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Devendra Banhart & Natalie Portman: Beauty & the beard

2:48 p.m. · April 22, 2008 · by Jim Allen

OK, so the internet's abuzz over the budding romance between freak-folk honcho Devendra Banhart and cinematic pixie Natalie Portman. On a basic level, any movie-star-meets-rocker hookup is bound to be newsworthy, but there are undoubtedly those who are eyeing the hirsute Banhart, who usually looks like he hasn't seen the inside of a bathtub since the Spice Girls topped the charts, and thinking "Is she really going out with him?"

Well, there's a long-standing tradition in the show-biz world of beauty-and-the-geek scenarios. Kate Hudson and Devendra-lookalike Chris Robinson, anyone? Elvis Costello and Diana Krall? Going further back in pop history, Sonny and freakin' Cher? For that matter, the pictures of Portman and her hairy pal that are currently making the rounds suggest nothing so much as the similarly bewildering, long-ago union of Mamas & Papas pair John and Michelle Phillips, old enough to have been B&P's parents. Hmmm, taking a closer look at Banhart, maybe there's something ol' John never told  Michelle...