Greed is good for Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams get bitchy in the name of art. By Danielle Radojcin

Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams tussling in a catfight? Now that's something we'd pay money to see - thanks to one artist, however, we get to see the spectacle for free: just log on to the Gagosian Gallery's website, and watch the A-listers getting bitchy in a short film directed by none other than Roman Polanski. The project, called Greed, is the latest offering from Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli, a Saint Martins-trained, Milan-based artist with a taste for the absurdly humorous. Recent productions include Non-Love Meetings (2004), a pilot show for a dating game that will never go to air, and a trailer for a remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula (2005), a Hollywood movie that will never be aired.

Just as his absurdist predecessor Marcel Duchamp created Belle Haleine: Eau de Voilette in 1921 using a perfume bottle with an altered label (and a version of which, coincidentally, is soon to be auctioned as part of Yves Saint Laurent's art collection this month), so Greed features Vezzoli in drag, photographed by Francesco Scavullo (Duchamp appeared on his perfume bottle under the playful pseudonym Rrose Sélavy, shot by Man Ray). The bottle is accompanied by a 60-second commercial for the scent, which is where Polanski, Portman and Williams come in, as well as a new series of needlework portraits of leading female figures in art history, such as Tamara Lempicka.

Gagosian.com

Picture: Michelle Williams and Natalie Portman in a still from Greed