Daycares in harrington de: THE Top 10 Daycares in Harrington, DE

Right On The Main
Drag, Still In The Green

We’re right on Milford Harrington Hwy near S. Dupont Hwy for easy access, yet nestled among full, open, green spaces on every side. Your child’s day is free of business bustle noise and enjoys peaceful scenic views from anywhere inside our child care center.

Restaurants, Grocery, And
Shops Make Errands Easy

Grab dinner to go, or get stocked up on fresh produce after pick up–Shell’s Child Care in Harington, DE is close to all the places you rely on to get through the day. We’re also close to schools for all ages, so you can quickly drop off other children who attend.

Nearby Parks Offer
Quality Family Time

Feed the ducks at the Mists At Blair’s Pond or take a nature walk at Killen’s Pond State Park to enjoy some one-on-one time with family, or make it a play date with new friends from school for fun, healthy relaxation.

Where Memories And
Muscles Are Made

Time spent challenging muscles on our playground benefits gross motor skills, coordination, and health. Playing in groups flexes social skills, the building blocks they’ll use for lifetime relationships.

So Clean It Keeps
Us Extra Healthy

We take cleanliness down to the nitty-gritty by wiping down equipment, tools, and surfaces daily with sanitizing products. Professionals complement the job with deep cleaning disinfectants that kill cold and flu germs on contact, keeping your child healthy.

Rely On Safety Measures
That Never Take A Break

Safety cameras inside and outside our campus keep a constant eye on staff and your child, while limited access entryways, by way of valid ID only, ensure the right people are under our roof, keeping your child safe from harm.

6 weeks – 1 Year

1 – 2.5 Years

2.5 – 5 years

6 – 12 Years

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Natalie Portman – biography, photos, best roles, personal life, husband and children, height and weight 2023

Biography of Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman (born Natalie Portman, real name Natalie (or Neta-Lee) Hershlag) is an American film and theater actress, of Israeli origin. Widely known for her participation in the films “Leon”, “Proximity”, “V for Vendetta”, “The Other Boleyn Girl”, “Black Swan”, the Star Wars prequel trilogy, etc. She was awarded an Oscar ”, two Golden Globe Awards, the Israeli Genesis Prize and other prizes.

Brilliant actress Natalie Portman

Childhood and family

Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem on June 9, 1981, in the family of Avner Herschlag, a gynecologist and infertility specialist, and his wife, housewife Shelley Stevens.

Childhood photo of Natalie Portman

Shelley comes from a Jewish family of emigrants from the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary; her father’s parents immigrated to Israel from Romania and Poland. During World War II, Natalie’s great-grandfather and great-grandmother died in the Auschwitz concentration camp, while another great-grandmother served in British intelligence.

“Black Swan”. Home

When Natalie was 3 years old, the family moved from Israel to the United States – first to Washington, and then to Long Island (New York), where her father became a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Hofstra Medical School. Parents continued to maintain an emotional connection with their homeland, and Natalie attended a Jewish school for a long time and is fluent in Hebrew. The actress says that despite her great love for America, Israel will forever remain her home.

Natalie Portman’s parents are Jewish

Education

In her school years, the girl was fond of not only theater and dancing, but also the natural sciences. In 1998, while attending Syosset High School, she co-authored a paper entitled “A Visual Method for Demonstrating the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar”, for which she won a prize in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search high school science competition.

Natalie Portman Yearbook (1995)

She also studied several foreign languages: French, Japanese, German and Arabic, and as a hobby she began to play her first roles. Subsequently, despite the already serious success in the cinema, Natalie entered Harvard University, which she successfully graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

Education has always come first for Portman

In an interview, she explained: “For me, it is not so important that college can ruin my career. I want to be a smart person more than a movie star.”

After Harvard, Portman went to Israel and in 2004 completed her master’s degree at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

First roles

Along with an interest in science and languages, Natalie showed artistic inclinations from childhood. She first joined a dance club at the age of four, and then took up modern choreography in earnest at the American Theater Dance Workshop on Long Island. There was also a theater studio “Usdan Center” nearby, where the girl learned the basics of acting.

Natalie Portman as a child and now

When Portman was 10 years old, cosmetic brand Revlon offered her to become a model, which Natalie refused because she was busy in the theater. She later recalled that as a child she had more ambitions than other children: she knew exactly what she wanted and worked tirelessly.

Natalie Portman and Britney Spears have known each other since childhood

In 1992, the 10-year-old actress first took part in the “adult” production of the musical “Ruthless!” (“Ruthless!”) – She was in the second lineup along with future pop star Britney Spears, and Laura Bell Bundy played in the main lineup.

Natalie Portman Rap (ft. Lonely Island)

The very next year, Natalie received one of the main roles – the nymphet girl Matilda with a difficult fate – in Luc Besson’s famous crime drama Leon (1994). The young but already fearless actress played in a brilliant duet with Jean Reno, and Gary Oldman played the main villain in the film.

It was during this time that Natalie adopted the stage name Portman, after her grandmother’s maiden name, to separate her artistic career from her family and private life.

“Leon”: the first role of Natalie Portman (1994)

The work of the aspiring actress was called an “amazing debut”: despite her young age, Portman played absolutely professionally, and the dramatic and touching story about the friendship of a killer and a teenage girl did not leave the audience indifferent. A little later, the young actress received an invitation to play in the film adaptation of Lolita, where her partner would be Jeremy Irons, but the parents of the minor Natalie refused the offer – the picture of Adrian Lyne told much more frankly about the love of an adult man and a girl.

Natalie Portman’s height is 160 cm.

After working in Leon, the fate of Natalie Portman in the cinema, one might say, was predetermined. Already in 1995, she played a small role in the crime drama Fight, where she met with such stars as Al Pacino, Robert de Niro and Val Kilmer.

Casting Natalie Portman in “Leon”

The following year, another film with young Natalie was released – Woody Allen’s musical romantic comedy Everyone Says I Love You, starring Julia Roberts, Goldie Hawn and Drew Barrymore.

1995: gifted schoolgirl and budding actress

Another interesting work of Natalie the schoolgirl was shooting in Tim Burton’s comedy sci-fi film “Mars Attacks!” (1996). This time the girl was once again lucky to star with outstanding and famous actors: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker and Danny DeVito.

In “Mars Attacks!” Natalie Portman starred at age 15

The film, about a rather comical alien invasion, proved to be quite successful and memorable, as were Burton’s other works. However, in this picture, as in the previous two, Natalie was just a “child in an adult movie”, so the roles were very small. Things were different with the tragicomedy Beautiful Girls (1996), where 13-year-old Natalie played along with adults and established actors Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman, Timothy Hutton and others. Critics praised her work, writing that she is “a stunning bud that magically transforms even such a shallow role.”

However, the success of this film had a downside. During one of the interviews, a journalist asked Natalie if she was aware that she had become a “pedophile’s dream”? She nodded thoughtfully, but henceforth began to avoid roles that emphasized sexuality – at least until she felt mature enough. “It influenced many of my subsequent decisions … because I got scared,” she later admitted.

In her youth, Natalie Portman was successful in the role of nymphets

In 1997, the girl returned to the theater stage and played the role of Anne Frank in the Broadway play based on the famous “Diary of Anne Frank” about the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

On the set of The Diary of Anne Frank

In the same 1997, 16-year-old Natalie Portman was approved for the role of Padme Amidala, the queen of the planet Naboo, in George Lucas’ Star Wars. Episode I. The Phantom Menace (1999).

Star Wars: Natalie Portman as Padmé

Interestingly, the role of Padme’s double was played in this film by an even younger Keira Knightley, for whom this was the first work in a big movie. When the girls were in makeup, they became almost indistinguishable from each other, and even their own mothers could confuse them.

Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley are very similar

The Phantom Menace has grossed over a billion dollars and has become a favorite part of the saga for many fans of the universe created by George Lucas. At that time, Natalie successfully combined intensive work in the cinema and theater with her studies at school and participation in scientific projects. She could not even come to the premiere of the blockbuster, because at that time she was intensively preparing for her final exams and entering the university.

Pictured: Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen (Padmé and Anakin Skywalker)

A little later, in 1999, the drama Anywhere but Here was released, where Susan Sarandon played the role of the mother of the heroine Natalie. At first, the girl refused to play in this film, because the script contained a sexual scene with her participation. Then Susan Sarandon and director Wayne Wang insisted on changing the script for Natalie’s participation in the project.

Who is Padmé Amidala?

For this work, the young actress received her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Before starting her studies at Harvard, she also managed to play a major role in the melodrama Where the Heart Is (2000).

Prime acting career

In 1999, having entered the Faculty of Psychology, Natalie Portman announced that she was going to focus on her studies and temporarily stop her acting career, with the exception of filming the next Star Wars. She still did not stop filming, but studying at that moment was the top priority for the actress.

Working on a new Star Wars prequel. Episode II: Attack of the Clones ”(2002) the girl led during the summer holidays of 2000. Participation in a big-budget, but critically acclaimed film almost had a negative impact on the acting reputation of Natalie. So, shortly after filming with Lucas, she played Nina Zarechnaya in Chekhov’s “The Seagull” at New York City’s Public Theater in Manhattan, but her name on the poster rather repelled serious viewers than attracted them.

On the set of Star Wars

Around the same time as The Seagull, Star Wars came out and everyone thought I was a terribly bad actress. I starred in the highest grossing film of the decade, but no director wanted to work with me anymore.

In the period from 2001 to 2004, the actress starred in only a few small roles – due to problems with acting reputation, as well as due to active study and scientific projects. Her most significant works at this time were roles in the low-budget drama Gardenland, Tom Tykwer’s short film The Truth and Mike Nichols’ melodrama Closeness, where Portman played in a strong acting quartet with Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Clive Owen. The films came out after completing her graduate studies in 2004, and Intimacy brought the actress her first Golden Globe Award, as well as an Oscar nomination and several other awards.

Intimacy earns Natalie Portman her first Oscar nomination

In May 2005, the final part of the trilogy, Star Wars. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”, which became the highest grossing film of the year. In the same year, Natalie starred in the independent road movie Free Zone, and then in the famous dystopia V for Vendetta, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and written by the Wachowski brothers. Perhaps, it was this picture and the role of the partner of the revolutionary V (Hugo Weaving), Evie, that returned Portman to the top of the acting pedestal – it was possible to say goodbye to the bored image of Princess Padme.

Portman shaved her head for filming

A smart and uncompromising film by James McTeague caused a wide public outcry and became a cult one, and Natalie Portman was awarded the prestigious Saturn film award. The Guy Fawkes mask used in the picture is still found on the Internet as a symbol of a radical struggle against a totalitarian state.

In an interview before the film’s release, the actress explained her participation in it: “I myself am from Israel, and I cannot be indifferent to this topic, because we have been discussing the topics of terrorism and violence every day since early childhood.”

Then, after participating in the movie almanac “Paris, I love you” (2006), the actress played one of the main roles in Milos Forman’s drama “Ghosts of Goya” (2006), where the famous Spanish actor Javier Bardem became her screen partner, and the role of artist Francisco Goya was played by Stellan Skarsgard.

Natalie Portman in Goya’s Ghosts and My Blueberry Nights

In 2007, Natalie played a small but memorable role as a gambling girl Leslie in Wong Kar-Wai’s melodrama My Blueberry Nights, starring Jude Law and jazz singer Norah Jones. In this picture, Portman once again demonstrated her rebellious character and the ability to feel completely relaxed in front of the cameras.

Paris I Love You: The Truth Short with Natalie Portman

In the same year, the actress participated in two more original films: the adventure tragicomedy “Train to Darjeeling. Desperate Travelers (with Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody) and the children’s fantasy comedy Miracle Shop, where she played in an acting duet with Dustin Hoffman.

Natalie Portman without makeup

Critics did not appreciate The Shop too much, considering its plot to be too “bad” and boring, but at the same time, many liked its visual style and, of course, excellent acting.

In 2008, the historical drama “The Other Boleyn Girl” was released, which tells about the era of King Henry VIII and the rivalry of two sisters for his heart. One of the sisters, Anna, was played by Natalie Portman, and the other, Maria, by Scarlett Johansson.

Still from The Other Boleyn Girl

It was very interesting for Natalie to get used to the role of the imperious and principled Anna, she described the complex nature of her character as follows: “She is strong, but she can be vulnerable, she is ambitious and prudent, and she can go over other people’s heads, but she also feels remorse.” Especially for this role, the actress spent a month practicing British English with a teacher in order to get rid of her more native American pronunciation.

The following year, Natalie took part in the filming of the second anthology – “New York, I love you”, this time not only as an actress, but also as a director. Unfortunately, this film did not do well at the box office, despite the presence of many good actors: Hayden Christensen, Andy Garcia, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Ethan Hawke, Robin Wright Payne, etc. One of the episodes of the film was directed by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev .

“New York, I love you.” Novella with Natalie Portman

In the same period, the actress starred in several more films that were interesting to her from a creative point of view, but did not imply great box office success: this is the melodrama Love and Other Circumstances (2009, with Lisa Kudrow), the drama The Brothers (2009, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire) and the film Hasher (2010, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rainn Wilson).

Natalie Portman only gets more feminine with age

One of the most striking and unforgettable works of Natalie Portman was the role of the neurotic ballerina Nina Sayers in Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller Black Swan (2010). This dramatic film, which also featured Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel and Winona Ryder, was a huge success at festivals and cinemas around the world and brought the actress an Oscar, Golden Globe, Saturn and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress.

I try to find roles for myself that require maturity, because otherwise a film actress can get terribly stuck in the role of a cutie girl.

For this work, Natalie Portman, like her colleague and friend Mila Kunis, had to noticeably lose weight and spend considerable time studying academic dance in order to look convincing in the image of a ballerina. However, although understudies were used instead of both actresses in some ballet scenes, the shooting was not without injuries: having fallen during the performance of a complex pas, Natalie received a cracked rib and a concussion.

Shot from the film “Black Swan”

As if in contrast to the difficult role in Black Swan, the very next year Natalie starred in two more “lighter” films: the romantic comedy More Than Sex (2011, in partnership with Ashton Kutcher) and the fantasy comedy Brave Peppers (2011 ), which was less successful.

Black swan. Dancing on glasses

Another high-grossing film with Portman’s participation was the fantastic action movie Thor (2011) and its sequel, Thor 2: The Dark World (2013) based on Marvel comics, where Natalie played the “earthly” girl of the Scandinavian god (played by Chris Hemsworth), astrophysicist Jane Foster. Despite the financial success of the pictures, Portman refused to participate in the third part of the franchise and terminated the contract with the studio.

Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth in Thor

Later, he played leading roles in the fantasy melodrama The Knight of Cups (2015) and the western Jane Takes a Gun (2016). Particular attention was drawn to the biographical drama Jackie (2016), where Portman brilliantly played Jacqueline Kennedy. The role of the famous first lady brought the actress nominations for Oscar and Golden Globe. In recent years, Natalie starred in the drama Planetarium (2016) and the musical melodrama Song After Song (2017) with Michael Fassbender and Ryan Gosling.

Natalie Portman and her first Oscar (and certainly not the last)

In addition, in 2015, Portman made her debut as a director of a feature film – the Israeli film A Tale of Love and Darkness, which tells the story of the family of the famous writer Amos Oz.

The 2018 drama The Death and Life of John F. Donovan starring Kit Harington, Jessica Chastain, Kathy Bates and Susan Sarandon alongside Portman, and the sci-fi film Annihilation starring her .

The actress achieved a lot in 2018

In addition, at the end of 2017, the actress was awarded the Israeli Genesis Prize, which is called the “Jewish Nobel Prize”, with the wording “for commitment to Jewish values.” Natalie was going to spend half of the amount, which was 1 million, to help women in Israel and abroad, but after the actions of Israeli troops in Palestine, she refused the award and participation in the ceremony, which caused a flurry of criticism from local politicians.

Beliefs and social activities

Natalie Portman is a staunch animal advocate. At the age of 8, she saw a demonstration of a medical laser on a chicken by her father, and has since stopped eating meat. The actress switched to strict veganism in 2009 after reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Meat. Eating Animals” (“Eating animals”). During her pregnancy, Portman began eating eggs and dairy again.

She later made a documentary of the same name, in which she talked about the work of livestock farms in the United States and the negative aspects of industrial livestock rearing. For this work, she was awarded the Environmental Media Association Award in 2017.

Natalie also does not wear clothes or shoes made with leather, fur or feathers, and in 2007 she launched her own line of shoes made without animal materials. She is involved in various animal welfare activities, including traveling to Rwanda to shoot the documentary film Gorillas on the Edge and participating in the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) campaign against the use of natural fur.

Personal life of Natalie Portman

For a long time, Natalie Portman preferred not to devote the press to her personal life. From time to time, reports surfaced in the tabloids that she was dating actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Jake Gyllenhaal, with Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine, or even a member of the famous clan of multibillionaires Nat Rothschild – but whether this is true or not is unknown.

Portman was credited with an affair with Jake Gyllenhaal

In 2006, the actress shared her views on how she sees her future family: “I would definitely prefer to raise my children in the Jewish tradition, but the most important thing is to have a good person and a real partner next to me.”

Natalie Portman for Dior

In 2007-2008, Natalie dated Venezuelan folk singer Devendra Banhart, and in 2009 she met New York Ballet Theater dancer Benjamin Millepied, a French-born Jew who was the choreographer of The Black Swan. The couple hid their relationship from the press for a long time, but on December 27, 2010, Natalie and Benjamin officially announced that they were engaged and expecting a child.

Natalie Portman’s husband is choreographer Benjamin Millepied

Their son Aleph Portman-Milpeux was born on June 14, 2011, and Natalie plunged into motherhood with pleasure. “When I’m not on set, I spend most of my time with my family,” she says. “So my life revolves around kindergarten, cooking, kids parties and going to bed. ”

Natalie Portman has two children

She also admits that motherhood has taught her to be more resilient to stress, which also helps when working in films. On August 4, 2012, Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied officially married in a modest Jewish ceremony in California, and on February 22, 2017, their daughter Amalia was born.

Natalie Portman is now

Despite the fact that the actress is actively involved with children, she does not stop acting in films. So, in 2019, the actress played the role of Jane Foster in the movie Avengers: Endgame. Her partners on the set were Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo. In the same year, the premiere of the American film Pale Blue Dot took place, where Portman played the role of Lucy Cola.

Pale Blue Dot Movie Trailer

Cooperation with Marvel provided Portman with work for the coming years. In 2021, the animated cartoon “What If …?” will premiere, and in 2022 – “Thor: Love and Thunder”. In both projects, Natalie will appear in the familiar role of Jane Foster.