Rachel Cusk's 'Life of M' Fuels Natalie Portman Biogossip as 1 Novel Spills Into Tabloids
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 26
Rachel Cusk's 'Life of M' Fuels Natalie Portman Biogossip as 1 Novel Spills Into Tabloids
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 26
Summary
Page Six-branded "literary scandal" has erupted around Rachel Cusk's new novel Life of M, widely read as a thinly veiled portrait of Natalie Portman and now driving rumors that the actor dislikes the portrayal.
Page 3 clues fuel that reading: Cusk links M to a childhood-ending breakout film and later to a ballerina role, details that point readers to Portman's Leon: The Professional and Black Swan.
Cusk withholds the usual real-world markers of roman-a-clef gossip, turning the book into a meta study of fame and readers' parasocial sleuthing rather than a straightforward keyhole portrait.
That ambiguity has pushed Life of M beyond literary coverage into gossip sites, placing it in a lineage that includes Orlando, The Devil Wears Prada and Asymmetry.