I boycotted.

Leroy,

When a crime has been committed, the state represents the people against the perpetrator, not the victim who in this case was 13 years old at the time and she testified that it was rape. While I sympathize with the victim wanting this to go away, she testified that she did not consent, repeatedly asked to go home and told Polanski no while he gave her drugs and alcohol and then raped and sodomized her. It doesn't matter if she looked older than her age or that her mother might have pushed her on Polanski or that he didn't know her real age. He was a grown man and she was a child who said no. What matters is that Polanski was convicted (he pled guilty) and sentenced. If you and the idiots in Hollywood believe Polanski has been punished enough because he couldn't pick up his Oscar in person, then God help us all.

I start rooting against any chef who throws a fit when there is a vegetarian challenge. A chef who is prejudiced against vegetarians and incapable of producing a tasty vegetarian dish does not deserve the title of chef.

Natalie Portman has made kind of an a**hat of herself on HuffPo, but my gripe about Top Chef is whether we have to suffer the dietary whims of the rich and celebrated as a formal challenge on the show every season. If there was an entire "Top Chef Vegan" season, i'd watch it happily, but i don't see why we must watch these challenges, which tell us nothing about chefs who generally can prepare a delicious plate of food, but are often flummoxed by dessert. And the celebrity judges, gracious though they may be, leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Vegans, vegetarians, PETA, etc. lose all credibility when they preach about the pain to animals yet it's a "choice" to abort a baby. That coupled with Portman's support of Polanski the rapist is indefensible, but it's what I've come to expect from Harvard elitists who want to tell the rest of us how to live because they're just so much smarter and it's okay to rape as long as you're a brilliant director (their description, not mine).

Chris is right, and I too wish people calling Portman a rape apologist (or looking to boycott this week's Top Chef because of it) would actually read what she -- and not Jezebel, etc. -- wrote:

http://www.movieline.com/2009/10/natalie-portman-vegan.php

Her support of Polanski -- and I can't get the actual petition to open, so I have only Gawker Media's word that she was among its signers -- is more problematic. If you think *that* warrants a boycott, that's a defensible position to take. But not your misread of her piece.

Well, if this is an entertainment blog, then mission accomplished!

Natalie Portman has slowly fallen from the top of my Top Ten list over the past several years. I used to be so into her; making sure to see pretty much all of her movies and even live on stage. I saved magazibe articles and newspaper clippings, etc. But in recent times, she has really made an @$$ out of herself. She once said she would rather be smart than famous [a celebrity], but despite her Harvard education, she has proven to have left a lot of her true intelligence in Massachussetts and is embracing her celebrity. I'm sure that she thinks that she is right about everything and that she is intelligent and that her celebrity can help spread her great ideas to her followers. But that is exactly what I don't want from celebrities. They don't live normal lives, no matter how much they may want to, so they can't consider themselves in touch with everyone else.

I don't regularly watch Top Chef, but I do like it. I started watching it last year when my girlfriend at the time made me watch it with her. I enjoyed it. Although, I haven't kept up with it. But I'm going to tape tonight's episode anyway because even if Natalie Portman isn't my #1 anymore, she's till on my Top Ten List...barely.

ok im really excited bout this episode, being a vegetarian i know its not easy making good food so i think it will be a good challenge for them.

What a lazy bunch of reading and writing here. Portman did not equate eating meat to rape, and anyone who reads her writing in this manner has not read and understood her writing...

The author of this post really should reread Portman's article before making such baseless charges, especially when they distort issues in such a careless manner.

BTW, I love steak and bacon.

Isn't this supposed to be reality-free? Isn't Top Chef a reality show? What is this doing here! I don't care about Natalie or the writer's opinions. I don't want any mention of reality on here!