Friday's Sydney Morning Herald featured an article on AOTC, and a few quotes from Natalie Portman and George Lucas. Here's an excerpt:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, politics were just as ruthless as the hardball variety played down here on Earth today. In the latest Star Wars film, Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Natalie Portman's Queen Amidala has relinquished her throne for the rowdy and possibly lethal Senate on the planet Naboo.

Still, her new circumstances had an upside. "It was a relief because as a senator I didn't have to wear costumes quite as elaborate as I did when I was the queen," she says. "I had one headpiece in the last film that was so big it was attached to an [offscreen] pulley."

Portman has grown up at light speed since The Phantom Menace three years ago - she will be 21 next month - and didn't require a parental chaperone during Episode II's two-month shoot in Sydney last year. Her all-grown-up status even gets a nod in the new film with a full-blown subplot of ardent, youthful love; this in a franchise where the nearest thing to romance was Han Solo and Princess Leia sparring with each other in early instalments to mask their infatuation.

You can read the rest of the article by clicking here. Thanks to Louise for the alert.