Here is Benjamin Millepied’s first ad as the “face” of Yves Saint Laurent’s L’Homme Libre (The Free Man), a men’s cologne. If the imagery looks somewhat familiar, it’s because the photo shoot, back in May, attracted a lot of paparazzi, and there were tons of photos of Benjamin twirling and twirling. It’s kind of interesting that they chose this budget-looking shot – which looks like it was super-imposed over a photo of New York building – when Benjamin was busting his ass to twirl for the cameras. I mean, why not show more of his body? You’re paying him to be a ballerina/model, why not see more movement in the photo? It’s probably the case that photographer Patrick Demarchelier was shooting Benjamin for the entirety of the ad campaign (multiple print ads, plus a commercial, perhaps), and this is only the first (budget) ad. Or it could be that Benjamin simply isn’t as super-cool as he seems to think, and that now YSL is all “oh, crap” about hiring him to front a campaign.

While Natalie Portman is the face of Christian Dior perfume, it seems her fiance is determined to get in on some campaign action of his own. Benjamin Millepied is the new star of Yves Saint Lauren’s men’s fragrance, with the fitting title L’Homme Libre – French for ‘the free man’.

The tagline reads ‘Break Free’ and sees the choreographer and principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, putting his skills to use. He is captured midway through performing a pirouette over Manhattan in the shot by photographer Patrick Demarchelier.

Since he began dating Natalie, the dancer’s profile has been on the rise. But in reality, freedom for Benjamin, who has a fiance, newborn baby and demanding career to manage, is probably just a distant memory. Either way, the artist, who met Natalie on the set of Black Swan, is certainly making a name for himself.

He said: ‘I’m happy and proud to have been chosen by Yves Saint Laurent, one of the world’s most prestigious brands. I admire the world of this House, its elegance and modernity. Monsieur Saint Laurent was a fashion genius, a lover of the Arts, he also knew how to use his talent to serve the art of dancing.’

Benjamin and Natalie welcomed a baby boy last month.

It was recently revealed he was named Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

When Natalie accepted her Best Actress Oscar earlier this year, she paid tribute to her French husband-to-be, saying: ‘My beautiful love, Benjamin, who has now given me my most important role of my life.’

[From The Mail]

Since Natalie gave birth, I haven’t seen any photos of her or Benjamin, which surprises me slightly. I buy that Natalie likes her privacy and all, and she manages to avoid the paparazzi a lot of the time, but Benjamin wants to be a “name” celebrity in his own right. We’ll see what happens there in the months to come… because I don’t think it’s going to end like a fairy tale.

Here are some pap photos from Millepied’s YSL shoot – I just don’t see how the ad image was NOT created by superimposing his body onto a photo of NYC.

Photos courtesy of PCN and Fame.