Talk about a triple threat; actress Natalie Portman is (a) ridiculously beautiful; (b) absurdly gifted””at 26, this Harvard grad is about to make her directorial debut with an adaptation of Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness, and (c) very virtuous””she’s donating the profits from her line of vegan shoes for Te Casa to the Nature Conservancy, according to the TimesOnline.

Portman felt compelled to create her own line of vegan footwear after becoming frustrated by having to choose between pricey pleather or cheesy plastic, as she told the Times:

“Stella McCartney does great shoes, but they’re expensive and very fashiony. I wanted a mary-jane shoe without leather. I’ve been getting stuff from Target, which is de facto vegan because it’s so cheap. But I did need some shoes that weren’t made of canvas or plastic.”

When it comes to the animal kingdom, Portman’s a real princess; last year, she made a documentary about Rwanda’s endangered gorillas for the Discovery Channel. So it’s not surprising that this ambitious actress set foot in the fashion world with two goals in mind; (1) to create a cruelty-free shoe that’s still killer, and (2) to lend her support to the Nature Conservancy.

Some smarty-pants blogger might call that killing two birds with one stone, but it won’t be me. As an advocate for more humane treatment of animals, I try to avoid metaphors that rely on animal abuse, though some people might accuse me of flogging a dead horse. If only more celebrities followed in Natalie Portman’s elegantly ethical footsteps, I wouldn’t have to!

Find out more about one of Portman’s pet causes at nature.org.