Natalie Portman bares the burden of steamy Asian romance

Hollywood startlet: Natalie is set to impress with her racy role

Natalie Portman made me go "wow!" - and that was a first.

What was it about her in Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier - a 13-minute, short-film prequel to his impressive feature-length movie The Darjeeling Limited - that got my attention?

Actually, she had me the minute she knocks on screen ex-boyfriend Jason Schwartzman's Paris hotel room door.

She's wearing a belted raincoat, her hair stylishly gamine. She sits on the bed and Schwartzman pulls off her knee-length boots. It's a very sensual moment and then she all but disrobes, giving us undisguised views of her slender figure.

She's really sexy and grown up in this film, with or without the shots of her derriere.

Anyway, Hotel Chevaliar sort of paves the way for the tale of three brothers - Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson - in The Darjeeling Limited, which is the closing movie for the Times BFI London Film Festival on November 1. (It goes on general release on November 23.)

In that picture we see how Schwartzman's character is still obsessed with his ex (Portman).

The story has the three brothers on a spiritual (kinda) quest in India. Actually, the film has some really lovely, cool moments and I particularly liked the way the locals aren't depicted in that patronising, subservient way we often see in movies.

Instead, they lay down the law and I liked Waris Ahluwalia's chief steward on the train and Amara Karan as his assistant (she'll be seen next in St Trinian's).

Their encounters with the brothers are sometimes hilarious.

So far, Hotel Chevaliar has been shown with The Darjeeling Limited at film festivals and wasn't going to be shown with it on general release, but I hear there has been a change of heart and the plan is for this little treat to be shown with the big guys.

Wow factor: Natalie Portman gets steamy in new film Hotel Chevalier

Sealed with a kiss: Natalie with ex-boyfriend Josh Schwartzman

Well heeled: Natalie in the 13-minute short-film

Baring all: Natalie keeps her feet warm, wearing nothing but socks

Natalie Portman

Oops ! She did it again

The last time she appeared nude on screen,
Natalie Portman begged her director to edit
the scene.

now she sheds her apprehensions, along with
her cloths, in a biopic on Spanish painter
Francisco Goya.

Actress Natalie Portman will appear totally
naked in the film Goya's Ghosts, on the Spanish
painter Francisco Goya.

According to Pagesix.com and then stripped will
play the artist's muse who is accused of atheism
and then stripped in a torture scene.

Earlier Portman appeared nude in the movie closer
but begged director Mike Nichols to edit it and
just ended up dancing in a thong.

Portman denied that she was baring all to shed her
child like presona from the star War series.

She said : "I don't do it in order to prove something.
I just go on with my life and do what feels right."

Natalie Portman

Gael Sweeps Nat off her Feet

Star wars stunner Natalie Portman is back in
the arms of her ex-boyfriend,
Mexican hunk Gael Garcia Bernal. The couple split in 2004
after a brief romance, but now friends are hoping
The perfect pair will make a commitment to
stay together following a string of dates.

According to a source, "They really love each other.
They had hit a point in their relationship where it just
couldn't go anywhere else and they just needed some time apart."

Natalie Portman