Movies were once full of performers who could sing, dance, and act—not any more, as the Natalie Portman dance-double scandal illustrates. Plus, a gallery of 12 body doubles.
Fox Searchlight; PatrickMcMullan.com / Sipa
For two weeks, Natalie Portman has been embroiled in a scandal about how much dancing she did in Black Swan. Sarah Lane, a 22-year-old ballerina, claims it's a "coverup" and that she actually performed the majority of the ballet scenes while Portman was responsible for "5 percent." The film's choreographer (and Portman's fiancé) Benjamin Millepied put the figure at " 85 percent." But director Darren Aronofsky went to the evidence, telling Entertainment Weekly that 111 of Black Swan's 139 dance shots (or 80 percent) feature the Oscar winner. Then, right on the ballet slipper heels of that debate came a new one involving Portman: Irish model Caroline Davis told Film Drunk that she was the actress' butt double in the thong scene from Your Highness, opening April 8. The site got right to the bottom of the mystery, determining that Davis did double for Portman's derriere—but only so the A-lister wouldn't have to dive into freezing water.
Fox Searchlight; PatrickMcMullan.com / Sipa
Though Kate Clarke has acted in movies with Anthony Hopkins, Eric Roberts, and John Corbett, it is her role as Angelina Jolie's body double in Mr. & Mrs. Smith that still fascinates men. "Guys think it's hilarious that I wore Angie's bra," she told Los Angeles magazine. The Minnesota-born Clarke also doubled for Kate Beckinsale in Vacancy, but that assignment was far less glamorous—she had to crawl around a tunnel with rats.
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Though Shelley Michelle has stood in for more than 80 actresses—including Sandra Bullock, Kim Basinger, and Madonna—her performance as Julia Roberts' double in Pretty Woman made her famous. (That's Michelle getting dressed at the beginning of the film and her body with Julia's head in the iconic poster.) So how has the business changed in the 20 years since the movie was released? As Michelle told The Insider, "When I shot Pretty Woman, I made $750 a week. And now you can make $2,000 a day." All of which explains why Michelle once had her legs insured by Lloyd's of London for $1 million.
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The next time you see a commercial featuring Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, or Kylie Minogue, look closely—it might be Rachael Carr. The British model wrote an article for The Daily Mail in 2008 in which she confessed to being "Kylie's bottom, Britney's boobs, and Christina's tummy." Carr estimated that she earns about £30,000 ($48,000) a year as a body double, and admits to having "fat days" like everyone else. "I, too, experience a flutter of envy when I see a star's perfect body in a commercial or video," she wrote. "It's sometimes hard even for me to remember that it's probably not their body. "
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Elizabeth Taylor's death was particularly poignant for the woman who doubled for the actress on Cleopatra, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Butterfield 8, among other films. "It made me very nostalgic," Phyllis Shelton told The New York Times. "It was kind of the end of an era." Aside from their remarkably similar looks—though Shelton has green eyes and Taylor's were violet—both women shared a love of horses and multiple marriages. "But she outdid me," Shelton joked, "she outnumbered me." And now that Shelton is older, she is told she resembles another famous actress: "I've heard people say Shirley MacLaine, but I can't believe it."
AP Photo; Courtesy of Phyllis Shelton
Julie Strain has had a successful livelihood as "Queen of the B-Movies," but it's her turn as Geena Davis' body double in Thelma & Louise that provides a humorous footnote to her career. "Geena started feeling comfortable with the love scenes," the six-foot-one former Penthouse Pet of the Year once admitted, "so I was paid but never used!" One reason Davis might have been OK in her own skin—those romantic moments featured a young Brad Pitt.
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It's fitting that Leilani Munter doubled for Catherine Zeta-Jones in Traffic. After all, the 35 year old does all of her best work behind the wheel—since 2001, she has driven in NASCAR, Indy Wheel, and now ARCA races. But back in 2000, Munter was asked to double for Zeta-Jones, whom she resembles, even though she's four inches shorter. "I had to wear these huge heels," Munter told an interviewer, "she thought it was hilarious." (Zeta-Jones was also pregnant during filming so Munter was outfitted with a padded bodysuit.) In addition to her racing career, Munter is a devoted environmental activist—Discovery Channel's Planet Green Network named her the No. 1 Eco Athlete in 2010—who has written about the BP oil spill and other issues.
Everett Collection; AP Photo
Zoe Bell already had success as a stuntwoman—most notably for Lucy Lawless in Xena: Warrior Princess—when she took her career to the next level, doubling for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and 2. The New Zealand-born Bell was initially hired as a "crash-and-smash double," but director Quentin Tarantino was so impressed with her work that he used her for Thurman's more artful fight scenes and later cast her as the lead in his next movie, Death Proof. More recently, Bell had a chance to throw a few more elbows onscreen in Drew Barrymore's roller derby movie, Whip It, in which she played the fierce "Bloody Holly."
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Long before Natalie Portman's Black Swan controversy, Jennifer Beals was caught in a scandal about how much she had high-stepped it in 1983's Flashdance. It turned out that the unknown Beals wasn't exactly a maniac on the floor—French dancer Marine Jahan had been used for the complicated choreography but hadn't received a credit at the end of the movie. In fact, as Entertainment Weekly reported when the collector's DVD of Flashdance was released, in addition to Jahan's moves, director Adrian Lyne used a female gymnast and a male breakdancer in a wig for Beals' "What a Feelin'" audition.
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When Penelope Cruz needed a double for this summer's Pirates of the Caribbean 4, she kept it in the family—her younger sister Monica stood in for many of the long shots because Penelope was pregnant during filming. Though trained as a dancer, Monica has been acting more in the last few years, and in 2007 she told The Daily Mail: "I don't speak English, so I cannot foresee a career in Hollywood. But I do see myself more and more as an actress rather than a dancer." And Penelope is her biggest fan: "She is much, much more beautiful than me, and so very talented."
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Consider this house of mirrors: In 1990, Catherine Bell appeared on the game show To Tell the Truth as an impostor for body double Shelley Michelle. Two years later, Bell herself doubled for Meryl Streep and shot Isabella Rossellini's nude scene in Death Becomes Her. But by 1996, she made a name for herself as Marine Colonel Sarah MacKenzie on the hit show JAG. And in 2007, Bell switched branches of the military to star in Lifetime's series Army Wives.
Everett Collection; Chris Pizzello / AP Photo
Joan Rivers may be legendary for going under the knife, but audiences were dumbstruck during a Super Bowl XLV commercial, when the comedian was introduced as the new bombshell GoDaddy.com girl. Whose curvy body had they attached to the head of 77-year-old Rivers? "That took a lot of hard work—dieting and exercise!" Rivers tweeted after the ad aired. "And I never once puked up my lunch." Though model/actress Tabitha Taylor was ultimately revealed to be the mystery double, a spokesman for Go Daddy continued to have fun with the deception, saying: "You mean you don't think our new GoDaddy.com Girl's own health routine toned her to the new hot bod? She'll tell you she has a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch and extensive plastic surgery for dinner!"
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