So, Natalie Portman has signed on to play Cathy in a new Wuthering Heights film. Whether or not you think the casting really works (I'm not sure I do, but I hate that book so don't really care), you've got to credit Natalie and her agents for her consistently smart choices. She's bounced between prestige and popcorn, period and modern, crafting a resume with depth and diversity that should be (if it's not already) the envy of her peers. Her direct competition (and S&M friend) Scarlett Johansson is still a bit unproven in the whole "talent" department, so Natalie needn't worry there. And sure Reese Witherspoon (maybe in a slightly older age group) has that Oscar, but her glossy period effort Vanity Fair totally bombed. Gwyneth Paltrow (again, a bit older) went too period and too British (moving to London and whatnot) and is now stuck playing the girl secretary role in Ironman.

Keira Knightley, by sheer virtue of her Englishness, will be running around in a corset for many years to come, I suspect. Meanwhile Natalie gets to be short-form muse for Tom Twyker (in Paris, Je t'aime) and Wes Anderson (in the little Darjeeling Limited prequel Hotel Chevalier) and do indie art projects with the likes of Wong Kar Wai. It's a pretty ideal set up, and this Wuthering Heights role will further solidify her status as a literary starlet with a big, active brain (she went to Hahvahd, after all). Let's just be glad that she hasn't gone and starred in some big, dopey worst-prequels-ever space operas or anything.