes are called out by young, pretty women?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

she's doing a metaphorical "knob-touch"

AlbertAnonymous said...

“But here she was in my dressing room, flirting with me.”

I agree with the others who say they’re watching “two different movies”

This is Natalie Portman. The woman is gorgeous. If she wanted to see me and came to my dressing room, I’m pretty sure I’d be reading almost anything she said to me as “flirting”.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

That Moby dated, or "dated" Natalie Portman is the least creepy thing about him that I know of.

Why wouldn't a young-ish man be romantically interested in a young woman? That he had to wait until he was ALMOST THIRTY to become successful, and therefore attractive, shouldn't be held against him. We can't all be cast at age 12 in a popular movie as the jail-bait du jour.

I actually thought Moby was gay, but if Natalie knew he wasn't, why was she "hanging out" with him? She was really only a semi-pretty actress, just a somewhat younger Winona Ryder, who happened to get lucky.

This story only goes to prove that women will treat men like shit if they can get away with it.

Fen said...

What's the quote about women spending the first part of their life trying to get to a certain age and the rest of their life trying to stay there? I'm sure I've mangled it.

Fun fact. The average American woman spends $8 a day on makeup.

Maybe Portman and Moby could promote something other than themselves.

Virgil Hilts said...

I tend to agree with the "she thought he was her safe gay celebrity buddy" stuff, which can explain why their recollections are so disparate. Would it be naive of her not to know that Moby was straight or bi (not gay) when she was 18? Hell, when I was 18 I am pretty sure I thought Paul Lynde was straight.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"From hell's heart, I stab at thee.
For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."

tim maguire said...

If she falls asleep in bed with him and they didn't even kiss, then it's not a date. She doesn't see him as a sexual being at all. Which should fit in nicely with his neurotic self-hatred.

If that is the full account of his time with Portman, then she needs to get over herself. He did nothing wrong even if he did get a minor detail wrong.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

'I tend to agree with the "she thought he was her safe gay celebrity buddy" stuff, which can explain why their recollections are so disparate.'

That may excuse her actions then, but not her words now.

Begonia said...

Portman says that his story is inaccurate, so maybe she's saying they never lay on her dorm room bed. Certainly it's a fair criticism that the publisher never bothered to fact check.

When I was an 18 year old I was super-innocent. I had no idea what went through men's heads. I had never kissed anyone even. I didn't consider myself attractive, even though looking back now I can see that I was, and I can understand why guys were interested in dating me (I was freaked out that they were). Of course Portman knew she was beautiful at 18, but even so, she was just out of high school. What she thought was going on (literally, "hanging out") and what he thought was going on ("dating") were probably different.

MayBee said...

It doesn't seem like something she needed to comment on at all.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

So... she did go out with him a few times and then she realized he was sexually attracted to her? And that makes him "creepy"... just because he was so much older. If she was 18, I think that means he was 34. Does he really deserve to be attacked as creepy?

Moby's career is in the crapper, Natalie's isn't. By celebrity logic, that means he's fair game.

Paul said...

Whoa... 30 something man attracted to 18 year old women... who would have thunk it!

Someone contact Playboy!

MayBee said...

Portman started sleeping with the choreographer for Black Swan when he had a live in girlfriend who was also in the film. She got pregnant. So I'm not sure why she feels like she needs to criticize someone else for being creepy in their dating habits.

jr565 said...

I’m no Moby defender/fan but it seems like Natalie Portman is a feminist hypocrite douche. She wants to be treated like an adult but then describes him as a creepy old man who went after right after she got out of high school. Which is true, however 18 is the age the law considers to be the age of consent.
She age shamed him.

That it happens when you graduate from high school is neither here nor there. If you are an adult then you are allowed to make adult decisions.but more importantly you can be treated like an adult.
I notice the same blurring if age limits in the Roy Moore case too. There he is accused of going to malls to hit on young girls as if he’s a known pedophile. Yet the example they cite of a woman He picked up at the mall was above the age of consent and went on a date with him willingly. Yet, it’s described as him acting like a pedophile.

We seem to have issues in this country with age of consent. It’s pretty straightforward if the kid is pubescent. But once they are of the age where they just hit the age of consent we still have problems accepting that the age of consent means it’s not creepy. Or even if it is, it’s creepy to those who judge the behavior. But not the law.
and now Moby gets treated like a dirty old man simply because he viewed Natalie Portman like

The adult she was.of course, Moby is pretty strident when it comes to conservatives. So, if it was Roy Moore for example I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t offer a defense of Moore dating women of age. He’d (most likely) call him a pedo or a dirty old man. And so, whatever sympathy I might have is tempered by the fact that this is Moby we’re talking about.

Dave said...

Moby... hmm. Where have I heard that name before?
Oh yeah! Isn't he the guy who was talking up how cool it was to lie on the internet for political reasons, back in Bush's first term?
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=moby

"The term is derived from the name of the liberal musician Moby, who famously suggested in February of 2004 that left-wing activists engage in this type of subterfuge: “For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms and say you’re an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion. Then you go to an anti-immigration Web site chat room and ask, ‘What’s all this about George Bush proposing amnesty for illegal aliens?’”

Totally believable, that dude. Just another "male feminist".

Oso Negro said...

Gerontophobia in sexual relations has been inculcated in young women even as homosexuality has been mainstreamed. Frederson’s formula is for betas who think they are players.

iowan2 said...

Am I supposed to feel sorry for Portman? She says Moby is old and creepy, but she invited him into her dorm room, and her dorm room bed. Am I, as an experienced male, supposed to pull Portman aside and tell her who is appropriate to spend time with? Does she require that kind of protection because she is female? Is it my chivalrous duty to manage Portmans social calendar? Do we need a law forbidding an age separation between dating pairs?

If none of these question pertain, why would I have an opinion?

JaimeRoberto said...

A 30-something man hanging out in a college dorm room is kind of creepy. Heck, I feel kind of creepy riding my bike through a nearby college campus. But then I like looking at the coeds. So maybe I'm kind of creepy too. But not as creepy as Moby.

SGT Ted said...

"If she was 18, I think that means he was 34. Does he really deserve to be attacked as creepy?"

This is the classic way women police the sex lives of men they aren't attracted to. If she had wanted to bang him, he wouldn't be "creepy".

wwww said...

He thought she was flirting. He thought they went out on dates. He was in the friend zone. She realized he was interested in her, so she told him he was in the friend zone. Each of them understood the situation from two different perspectives, and, yeah, some of that was due to age. 34 year olds don't crash in their friend's dorm rooms.

bagoh20 said...

I'll tell you what's creepy: lying in bed with Natalie Portman and sneaking out without doing anything. That's not even human!

BBarilko said...

There's nothing creepy about a 34 year old guy who pursues an 18yr old woman who shows up at one of his shows then makes her way to his dressing room. She wasn't there to play tiddlywinks, she was pursuing him... both as adults. To infer she was a naive child is infantilizing her.

Had he not wrote about it in his book..and as a result made her look like a groupy whore... she would have never said a word.

But hey, it's #metoo time... women sleep their way to the top then complain about the men who made them do it for their fame...over...and over...and over...etc.

Big Mike said...

So in the Age of Kavanaugh, I no longer take a woman's word over a man's.

I agree. Women lie reflexively.

Joe said...

I'm indifferent to both. My first suspicion was that this was simply a disconnect between dating and hanging out. I now think that both are using "dating" as a metaphor for sex. I don't think they had sex, but Moby wants everyone to think they did.

Regardless, her contention that his fact checkers did no fact checking is valid.

Rob said...

"Sure, we were in bed together, but I never really thought of it as dating. I was just giving the old man a tumble."

Michael K said...

Now, Susan Slept Here (1954)--THAT's obscure!!

Big hit. You could watch it and see how nice things used to be before "Wokeness" arrived.

wwww said...

FYI: Fathers of teenage girls.

Do not let them go to University without filling them in about men. A lot of them don't get it, and they will trust too easily. They are used to being children, and being protected. Many will not understand that many men will not be their friend and it is not safe to let them in the dorm room or "crash" overnight. And please explain it is not safe to drink around many men, who make assumptions and take advantage. Young women do not understand that too many young men (or older men) will view them as public property, easy marks, potential girlfriends, or whores.

Temujin said...

My dad was 34 when he married my 19 year old mom. And the only thing creepy about them is their kids.

readering said...

I have ordered Susan Slept Here from my library! (LA Public Library is GREAT)

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Moby's name is synonymous with leftwing political dirty pool.

I thought he was just another showbiz commie queer. That he was attracted to a WOMAN, of all things, is probably the least disgusting thing about that filthy freak.

Matt said...

Moby should have been more circumspect. Natalie Portman is a married woman with two young children. He should have respected this and kept whatever happened between them, however innocent it was, private.

whitney said...

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...
"From hell's heart, I stab at thee.
For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."

Clever!

Michael K said...

I have ordered Susan Slept Here from my library!

Good. It is cute and shows how sex was treated in movies in the 50s. What is unusual is showing a king sized bed, even if she was the only one in it. Also Dick Powell had a career as a singer and and dancer. That was his last feature movie. He was a very good businessman and started the Four Star TV production company. Too bad he died of lung cancer at 58.

Yancey Ward said...

Did he knob touch her? That is probably where the creepiness arose.

Ruprecht said...

Yes easily fact checked but why? Everything written is harmless. He was star struck. She was star struck. Then they realized they had nothing together and went their own ways. Nothing happened to object to. She comes off as creepy even bringing this up. As if she was hoping for #MeTo but Moby didn’t rise to that level of sleeve but she will play the cards she got.

Lydia said...

Moby has responded:

"I recently read a gossip piece wherein Natalie Portman said that we'd never dated," he wrote. "This confused me, as we did, in fact, date.

"And after briefly dating in 1999 we remained friends for years.

"I like Natalie, and I respect her intelligence and activism.

"But, to be honest, I can't figure out why she would actively misrepresent the truth about our (albeit brief) involvement."

He added: "I completely respect Natalie's possible regret in dating me (to be fair, I would probably regret dating me, too), but it doesn't alter the actual facts of our brief romantic history."

Temujin said...

I regret reading this.

If he respects her intelligence and activism he should at least understand that as an activist her job is to screw with people. Activist. I thought she was a vegetarian actress.

Bob Smith said...

“Ohhhh, yucky men are staring at my body, ick”.

Some years pass.

“How come nobody asks me to go out anymore, what’s wrong with men these days?”

gilbar said...

34/2=17
17+7=24
18 < 24
CREEPY by definition

stlcdr said...

Fen said...
He probably remembered her as being 20 because she told him she was twenty.

Or are we now going to pretend that women don't also lie about their age?

5/23/19, 1:22 PM
My thought exactly.

wwww said...

"I recently read a gossip piece wherein Natalie Portman said that we'd never dated," he wrote. "This confused me, as we did, in fact, date.

You thought you were dating her. She did not. You kissed her once. She was 18. You were 30-something and when you were 50-something you published all the details of the friends-who-kissed once and maybe-you-were-something-else before she called you up and friend-zoned you.

But, still, the details of the kiss could sell your book, so why would you keep quiet about it! Tell the world all the details.

wwww said...

He probably remembered her as being 20 because she told him she was twenty.
Or are we now going to pretend that women don't also lie about their age?


He was hanging around her Harvard dorm room with her. If she was a freshman vs. a Junior, that would have been clear to everyone around them. Freshmen more likely to live on campus.

Bobb said...

Compare and contrast: Roy Moore.

Paul Snively said...

I didn't think anything could make me think of Moby sympathetically. I thought wrong.

gbarto said...

I was not aware that anything about Moby was not creepy. I enjoy some of his music, but I've never been under the impression he was a remotely normal person, and age has nothing to do with it. That said, Kiss and Tell requires an element of boasting and I don't see boasting here. It's more like a bad Richard Lewis bit: So I foundsa myself in bed with this beautiful young woman and needless to say I freaked and got the hell out of there because like that's gonna go anywhere... Natalie Portman's name sells books, but the point of the story is that celebrity hasn't changed him: he's always been weird, weirded out and not understood why anyone wouldn't loathe him as much as he loathes himself.

Portman would have done better to roll her eyes and say: I'm not sure I'd call it dating, but yeah, we went out a few times when I was young and stupid. Can you just imagine!

readering said...

Seems like every other showbiz bio I read before 1970s ends, "he/she died at 5_ from heart attack/cancer".

Begonia said...

This debate also reminds me of two things, both of which I learned on podcasts:

--Moby borrowed some CD's of some smithsonian folkways slave songs from a friend, sampled them in his music, which became a hit, and then never returned the CD's to said friend--or even really thanked him for it. He seems like kind of a jerk.
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/heavyweight/brholm/2-gregor

--Natalie Portman also had a "friend zone" relationship with another famous dude (Jonathan Safran Foer) who apparently also thought she was interested in him: https://www.vox.com/2016/7/14/12187884/jonathan-safran-foer-natalie-portman-emails

wwww said...

with another famous dude (Jonathan Safran Foer)

Apparently this dude left his wife for an imagined relationship with Portman? What?


rcocean said...

Either do 2 things:

1) Treat 18 year old girls like they're adults; or
2) Move adulthood back to age 20 or 21.

If these young 18 y/o "Children" are too young take care of their sex lives, then why the hell are they VOTING?

Either they are ADULTS who can drive, marry, vote, enter into contracts, have sex, etc. Or they are not. Make up your mind.

Michael K said...

Seems like every other showbiz bio I read before 1970s ends, "he/she died at 5_ from heart attack/cancer".

The era of smoking, especially heavy smoking. My father was a heavy smoker and died at 65. My mother did not smoke, except for occasional social settings. She died at 103.

Why do you think the survival numbers are going up the past two decades ?

Narr said...

The great Tallulah Bankhead:

When I went away to make my career in the city, my daddy warned me about men and liquor, but he didn't say a word about women and cocaine!

Narr
If a 97 y.o. geezer and a 20 y.o. bimbo want a hook up, who has standing to complain?

The Vault Dweller said...

Even at 18, Natalie Portman should have been old enough to figure out that an adult male might be sexually interested in her. That being said, a 34 year old guy and an 18 year old woman, or even a 20 year old woman is still kind of creepy.

The Vault Dweller said...

I've heard the rule of thumb for age differences in dating relationships still being socially acceptable is that the younger person has to be at least half the older person's age plus 7 years. So if Moby was 34 according to that rubric the youngest woman he could pursue would have been 24.

ConquerorofAllFoesCheese said...

I hope that not all large age differences between men and women who 'date' are creepy. I was divorced and 40 when I met my now wife and she was 20. She was inexperienced and hadn't dated much at all. I was, well, much less inexperienced. We have now been together for 35 years and married for 30 of them. (I wanted her to get to know me for whatever I really was.)
I was certainly not looking for a relationship of any kind with a 20-year-old. But it was Kismet or something. So . . .

reader said...

Which one of them is the cat person?

Yancey Ward said...

Did Portman's underwear disappear while she was "dating" Moby? Is so, then he is a creep. And if you date Freder at any age, just don't complain about learning he is a creep.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Ha-- an amateur! Here's a few (of many) from a pro:

Men are like linoleum floors. Lay 'em right and you can walk all over them for years.

Why don’t you come up and have a little ... scotch and sofa?

Don't forget honey. Never let one man worry your mind. Find 'em, fool 'em and forget 'em.


--Mae West

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Don't air all your creepy shit. Creepy shit happens.

Unless you were attacked in some way against your will, just STFU.

Narayanan said...

How does This resonate with current Gen of movie After and sequel upcoming.

Phil 314 said...

Mathilda

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Little Miss Portman
Fell for a dork-man,
Her preference for nerds did whey;
Along came Moby and eyed her
And said he laid down beside her
And frightened Miss Portman away!

rcocean said...

"Seems like every other showbiz bio I read before 1970s ends, "he/she died at 5_ from heart attack/cancer"."

Yeah, its quite astounding.

Bogart - 56 cancer
Cooper - 60 cancer
Gable - 60 Heart Attack
Tracy - 67 Heart Attack
Tyrone Power - 45 heart attack
Robert Taylor - 58 Cancer
Montgomery Clift - 46 Heart attack.

Brando lived to be 80 because he didn't smoke or drink to excess. He was just morbidly obese. Caine, Eastwood, Duvall, Hackman, Connery - all in mid 80s or more.

Bill Peschel said...

Although I've been in journalism and publish non-fiction books, I wouldn't think that a memoir would need to be fact-checked. Not as stringent as, say, a biography.

Memoirs are stories we tell ourselves about our lives. I wouldn't expect outright lying (although some writers are just fine with that), but memories of events are never going to be consistent.

So I wouldn't expect Moby to fact-check Portman's age, and their time "together" was more a reflection of his narcissism than anything about her.

Of course, now that she opened her mouth, we learned a lot more about her.

BTW, in the short that precedes "Darjeeling Limited," Portman wanders naked around a Paris hotel room. Not appealing at all.

rcocean said...

So, is Moby gay? Not married, no kids, no girlfriends.

MacMacConnell said...

I feel bad for Moby, he seems to be struggling with issues most get over by eleventh grade. If I was in bed with Portman I'd give it shot even if I was 45, hell 50. I also believe Moby is being a gentleman in describing the dorm room situation. The truth is probably closer to the fact that Portman being a vegetarian he extracted himself from the sleeping Portman because her dorm room was beginning to smell like a Dodge City feed lot on a hot summer day.

Marc in Eugene said...

There was a 'worst moments from Moby's memoir' piece in the Guardian this morning; they none of them are high crimes and misdemeanors. What most surprised me was that this is his second memoir; gosh-- who buys such dreck? The final music in those Jason Bourne movies, well suited to accompany the good guy's successful rout of the bad guys, is Moby.

Marc in Eugene said...

"(Some other news story caused me to buy it (I forget what).)" 'Research purposes' is an answer to my question.

Fen said...

"He was hanging around her Harvard dorm room with her. If she was a freshman vs. a Junior, that would have been clear to everyone around them. Freshmen more likely to live on campus."

But we're not talking about the other students.

When I was a freshman the difference was stark, to me the other freshman girls were just girls. The juniors were not girls, they were adult women.

But in my mid-30s, every female under 25 looked like jailbait. I couldn't distinguish between an 18 and 20 years old if my life depended on it.

Wince said...

I think Portman is pretty, but looking at her I can’t help thinking she should have that mole on her face checked. It always seems to be changing.

Looks like this was two years before Eminem dumped on Moby...

And Moby, you can get stomped by Obie
You thirty six year old bald headed fag, blow me

wwww said...

Harvard has a separate dorm and eating hall for freshmen. If he knew her well enough to be dating her, and hung out around the dorm, those facts would have been obvious. But if he didn't know her that well, he wouldn't have realized the first thing about her living/dining arrangements.

Fen said...

She was 13 or 14 when she made her first movie. I doubt her living and eating routines were the normal.

SaysMeow said...

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (published 1811):

[Marianne Dashwood (age 17) is annoyed by jokes that Colonel Brandon (age 35) is in love with her]

"...but he is old enough to be my father; and if he were ever animated enough to be in love, must have long outlived every sensation of the kind. It is too ridiculous!...thirty-five has nothing to do with matrimony."

"Perhaps," said Elinor, "thirty-five and seventeen had better not have anything to do with matrimony together. But if there should by any chance be a woman who is single at seven-and-twenty, I should not think Colonel Brandon's being thirty-five any objection to his marrying her."

sandy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sandy said...

Great Work many Thanxs

JAORE said...

Nothing more bitter and hateful than a no-longer-relevant celeb.

They will do anything to get back in the spotlight.

JAORE said...

But in my mid-30s, every female under 25 looked like jailbait. I couldn't distinguish between an 18 and 20 years old if my life depended on it.

At my age the 40 year olds look like kids. Thank goodness there are so many beautiful women in their 60's. Mrs. JAORE near the top of the group in my eyes.

GMT -5 8032 said...


So there was an age difference. Big deal. My dad was 15 years older than my mom; he was 40 and she was 25. The real scandal there was that he was born a Kohen and she was divorced.

Or take me. When I was 29 I met this amazing beautiful young woman. I was very attracted to her, but I just could not see myself dating a teenager. I became friends with her. Long story short, after 17 years as friends we became a romantic couple and we got married a few years later. A year later, she converted to Judaism and we had a religious ceremony.

I had a major crush on her all these years and I would go places because she would be there. Did that make me creepy?

MacMacConnell said...

In an academic setting especially in the Ivy League this is only creepy because the older man isn't her academic adviser or a professor.

Narr said...

Actually the old prof - grad student affairs and marriages are a very real staple of academe, and the unions are often good ones, in my experience.

The big thing at my ESU now is the resignation of the AD, connected to an apparently anonymous
letter accusing him of--sit down, now--"flirty behavior" with an associate. But that's the money and glory side of the outfit and I'm tempted to gloat.

Narr
But I don't