City of Angels

Portman meets soccer

Angel City, which is set to debut on HBO and stream on HBO Max in May, will tell the story of the team's first season in the National Women's Soccer League.

Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

An upcoming HBO documentary series will highlight the role Academy Award-winning Israeli-American actress Natalie  Portman played in bringing the Angel City Football Club to Los Angeles.

Angel City, which is set to debut on HBO and stream on HBO Max in May, will tell the story of the team’s first season in the National Women’s Soccer League. Portman is an executive producer.

Portman, who was born in Jerusalem, is a founder and lead investor in the almost all-female ownership group behind Angel City, which was announced in July 2020 and played its first season in 2022.

The ownership group includes several A-list athletes, entrepreneurs and fellow Hollywood stars such as Serena Williams, Jessica Chastain and many others. Portman, who was also a founding member of Time’s Up, the not-for-profit that helped advance the Me Too movement by supporting victims of sexual harassment, had the idea a few years ago. Though she did not grow up a sports fan, Portman told The Guardian that she saw the venture as a vehicle to raise awareness for the effort for equal pay in sports.

“Watching my son idolise players like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan the same way he did Lionel Messi or Karim Benzema, I realised that amplifying female athletes could rapidly shift culture,” Portman said.JTA

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