Natalie Portman wears $40 Target dress, seems more human

Getty Images
Getty Images

Celebrities, they're just like us! Well...sort of. On Sunday, A-list actress Natalie Portman turned up at The New York Times' Arts & Leisure Weekend wearing a black cardigan, heels, and a mustard-hued Target dress with a price tag of just $39.99. The filmy-frilly frock (pictured, left) is part of the retail chain's limited-edition, affordably-priced collection from coveted designer Rodarte, a line favored by Portman (she donned one of its strapless gowns to last year's Oscars). A regular, non-Target Rodarte dress costs upwards of $8,000.

Portman is just one of a growing number of celebrities whose budget-friendly red-carpet choices make them seem more relatable, down-to-earth, and more responsible than stars who drop thousands for a single, wear-it-once dress. It's a slightly odd phenomenon, sure, but we all love it when famous people wear inexpensive clothes-it even makes us like these famous people more. Consider the praise

Sharon Stone in a Gap turtleneck at the Oscars
Sharon Stone in a Gap turtleneck at the Oscars

heaped on Michelle Obama for her multiple J.Crew outfits from last year, the glowing magazine coverage given to any star who dons H&M or Old Navy (Rihanna, Katie Holmes, and Eva Longoria, to name just a few) or the fashion sensation that occurred in 1996, when Sharon Stone paired a simple Gap turtleneck with a Valentino skirt and wore this to the Oscars.

Honestly, we're not even sure we like Portman's strange, deconstructed, flouncy ballerina dress (do you?), nor that we'd spend $40 on it. We just like to know that if we wanted to, we really could.
Source: HuffPo