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Move over, Zach Braff!
James Franco has launched an IndieGoGo campaign to rustle up funds for his latest project: a film trilogy based on “Palo Alto Stories,” his 2011 fiction-writing debut.
The 35-year-old jack-of-all-trades will not be directing the films himself, Mashable reported, opting instead to recruit three of his “favorite directors at [New York University],” Nina Ljeti, Vladimir Bourdeau, Bruce Thierry Cheung and Gabriel Demeestere.
Franco said he has put his own money into “Memoria,” “Killing Animals” and “Yosemite,” he’s just asking for “a little more help” to cover production costs for all three. All funds will be divided equally, and proceeds from the films will go to Art of Elysium, a a non-profit that helps actors, artists and musicians to work with children facing serious health conditions, he pledged.
“This process is very exciting; this is the best way to make movies, because in this way, the movies we want to make get made in the ways that we want to make them,” he said in the campaign video. “The only considerations are to make the best movies possible, and I see the projects as great opportunities for all kinds of collaboration.”
As of today, the campaign has raised $45,619, with 29 days left to go.
Not convinced? Take a little spin around Palo Alto with James:
If you can’t keep up with the Clintons, you can at least try and live like them.
Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton’s banker hubby, is unloading his $4.5 million apartment at the Grand Madison, a 12-story, 191-unit building at 225 Fifth Avenue, the Real Deal reported. Mezvinsky, 35, had reportedly purchased the three-bedroom, 2 1/2 -bath condo for $4 million in 2008.
The couple, who had been living in the apartment since their wedding in 2010, have just closed on a $10 million 5,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, 6 1/2- bath apartment at the nearby Whitman, across from Madison Square Park. The five-story luxury building has a key-locked elevator and one apartment per floor.
According to the New York Post, Clinton’s rep noted “Chelsea and Marc love the neighborhood and are excited to be staying close by.”
President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toured the apartment in March and gave their seal of approval, pausing to take pictures with some of the construction workers.
In the meantime, for a mere $4.5 million in spare pennies, you too can get a taste of the high life.
Check out the couple’s new pad below:
It feels like a bar mitzvah! A wedding!” proclaimed actor, performer Mike Burstyn, emcee at the June 10 National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene Gala Concert which honored Morris Offit, chairman, Offit Capital, award presenter to Offit, NBC Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw; and stage and screen great Joel Grey, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Also honored was Folksbiene veteran I.W. “Itzy”Firestone.
Among the 900-strong packed house at N.Y.U.’s Skirball Center were Austria’s Consul General Ernst Peter Brezovszky, Israel’s consul general Ido Aharoni, and British singing star of 1964 hit “Downtown,” Petula Clark. The hot, hip and heymish revue was launched with a video montage of David Hyde Pierce, and Eric Idle singing “…you won’t succeed on Broadway if you don’t have Jews!” from Idle’s Broadway hit “Monty Python’s Spamalot.” Burstyn’s first salvo was “You’ve got to Have a Little Mazel” sung in five languages — Yiddish, Hebrew, English, French and Spanish, with a heel-stomping Burstyn explaining that “flamenco was invented by a man during the Inquisition stamping out cockroaches in his cell.”
The over-the-top lineup Included Judy Blazer channeling Yiddish Theatre turn-of-the century legend Bessie Thomashefsky’s signature song “Hentschke;” Joanne Borts and Rachel Yucht replicating the Barry Sisters’ Yiddish version [songwriter Jack Lawrence ne Jacob Louis Schwartz’s] “Yes, My Darling Daughter;” Eleanor Reissa in a savory version of (Isidore Lillian) “Gefilte Fish,” and to a roaring response, Elmore James, singing “Old Man River” in Yiddish: “Do arbet men oyf der Mississippi.”
For a brief moment last night, Justin Bieber was a wanted man.
Well, sort of. According to TMZ, the Biebz was leaving the Laugh Factory on Sunset Boulevard last night in his white hot Ferrari, when he decided the paparazzi was in his way.
Waving for the photographers to get away from his car, where pal Lil Twist was also sitting, Bieber started the engine and started to drive. Unfortunately, he appeared to be crushing a photographer onto a parked car as he did so. What’s more, he didn’t stop.
And that’s how our favorite Canadian sensation was suspected of a hit-and-run late Monday night.
TMZ reported that the Los Angeles Police Department spoke with Bieber and determined that he was innocent. Bieber reportedly told them he had no idea he had hit a photographer.
Skeptical? Check out pictures of the incident here.
Poor Drake. Apparently, the Canadian rapper is so wrapped up in his creative process that he doesn’t have time for sex.
Or at least that’s what he recently told GQ in their July 2013 issue.
“You know the way fighters don’t f–k before the fight? Sometimes I feel like I’m so focused on training my body and getting my mind right to create this album that sex isn’t one of my main priorities,” the 26-year-old explained.
But have no fear ladies: if you win his heart, he’s up for the ride. “If someone is around that I know and trust, I’m down. But I’m not going to end up with some stranger at this party,” he added.
It may be worth it. From what we can tell, he throws a great fiesta
For more fun Drake tidbits — including the dish on his feud with Chris Brown, and some kind advice from Will Smith — check out the July 2013 issue of GQ.
A new episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”? Nope, just real life.
Comedian Jeff Garlin, who plays Larry David’s agent on the show, has been arrested for vandalism after an argument over a parking space went awry.
According to TMZ, Garlin got into a heated argument which escalated quickly, and ended with Garlin smashing in the window’s or the opposing party’s Mercedes. Ah, L.A.
Police Sgt. Harry Rosenfeld told TMZ that the 51-year-old actor, arrested in Studio City on Saturday, has been jailed on $20,000 bail. His release remains unclear.
“I’m the luckiest guy in this city—surrounded by more than 300 beautifully turned out women,” said David Marwell, director and CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, at its 21st Annual Spring Women’s Luncheon at The Pierre.
Co-chaired by Patti Kenner and Ann Oster, guests included 101-year old author Ruth Gruber, Poland’s consul general in New York Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, Mary Kalikow, wife of real estate magnate and museum trustee Peter Kalikow, and Rev. Mark Arey, Director, Interfaith Relations Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America plus a table of young women from Barnard College and Columbia University.
“We beat the odds. They did not get us!” said guest of honor Sonia Hochman, a survivor from Poland who hid with her family in underground caves for 511 days and whose survival saga — one of the most unusual of the Holocaust — is featured in the new Magnolia Pictures release “No Place on Earth.” The film’s director Janet Tobias, told the guests: “ We have not heard all the stories.” Interviewed by the film’s producer, Susan Barnett, Hochman — in English embroidered with Yiddish — detailed her family’s survival in a grotto with 28 others, bargaining with friendly Polish peasants, being terrified of Ukrainian gangs “out to kill Jews” and emerging from a grotto with the lament: “There was no place on earth for us.”
Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein is not pleased with the sex appeal of some its members.
In a letter sent out to all the MKs, Edelstein rebuked them all over a series of embarassing events, which he said “cheapen” the Knesset, Haaretz reported.
Though nothing specific was mentioned, the timing led Senior MKs to believe that the chairman’s ire was specifically targeted at one member: MK Boaz Toporovsky (Yesh Atid), a.k.a Sexy Selfie Guy, who posted an almost shirtless picture of himself pouting at the camera to Facebook early Tuesday, before catching some shut-eye on his office couch after a lengthy debate.
“It’s the first time I’ve slept at the Knesset,” the caption read.“I hope that it won’t hurt too much. Luckily, there are showers in the office.”
According to Haaretz, the Chairman’s Office received a number of complaints.
“It cannot be that an MK uploads an image in which he looks like a playboy,” one Knesset official said.“This harms the Knesset’s image and status.”
Edelstein’s letter added that “recently, more than a few complaints have piled up in my office, relating to the conduct of some MKs. The complaints, from civilians and employees, are mostly regarding the conduct of MKs inside the Knesset chamber. Among other complaints, it came up that MKs are eating and drinking during sessions, taking pictures with, and speaking on cellular devices, or displaying captions above their stands, to show their position on an issue.”
Toporovsky’s response to the streams of comments to the picture was: “from now on I’ll sleep in a suit.”
It’s not everyday that your achievements in fatherhood merit both recognition from the community and a TextFromHillary.
Former President Bill Clinton was honored by the National Father’s Day Committee at the 72nd Annual Father Of The Year Awards, during a lunch benefiting Save The Children on Tuesday. Presented with the award by daughter Chelsea, he joked:
“I [received] a text message from Hillary [Clinton] saying, ‘Congratulations. I think you deserve this.’ In our family, that’s a very big deal,” he said in his acceptance speech. The honor has been given out by the National Father’s Day Committee since 1942.
It’s unclear which was more significant (after all, quips from Hillary are rare gems.
Chelsea, whose presence at the ceremony was a surprise, gushed over her daddy.“Every day he’s my dad, and I don’t need an award to tell me he’s the best that I ever could have hoped for,” she said. “But I’m grateful he’s getting the recognition that I, of course, his unapologetically biased daughter, think he’s always deserved.”
The 33-year old added that hubby Marc Mezvinsky will have a hard act to follow. “Of all reasons that I’m proud of my father, I’m most proud that he’s my dad and that he’s always been there for me. And he’s set the bar very high for my husband, as Marc [Mezvinsky] and I think about having our own children,” she said. “He has always provided me a safe place to land and a hard place from which to launch.”
In his acceptance speech, Clinton added that despite his heavy load of responsibilities, first as Governor of Arkansas and then as President of the United States, his daughter has always been his first priority. According to Parade magazine, he concluded by recounting an episode from Chelsea’s birth, during which he had to fight with the hospital staff who wouldn’t let him be present for his wife’s Cesarean section “If you send her into that room without me, I think you’re making a big mistake … I want to see my daughter born,” he remembered saying. Eventually, the doctors gave in. “They let me go in and hold Hillary’s hand. I saw Chelsea come out, and it changed the hospital’s policy on letting fathers into the delivery room when surgery was required. And from that day to this, I have believed without the shadow of a doubt that it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
When one is a politician, one can usually count on losing sleep in favor of debating important public issues.
But one such public servant, Yesh Atid first-time MK Boaz Toporovsky, took this to a whole new level. On Monday night (Israeli time), during a heated debate about women’s right to a say in the appointment of religious judges, the 33-year-old lamented his need to grab some zzzs on his office couch — and posted a sultry picture to go with it.
4:51 a.m. — I’m going to sleep in my Knesset chambers,” Toporovsky wrote on Facebook, before giving a detailed account of his debating exploits.
“And now,” he concluded, “sleeping in the Knesset for the first time, but there’s no point going home because the day is already beginning. I hope this won’t hurt too much… at least there’s a shower in my office.”
As expected, the Internet exploded. Followers of Toporovsky’s official page were quick to tell him exactly what they thought of his sexy goodnight face.
“Good night, prince… Sweet dreams,” wrote Yair Finkel.
“Whoa, you’re sick in the head,” Yoav Geier added lower in the comments. “You’re an MK, you’re supposed to represent us, the citizens, and you take your picture like some 16-year-old girl? I really hope you’re drunk or you have a good excuse for this.”
Needless to say, the picture launched a thousand memes.
In his defense, once you’ve taken off your shirt, used it as a blanket, arranged your delicately stubbled chin just so and raised your arm to take a picture, posting it to Facebook is just the next logical step.
After wearing them day in and day out on “Sex and the City,” Sarah Jessica Parker has announced that she will be launching her own line of shoes. But not any shoes. In pure Carrie Bradshaw fashion, Parker will be teaming up with Manolo Blahnik CEO George Malkemus for the design.
For her brand, SJP, Parker will be sticking to the classics, taking inspiration from “great old-school labels like Charles Jourdan and Maud cassations,” she told Vogue. “We’re putting new colors together that people don’t typically do, just beautiful combinations that you wish existed in your closet,” she added. “And in terms of bags, thinking about that period of the seventies into the eighties, what those women were carrying, taking away the bells and the whistles and hardware and really making it about the bag.”
To her credit, Parker has always valued quality over aprice tag (remember her fight to wear a simple designer thrift shop suit to her wedding in the “Sex And the City” movie? — Sure, she ended up with a Vivienne Westwood gown, but that’s not the point…) “I grew up in a house where my mother had beautiful taste,” she added in the interview. “She had no financial means, but she did her best. She would go to church tag sales in wealthy neighbourhoods and find all the beautiful navy blue Vuitton suits that the families had grown out of and donated to the church. We were raised seeing a lot of beauty and understanding what a well-made dress was.”
But fear not, these will not be the kind of shoes that have you sticking your credit cards in the freezer. Pumps and flats will range from $200-$300 and bags will likely top at $700. What’s more, the products will be made either in Europe, or in New York City.
Parker knows what she’s doing. After all, she’s worn so many heels that her doctor recently warned her to stay away from them. And playing Carrie for six years gives her pretty solid street cred.
“Because I got to play that role, I wore a lot of shoes,” Parker concluded in Vogue, “and by default I learned an enormous amount. It’s hard to”—no pun intended—“walk away from that.”
If nothing else, George Malkemus probably knows what he’s doing.
The collection is set to hit Nordstrom’s in the fall.
If ever the idea of loving kindness was a statement of fact — rather than an ideal — it was expressed by youthful Rabbi Rachmiel Rothberger, Jewish chaplain at Calvary Hospital, in his invocation delivered at the hospital’s upbeat 30th Annual Award Gala.
Addressing the 450 black tie guests at The Pierre, the rabbi thanked Calvary Hospital president and CEO Frank Calamari, its Chairman of the Board Dr. Thomas Fahey Jr., Sr. V.P. Emeritus Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the evening’s honoree Frank D’Amelio, Executive Vice President, Business Operations & CFO Pfizer, Inc., “for the honor.” Also touted was Calvary’s executive medical director Dr. Michael Brescia, who has been with the hospital for 50 years.”
Citing Psalm 89:3 which states: “For I have said the world shall be built with loving kindness,” Rabbi Rothberger said, “looking round the room, we can positively proclaim that we aspire to model the verse on building the world with loving-kindness as we represent a full spectrum of cultures of the world. Calvary Hospital a truly unique place. The only fully acute palliative hospital, we are blessed with the power to unite people of all walks of life…in our programs.”
Though Calvary Hospital has long had a Jewish chaplain, this past November it announced a joint Calvary and Yeshiva University collaboration to serve the needs of observant Jews who need access to the best end-of-life care.
LeBron James, your time is almost up.
For years, Jewish athletes have been held back by several factors — Saturday games to name one. But the playing field to about to level off. Pretty soon, the list of “Famous Jewish Sports Legends” will be longer than a Tolstoy novel.
Ber Cohen, a Pittsburgh area “kid in Yeshiva” has created the Action Kippah, the solution to the 11th plague — the kippah that keeps falling off. Cohen is working on patenting and producing the line — the simple design attaches a kippah to a headband — and has turned to Kickstarter for funding. The project’s fundraising date ends Wednesday, with $7,000 left to go as of Tuesday afternoon.
If Cohen’s face looks familiar, you may remember him as Agent Emes from the popular kids DVD series. His father, director Leibel Cohen, is helping Ber with his latest endeavor.
But even if Action Kippah doesn’t reach its fundraising goal, there are other options for the Jewish athlete. Klipped Kippahs, founded by Jon Kaweblum, a former basketball coach, have built in clips underneath the kippah to prevent them from falling off. Northwestern University basketball player Aaron Liberman notably wears one on the court.
Klipped Kippahs also has style options for the non-athletic Jewish sports fan. Pro Kippahs are emblazoned with logos of baseball teams and are officially licensed by Major League Baseball.
As the market continues to grow for Jewish-centric athletic wear, it shouldn’t be long until the NBA begins retiring kippahs in the rafters.
Ah, summer. Love, sun, royalty and the French Rivera. At least that’s how it is for some. For others, it’s more like frizz, sweat, and general unpleasantness.
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher fall in the first category. Us Weekly snapped a picture of the couple sharing a little smooch by the beach in Saint Tropez on Saturday.
The couple were also spotted shmoozing with new BFFs Princess Beatrice and boyfriend Dave Clark. Activities included sun-tanning, surfing, a trip to Le Palmiers beach club, and a relaxing afternoon on a yacht. Tres chic.
The two couples met while Kunis was in London filming “Jupiter Ascending” with Channing Tatum. “They all get along really well,” a source told Us Weekly. “Bea thinks Mila is awesome.”
Though British tabloids are already setting a date, Kunis has said she wants to wait a while before marrying and starting a family.”You have to choose,” she told James Franco who interviewed her for Playboy in February, “privacy or career.”
Mila, 29, and Ashton, 32, met on the set of “That 70s Show” in 1998. They’ve been dating since April 2012.
Joan Rivers may have postponed her birthday celebrations last week, but she didn’t skimp on birthday cake. When singer Fergie came on “Fashion Police” on Monday night to show off her baby bump, she brought Joan a little treat.
Even though the party ended in a food fight, @fergie’s cake was DELICIOUS! All-new @e_fashionpolice tonight at 10:30! twitter.com/Joan_Rivers/st…
ampmdash; Joan Rivers (@Joan_Rivers) June 11, 2013
Ever classy, Joan dug in.
Whatever Drake did to become the subject of Amanda Bynes’ Twitter love/hate monologue, he must be kicking himself for it now. Once again, the former actress has taken to social media to comment on the Canadian Jewish rapper, delivering what could at best be termed a backhanded compliment:
I only like @drake because he’s so ugly! His ugly cheeks at the EA conference! Fine he is not, but he knows he’s ugly! I’ve spoken to him!
ampmdash; Amanda Bynes (@AmandaBynes) June 11, 2013
This is quite a shift from her previous late night fantasies about Drake:
“All I want is a boyfriend who wants us to grow old and to get fat together,” the 27-year-old wrote, adding a picture of 26-year-old rapper with the message, “Good looking dudes!”
But Drake should take comfort in the fact that he’s not the first to be called ugly by the troubled former Nickolodeon star. Sports Illustrated model Chrissy Teigen, Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy, and Rihanna have also had the honor of being mentioned as such on Twitter.
Isaiah Mustafa, commonly known as “Old Spice Man,” the half naked ideal of masculinity used to sell deodorant, has gone Semitic. In a new commercial targeted to Israeli men who are, in his words, “brave, noble and magnificent,” and “eat manly foods like shawarma, matbucha and gefilte fish,” Mustafa takes machismo to a whole new level.
Check out his very manly six-pack below:
[via Heeb]
Stars arrived in style to New York’s Radio City Musical Hall on Sunday night for the 67th annual Tony Awards.
The evening, recognizing achievements in Broadway theater, brought together the best of the city’s stage society with writers, composers, and even a Hollywood celebrity or two (or three, or four). Though acclaimed musical “Kinky Boots” won big, picking up six awards, including “Best Musical,” there was more going on fashion-wise than just footwear.
From Debra Messing to Scarlett Johansson, and even an appearance by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, there was plenty of glam to go around. Who was your pick for best dressed?
The jury is in, the people have spoken, and once again, Mila Kunis has come out on top.
After stealing top spot as FHM’s “Sexiest Woman in the World”, Esquire’s “Sexiest Woman Alive” and Details’ “Most F*ckable Celebrity,” Kunis now ranks #1 on Reddit’s list of “100 Sexiest Women Alive.”
One Reddit user decided to test the system and create his own popular list. In a post called “Lets vote our top 100 Sexiest Women shall we?”, daxl70 encouraged the Celebs subreddit to vote on its favorite celebrity ladies.
The rules were as follows: Each user had to post a comment ranking ten celebrity women from 1 to 10. Each woman was given a set number of points depending on where, and how many times they were ranked. The only criteria for inclusion? Any kind of celebrity status.
Our girl Mila did it again, besting Scarlett Johansson (#2), Jennifer Lawrence (#3), Olivia Wilde (#4) and “Mad Men“‘s Alison Brie (#5) for the honor.
“I worked hard to bring Russian Jews to Brighton Beach,” said Senator Charles Schumer at the UJA-Federation of New York’s Russian Division 2013 Charity Ball at the Harmonie Club on June 2 — right off Fifth Avenue — at which philanthropist and art patron Felix Komarov was honored with its Global Leadership Award.
“Why Brighton Beach?” asked Schumer. “I was an assemblyman. There were no older Jews in the four-story walkups… We offered landlords bonuses. With the support of four of the biggest shuls in the area, we handed out leaflets in Yiddish and Russian ‘Do you want to live in a nice Jewish neighborhood?’ Many were from Odessa [“by- the- sea”]…The Russians cried khelp! And now they are helping and giving back.”
Mingling and nibbling on superb lox, delicious sautéed potatoes while sipping Vodka, there were a number of chic young people among 200 festively attired guests. The atmosphere was upbeat — resonant of that day’s Israel Day Parade. Dinner co-chair Galina Pincow — who shared the honor with co-chair Gene Rachmansky — was aglow “because this is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Russian division.” Also touted was Honorary dinner chair Lawrence Wajnberg, who established the Russian division.
Copyright © 2013, Forward Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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