Where is your hair, Natalie Portman?

cannes | While Israeli actress Hanna Laslo won the Cannes Film Festival award for best actress for her role in Amos Gitai's "Free Zone," it was her co-star Natalie Portman that was the talk of the festival red carpets. Why did the pixieish superstar of "Star Wars" shave off her brunette locks?

The answer lies with her commitment to the dramatic arts.

Portman's next film is the bleak sci-fi thriller "V for Vendetta," where she plays a desperate young woman who is stripped of all her preconceptions of the world around her under the guidance of a mysterious hero. One of those preconceptions, apparently, is her hair.