The Democratic platform’s initial omission of references to God and Jerusalem caused quite a kerfuffle. But now we learned of another controversial omission of Judeo-Israeli interest: Natalie Portman will apparently not be addressing the Democratic convention.
The absence of an affirmation of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital came as a surprise. After all, it had been in Democratic platforms for 40 years (minus the 1988 plaform).
The absence of Portman from the dais also comes as a surprise.
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Yesterday CNN reported — citing "a tentative schedule provided by a source to CNN" — that Portman was going to speak Thursday evening with fellow actresses Scarlett Johansson and Kerry Washington. The hope, a source said, was to have the three actresses speak together.
What a difference a few hours made! The Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern tweeted: "Natalie Portman will NOT be attending the #DNC, per her representative."
Sure enough, Washington and Johansson addressed the assembled delegates here in Charlotte tonight (each separately). But Portman was nowhere to be found!
But as we learned this week, things can change fast at this convention. Just yesterday, Jerusalem and God were restored to the platform. Perhaps if pro-Portman advocates raise enough of a ruckus, we can get her on stage in the next couple hours before the convention comes to a close. (Alan Dershowitz, Ed Koch, Eliot Engel and Charles Schumer, where are you?) I’m confident that a clear 2/3 voice-vote majority of Democratic delegates would approve of adding Portman to the schedule, even at this late hour.
Barring the restoration of Portman to her rightful place on the dais, we’ll have to make do with having seen only half of the "hot knishes" speak at this year’s DNC:
