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Natalie Portman To Play RBG in Biopic

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by
Gabriela Geselowitz
May 11, 2015
(Portman: Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images; Ginsburg)
(Portman: Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images; Ginsburg)

Your favorite Jewish actress is set to play your favorite Jewish jurist.

Deadline recently announced that Natalie Portman will portray Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a biopic about the Supreme Court Justice. The film, entitled, “On The Basis Of Sex,” will detail Ginsburg’s career, including the misogynist narishkeit she’s had to deal with. Before she rose to her current position, Ginsburg, only the second female Supreme Court Justice in history, founded the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU, where, as “general counsel from 1972 to 1980, she worked on landmark cases before the Supreme Court that led to the removal of laws that treated men and women differently,” reports The Huffington Post.

This casting choice is a match made in heaven. The “Notorious R.B.G.” is known for her outspoken feminism, strong presence in the Supreme Court, and an impeccable sense of style (lace jabots never looked so good). In fact, RBG is so fierce that she inspired a fan blog that sells merchandise of Ginsburg in a Biggie Smalls-esque crown. Portman, an Oscar winner, is known for her unflagging support of Israel, and for naming her baby after a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. (Maybe he’s even worn a Notorious R.B.G onesie.)

The two women have a lot more in common, too. Both are New Yorkers who attended Ivy League Schools; both are working Jewish mothers; and both married dreamboats (seriously, look at this picture of a young Martin D. Ginsburg). Finally, both women at the same age do have a passing resemblance—and there is little doubt Portman will rock oversized glasses.

So, obviously, this is going to be the best film ever made, and now we wait! Marielle Heller (Diary of a Teenage Girl) is in negotiations to direct, and filming should begin by the end of 2015.

Gabriela Geselowitz is a writer and the former editor of Jewcy.com.