Natalie Portman gives shout-out to Ingham County Judge Aquilina on 'Saturday Night Live'
Natalie Portman sported a name that's becoming more familiar while she hosted "Saturday Night Live" this weekend: Judge Aquilina.
Before the actress introduced singer Dua Lipa on stage, she was seen wearing a T-shirt that simply said the two words, giving a shout-out to Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina.
Aquilina has gained national attention after she sentenced disgraced former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison, telling him "I just signed your death warrant."
That came after seven days of a marathon sentencing hearing, which saw 156 women and girls give victim-impact statements.
Aquilina garnered national attention as she listened to those statements, calling the women and girls "sister survivors," thanking them each and telling them their voices were heard.
On the final day of the sentencing, Aquilina read aloud parts of a letter in which Nassar wrote that he'd been a good doctor and that he had been manipulated into saying he'd performed medically unnecessary treatments for his own gratification.
She then tossed it aside, quickly generating a widely-shared GIF.
Portman has been a figure in Time's Up, an initiative dedicated to confronting abuse of power and promoting workplace equality.
On "SNL", Portman raps about "Star Wars", "Black Swan" and being a mother, and then ends it by stabbing her interviewer (played by "SNL" cast member Beck Bennett) with a Time's Up pin.
If you'd like a T-shirt like the one Portman wore Saturday, you can find them online here as well as other Aquilina-inspired swag, like pins and bags on Etsy.com. And if you fancy, cross stitch, there's even a downloadable pattern with the words, "Do Your Magnificent Things".
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On Monday, Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 125 years in prison by Eaton County Judge Janice Cunningham. In December, Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges.
Nassar, 54, was a doctor of osteopathic medicine and performed osteopathic manipulation, in which a doctor uses his or her hands to move a patient's muscles and joints with techniques that include stretching, gentle pressure and resistance.
For more than a year after being accused in criminal complaints of sexual abuse, Nassar maintained he was performing legitimate medical procedures.
The Michigan Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted Nassar, said on Friday that 265 women and girls now have reported abuse to law enforcement.
An Indianapolis Star investigation of USA Gymnastics, begun in 2016, uncovered widespread sexual abuse of athletes by coaches and others and failures to alert authorities. The IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network, revealed the first allegations of abuse by Nassar in September 2016. A few days later, MSU fired him.