Jewish trivia quiz: Natalie Portman

A. The Erdős–Bacon number was created by Star Wars mega-fans József Erdős and Jason Bacon. The number is a count of all the times in which actors from Star Wars movies have said the word “star” in other films they appeared in. Portman said the word star twice in The Black Swan, once in Jackie, once in The Other Boleyn Girl, and once in V For Vendetta. Harrison Ford holds the record, having uttered the word star 43 times in his many movie roles, including 27 times in the Indiana Jones movies.

B. The Erdős–Bacon number is a measurement of the spine which is used to diagnose scoliosis. At age 10, Portman was found to be at risk for scoliosis because of her measurement of 7, and as a result took up ballet dancing to strengthen her spine and her neck and back muscles. That skill served her well when she was cast as the lead in the movie The Black Swan.

C. The Erdős–Bacon number is a variation on the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” phenomenon, where actors determine how many levels of separation they have from Kevin Bacon in their performing roles. The Erdős–Bacon number combines the degrees of separation of an actor to Kevin Bacon along with that same person’s connection to mathematician Paul Erdős, counting degrees of separation in co-authoring academic papers. Portman has a Bacon number of 2 and an Erdős number of 5, for a combined Erdős–Bacon number of 7, as do actors Colin Firth and Kristen Stewart. Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years) has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.

D. The Erdős–Bacon number, created by writers György Erdős and Dennis Bacon of Variety magazine, reflects the total number of combined awards an actor has won at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Portman won all three of those awards for her role in The Black Swan. She won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for her role as Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie, and she won the Screen Actors Guild Award for her role as Padmé Amidala in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Meryl Streep leads all actors with a Erdős–Bacon number of 63.

E. Yosef Erdős is a reporter for the tabloid newspaper, The National Enquirer. He created the Erdős–Bacon number to keep track of how many times he has caught Jewish celebrities eating non-kosher food. He tails Jewish celebrities as they enter restaurants, and then surreptitiously takes and publishes photographs of the shrimp, cheeseburgers, or bacon which the star is raising to his or her mouth. Portman’s Erdős–Bacon number is 7, Mayim Bialik still proudly maintains an Erdős–Bacon number of 0, and Ivanka Trump currently has an Erdős–Bacon number of 3 (though she has dismissed this as fake Jews news).

http://rrrjewishtrivia.com/answers/natalie-portman-answer.html

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Zimmerman is the author of the Rashi, Rambam and Ramalamadingdong series of Jewish trivia e-books. Learn more at http://www.rrrjewishtrivia.com