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Jewish Gangsters at the Mob Museum
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Jewish Oscar Winners, From Allen to Zinner
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Be My Israeli Valentine
The Jew and Hitler's Bug
Academy Awards Slideshow
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The Allure of the Burka
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Leonard Cohen's Old Whine in a New Bottle
Stephen Colbert vs. Maurice Sendak
X-Rated Dispute in Knesset
A Fraught Journey To Judaism
Bringing Real Bagels to the Motor City
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Strange Origins of David Cronenberg's 'A Dangerous Method'
How Jews Stayed in Good Spirits During Prohibition
The Word 'Jew' Has Fallen Out of Favor
Last Song of Hitler's Favorite Crooner
Making Foodie Resolutions for New Year
For the Glove of the Game
Adrienne Cooper Embodied Progressive Spirit
TV Ripped My Son From Reality
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Jewish Cookies Santa Would Love
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Ah, Jews and the ’80s. Clearly a winning combination.
ABC’s fall lineup includes a time machine to society’s most amusing (or made-fun-of) decade, via “The Goldbergs.” There’s the typical Jewish mother Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey — whose bright purple eyeshadow is thickly painted on), gruff dad Murray (Jeff Garlin), crimp-iron abusing oldest sister Erica (Hayley Orrantia), awkward pasty middle child Barry (Troy Gentile — who really looks like a Barry) and wacky grandpa Al (George Segal).
Every loving (read: harsh and guilt-ridden) word is captured on videotape (it’s the ’80s after all) by aspiring director Adam (Sean Giambrone), who’s adult narrator voice sounds an awful lot like Patton Oswalt.
The show will provide Tuesday night comic relief from 9 p.m. to 10, airing right after the long-awaited “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
From what we can see in the trailer, it’ll either be incredibly amusing, offensive, or a combination of both, so long as the “Flava Flav” references are kept to a minimum.
What do you think? Watch the trailer below:
LOS ANGELES - Actor Zachary Quinto has transitioned swiftly from a television villain into an unlikely action film star in J.J Abrams’ rebooted “Star Trek” franchise, playing the series’ most recognizable half-Vulcan, Spock.
The 35-year-old actor, who gained fame as super-villain Sylar in sci-fi television series “Heroes,” will reprise his role as the pointy-eared first officer of the starship Enterprise in “Star Trek Into Darkness,” which will be released in theaters on Friday.
The actor spoke about the challenges of playing Spock and why he chose to go public about being gay.
Q: “Star Trek Into Darkness” has more action, set pieces and destinations than the 2009 reboot. Is that right?
A: You’re right. It’s a larger scale version of the “Star Trek” story. The first one was about re-conceiving people’s perceptions of “Star Trek,” and trying to infuse it with new energy. The self-contained and more intimate nature of that film made sense. Now, people are more familiar with us as these characters so this movie builds on that and expands on it.
Q: What is Spock struggling with in this film?
A: I think he’s learning how to be accountable and responsible to the people he loves and cares about. He is learning to embody and live the qualities of what it means to be a friend and what it means to be responsible to other people emotionally, because that’s not the place from which he leads. He needs to learn how to integrate that part of himself and honor the feelings he has for the people he loves.
Q: What do you learn from Spock on a personal level?
A: I have an inherent understanding to his nature, which is one of duality - the head versus the heart. That is certainly something I can relate to. As someone who has been considered pretty intellectual and wordy, I also have a deep well of emotional life. I understand what it means to be in constant relationship to both of those aspects of myself.
Q: Which of Spock’s qualities do you aspire for yourself?
A: The equanimity with which he deals with every situation in front of him, and the thoughtfulness and care he gives to measure his reactions. Sometimes I can be a little extreme in my reaction to something. I respect his reservedness and pensive consideration, which is an aspect of me but outweighed by my instinctual or impulsive reactions to things sometimes.
Stewart Rahr, pharmaceutical billionaire and self-styled “King of All Fun,” has reportedly agreed to pay a $250 million divorce settlement to Carol, his wife of 43 years.
According to the New York Post Rahr, 67, will hold on to the couple’s $45 million home in the Hampton, while Carol gets the $30 million Trump Park Avenue apartment. But all is not set in stone, as sources tell the Post that Rahr has yet to move out, and Carol has checked in to the Mark Hotel.
After Carol served him with divorce papers last December, Rahr rounded up Ben Brafman and David Aronson, whose firm repped Katie Holmes in her divorce from Tom Cruise, to serve as his lawyers.
The settlement ranks among the top 10 most expensive divorces in legal history, the Post reported. But still, small change for the orange-tinted playboy, who sold his business, Kinray, in 2010 for $1.3 billion.
Two words: prenuptial agreement.
“Late Night” just got a little more Jewish. A quarter Jewish, to be exact.
NBC has announced that “Saturday Night Live” writer-performer Seth Meyers will be taking over the show next year after current host Jimmy Fallon moves over to “The Tonight Show.”
“I am aware of the history,” Mr. Meyers told The New York Times before hosting “SNL” on Saturday. “Each chapter of my life has sort of been spent enjoying each of the guys who had the job. Letterman was sort of my first introduction to late-night television. And Conan was all through college and postcollege years. Jimmy, obviously, I think, does it as well as anyone could ever do it.”
Meyers, 39, will be working with SNL producer Lorne Michaels, who will also be executive producer to “The Tonight Show,” CNN reported. All three shows will be reunited at NBC’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a first since Johnny Carson moved “Tonight” to Burbank, California in the 1970s.
In an NBC press release, Meyers joked: “I only have to work for Lorne for five more years before I pay him back for the time I totaled his car. 12:30 on NBC has long been incredible real estate. I hope I can do it justice.”
It was chic, short and sleeveless at the “Women of Influence: The Event” reception at New York’s JW Marriott Essex House on May 7.
Following welcoming remarks by Jennifer Gross, chair, Women’s Executive Circle UJA-Federation of New York, emcee Bianna Golodryga, co-anchor, Good Morning America ABC News Correspondent, told the 250 guests: “As Jewish women, we lead by example…and it’s personal.” Thirty-three years ago her parents fled with her from the Soviet Union to Galveston, Texas. “They never let me forget who I was and where I came from.”
As event moderator, TV host Donny Deutsch, chairman Deutsch, Inc. . deftly challenged Elana Drell-Szyfer, CEO/General Manager of Ahava North America, Bonnie Fuller, founding president and editor-in-chief of HollywoodLife.com, Leandra Medine, “Man Repeller” fashion blogger and soon-to-be-published author and British-born fashion designer Charlotte Ronson, daughter of British personality and jewelry designer Ann Dexter Jones.
Tweaking the conversation with finesse and seychl (Yiddish for smarts), Deutsch’s queries and tidbits of male insight added edge to the dialogue. “Why [are] no women under 35 in the corporate top rung?” he asked. Ronson replied: “I feel I am lucky. I don’t work in corporate America. I lived and created in my own bubble.” Fuller answered, “American corporations need to do more to support women… The female brain is just as intelligent as the male.” Drell-Szyfer’s observation was that “just because a woman works hard and stays late in her cubicle does not mean she will get noticed. You still have to ask for it. It’s a hard thing to learn.”
When you think Sidney Poitier, many things come to mind: “In the Heat of the Night,” first black actor to win an Oscar, legend…
“Jewish” isn’t one of those things. And yet surprisingly, the main character in his debut novel, “Montaro Caine,” is Jewish, as are many of the characters.
What’s more, in an interview with CBS’s Leslie Stahl on Sunday, Sidney Poitier revealed an unlikely connection to the Tribe: the man who taught him to read.
Poitier described how sent from his home in the Bahamas to live with his older brother in Miami at the age of 15, he made his way to New York City, where he started dabbling in acting. Managing on only two years of school, the legendary actor struggled to read the scripts.
Until one day, working as a dishwasher to make ends meet, he met his Jewish mentor. That chance encounter, Poitier told Stahl, changed his life.
“There was one of the waiters, a Jewish guy, elderly man, and he looked over at me and was looking at me for quite awhile. I had a newspaper, it was called Journal American. And he walked over to me, and he said, ‘What’s new in the paper?’ And I looked up at this man. I said to him, ‘I can’t tell you what’s in the paper, because I can’t read very well.’ He said, ‘Let me ask you something, would you like me to read with you?’ I said to him, ‘Yes, if you like.’
“Now let me tell you something: That man, every night, the place is closed, everyone’s gone, and he sat there with me week after week after week. And he told me about punctuations. He told me where dots were and what the dots mean here between these two words, all of that stuff.”
He took you through high school,” Stahl replied.
“Yes, he did,” said Poitier. “And it wasn’t for long. I learned a lot. And then things began to happen.”
Read the full interview here.
No Woody Allen glasses for you!
An Orthodox Brooklyn yeshiva has decreed that thick, hipster-like frames are too trendy and modern and banned the students from wearing them, the New York Post reported.
Borough Park’s Bobover Yeshiva B’Nei Zion explained its reasoning behind the ban, in a recent letter written in Yiddish issued to parents of students. “We are asking that everyone buy simple glasses,” the letter read. “What we have to commit ourselves to is we have to stand on top of this and not tolerate the new modernism.”
Apparently the fourth through 12 graders and the older rabbinical students had taken a shine to the thick brightly colored plastic frames favored by their secular Williamsburg neighbors. Though school officials admitted to the Post that regulating glasses is difficult because of constantly evolving trends, they all agreed that these particular frames “give the child a very coarse look.”
“The good deed that accompanied the Jews in Egypt was that they didn’t change their names and clothes, and this same strength is still accompanying us and maintaining us in exile — in all generations,” the letter, posted by the blog Failed Messiah, reads.
The school forbids any child wearing these types of glasses to attend classes, and demands that parents force their kids to exchange the offending eyewear for simpler frames.
According to the Post, two Borough Park stores, Lumiere Eyewear and MS Optical, have already obliged. An employee of the latter shop told the Post that officials from the school had recently inspected the premises to make sure that the simple, acceptable glasses were displayed separately from the bold plastic ones.
“They basically said these are the Hasidic ones — and those are not,” the employee said.
This fashion advice is somewhat contrary to the one given given in Israel last year when Ultra-Orthodox entrepreneurs started selling extra-thick lensed glasses to blur out immodest women who might be wandering around the neighborhood.
Nerds, beware.
“He’d be so happy. He so loved his college! ” a passionate, upbeat Terre Blair Hamlisch said as she recalled her late husband to the full house at the Hamlisch Memorial Concert at Queens College’s Kupferberg Center for the Arts on May 5. Originally scheduled for November 12, 2012, the event was postponed because of Hurricane Sandy.
“So proud was he of having graduated from the institution,” the ’68 graduate set up the Marvin Hamlisch Scholarship Endowment, which provides annual scholarships for talented student composers.
The Queens College Orchestra, led by guest conductor J. Ernest Green, opened with a rousing rendition of “One” from Hamlisch’s 1974 mega-hit “A Chorus Line” (lyrics by Edward Kleban). J. Mark McVey — who made his Broadway debut as Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables” — introduced himself as “Marvin’s tenor of choice for twenty-four years. There was no genre he could not write in.” Accompanied by the orchestra, McVey sang “They’re Playing Our Song” (1978 Neil Simon musical of the same name with lyrics by Carol Bayer Sager).
Chelsea Clinton really loves coffee.
On Wednesday, she took to Facebook to gush about CUPS-Unlimited Coffee, the Israeli coffee app that allows users to enjoy unlimited coffee at 55 participating Tel Aviv coffee shops for $45 a month.
“Pretty incredible!” she wrote. “An Israeli startup created an all-you-can-drink coffee app for coffee addicts (like me!). I think we need something like this in America.”
We agree (as do the 664 people who “liked” her post).
Amid the panicked phone calls to cops, topless pictures and alarming tweets, it’s easy to forget that Amanda Bynes’ troubles started with a series of arrests for reckless driving last fall.
The 27-year-old finally pleaded no contest to driving on a suspended license. Bynes was absent from the L.A. court proceedings, but her lawyer, Richard Hutton, entered her plea for her, TMZ reported.
Bynes received a three-year probation sentence, during which not one of her pretty little toes can step out of line. Given her current state of mind, this may prove to be a challenge. She must also pay a $300 fine, and was warned not to drive without a valid license again.
Charges were filed against the actress after she was pulled over in Burbank in September, driving despite her license being suspended two weeks earlier because of two outstanding hit-and-run charges.
Though this plea puts her most recent legal troubles to rest, let’s not forget that DUI charge still pending.
Safe to say, Bynes should stay away from moving vehicles for a while.
Recently, Reader’s Digest collaborated with The Wagner Group and polled over 1,000 Americans on 200 public figures to comile the “100 Most Trusted People in America” list.
High on the list was Steven Spielberg (No.6), along with Nobel Prize winner Robert J. Lefkowitz (No.11) and economist Lloyd Shapley (No.15).
Other notable Jews mentioned were Noam Chomsky (No.20), Madeleine Albright (No. 23), Judith Sheindlin — a.k.a. “Judge Judy — (No.28), Ruth Bader Ginsberg (No.36), Rabbi Arthur Schnier (No.48), Elena Kagan (No.62), Adam Sandler (No.64) and Ben Stiller (No.77).
According to the Reader’s Digest, trust is “earned with a person’s integrity and character, exceptional talent and drive, internal moral compass, message, honesty, and leadership.”
On an unrelated note, Michelle Obama beat out her husband, coming in 19th to his 65.
Who would you have picked? Click here for the full list.
Ever wonder what Jewish porn star James Deen thinks of his mother?
In collaboration with Larry Smith, founder of SMITH Magazine and the “Six-Word Memoir” project, the Forward asked some Tribe notables to give their six-word take on the woman who pushed them out into the world — literally and figuratively.
Below are their words of love to celebrate the walking, talking stereotype that is the Jewish Mother.
My mom is really, really awesome
— James Deen, 27, porn star, Los Angeles, about his mother.
Of course brisket travels by plane!
— Austin Ratner, 41, author of “In the Land of the Living, Brooklyn, about Susan Ratner.
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis will be jetting off to the Holy Land next week, the Times Of Israel reported.
This isn’t Kutcher’s first trip. The “Two And A Half Men” star’s most recent Israel sighting was with ex-wife and fellow Kabbalah enthusiast Demi Moore in 2010.
This time however, Kutcher will be promoting high tech initiatives rather than tying a red string around his girlfriend’s wrist. According to Haaretz, Rabbi Eyal Reiss, leader of a Kabbalah center in Safed (headquarters of Jewish mysticism) said he was unaware of the couple’s upcoming visit.
Apparently, Mila isn’t a big fan.
“I’m shrinking! I’m in menopause! That’s when God says,’ Thank you for your children’” said actress Tovah Feldshuh, host at the May 1 American Friends of Rabin Medical Center’s luncheon at Manhattan’s landmark 21 Club, before handing the mic over to guest speaker Delia Ephron.
Addressing the 80 elegantly dressed women, author, screenwriter, playwright and poster model for women whose lives had not turned out as they had wished, Ephron shared her journey of how she managed to transform her own angst and regrets into literary, film and stage gold.
Producer of — among others — films “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993), “You’ve Got Mail, (1998); screenwriter for “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” (2005) and, in collaboration with her sister Nora Ephron (1941-2012) an Off Broadway hit “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” along with more than a dozen books, she focused on the unforeseen detours in one’s life. Lamenting that there is “no Stepmother’s Day,” Ephron suggested: “Get a dog [to be sure] someone in the house loves you.”
She recalled he parents—“writers Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron who wrote ‘Daddy Long Legs’ and raised four daughters, all with careers. We had to be non-conformists. My mother from the Bronx was poor and would lecture us: ‘Don’t worship celebrities. They’re no better than you are. Don’t join sororities—don’t separate people. Never buy on sale! And just because you are related to somebody, you don’t have to like him.’” Ephron confessed, “I married the first man who asked me…. I blame my entire life on [the film] ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ and ‘Anne of Green Gables,’” and disclosed that when she worked for a research and design company, “my boss [once] called out ‘You’re flat chested!”
Ephron’s unrelenting barrage of thought-provoking one-liners such as: “You can blow your 20s and think you have a life. There is a special place in Hell for women who don’t help each other,” and the more disconcerting: “I think sometimes everyone should get divorced…you’re out of marriage jail” elicited the kind of laughter that had all the markings of the Yiddish expression men lakht mit yashtcherkes —literally, “one laughs with leeches.” It is a reference to those squiggly bloodsuckers who, while unsightly, and sometimes painful, often help save lives by closing up hemorrhaging veins too small for traditional surgical sutures.
During the post monologue Q&A, I asked Ephron: “Would you have written as much as you have or been as famous as you have become had you been happy?” Her terse reply was a definitive “No!.”
Proceeds from the luncheon benefit the Rabin Fellows Medical Exchange Program and help fund Digital Tomosynthesis Mammography and research to fight breast cancer at Israel’s Rabin Medical Center. Addressing the issue of “the currently higher rate of breast cancer, especially among women under the age of fifty,” Executive Director of AFRMC, Joshua Plaut, touted the need for “better equipmentand earlier detection” which saved his own mother’s life.
Move over #humpday, and make room for #WhackWednesdays!
Raunchy comedy boy-band The Lonely Planet is releasing a new video every week until their new album, aptly named “The Whack Album,” is released on June 11. That’s six long-awaited opportunities for mid-week laughs.
The first such gem, “Spring Break Anthem” features Zach Galifianakis interviewing James Franco in for “Between Two Ferns,” before jumping off to a rap about, you guessed it, spring break.
Thanks, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccon. See you next Wednesday.
And then she wonders why people balk at her “normal gal” routine…
One of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Los Angeles neighbors has filed a complaint to the L.A. City Department of Building and Safety, saying that the gate around the actress’ house is too high. The regulation high is six-feet and Paltrow and husband’s Chris Martin is apparently a whopping nine.
The L.A. City Department of Building and Safety confirmed to TMZ that they were on the case. If it pans out, Paltrow would have 45 days to rectify the issue (and build a new gate) and pay a fine of $900 — the equivalent of two of her GOOP-promoted CLEAN 21-day cleanses ($425 for one).
Other Brentwood neighbors include Harrison Ford, Oliver Stone and Courtney Thorne-Smith. Come on, Gwynnie. If they can deal with the unwashed masses peeking into their garden, so can you.
We were all so busy being mesmerized with every aspect of Madonna’s questionable outfit for the Met Gala on Monday, that no one noticed Brahim Zaibat’s choice of accessory: miniature Israeli and Palestinian Authority flags.
Statement of tolerance, or weird Kabbalah practice? Who knows.
The 25-year-old dancer and the 54-year-old diva have been dating for two years. In February, Zaibat signed with modeling agency IMG, and hit the runway for New York Fashion Week.
Despite the reported confusion and last-minute panic caused by this year’s theme (the rich and famous apparently missed the boat on CBGB), the Met Gala red carpet was all glitz and glam for “Punk: Chaos to Couture.”
From Sarah Jessica Parker’s mohawk headdress, to Madonna’s (granted, not Jewish, but would like to be) ACDC-like schoolboy outfit, we’ve rounded up some of the best looks of the evening.
Amanda Bynes has had a nose job. How do we know? Why, how do we know anything about Amanda Bynes? Through Twitter, of course.
The retired actress tweeted the news out on Saturday:
“Intouch used a photo from years ago on their cover and I hate it! The reason I’ve asked all magazines and blogs to stop using old photos of me is I don’t look like that anymore! I had a nose job to remove skin that was like a webbing in between my eyes. I wasn’t going to tell anyone, but I look so much prettier in my new photos that I don’t want old photos used anymore! I’m so sick of magazines and blogs using old photos! When will they stop? I will never look like that again! Having surgery was the most amazing thing for my confidence!”
The troubled star has posted regularly about her appearance in the last few weeks, discussing her (alarming) wish to lose weight, recent hair troubles, and trips to the gym — along with a topless picture, or two.
About to put on makeup! I weigh 135, I’ve gained weight! I need to be 100 lbs! twitpic.com/cn7gtx
ampmdash; Amanda Bynes (@AmandaBynes) April 30, 2013
I buzzed half my head like @cassie! No more old photos! This is the new me! I love it! twitpic.com/clx36u
ampmdash; Amanda Bynes (@AmandaBynes) April 25, 2013
At the gym! Rawr!twitpic.com/cmqvtl
ampmdash; Amanda Bynes (@AmandaBynes) April 29, 2013
In case you were wondering whether “Farrah Superstar: Back Door Teen Mom” lives up to its name, the tape has been released online.
The professionally produced porn flick (available here, if you’re into that sort of thing), was originally supposed to be leaked as a sex tape by ex-Teen mom star Abraham, was sold to Vivid Entertainment for over $1 million last week.
According to the adult production company, the footage is “shockingly explicit” and Abraham “takes James Deen as you’d never imagine, in a backdoor scene you’ll never forget. With her tight young body and totally uninhibited sexuality, it’s no wonder why she wanted to capture this moment in time. And now you can too!”
Last week, Abraham defended her decision to star in a porn film in a self-produced video that she uploaded to her Keek account.
“Now that you’re 21, you’ve pretty much been crying every night because you are single and alone. So, you make your own video, celebrate your awesome body (and) get your own sexy shots. So, the person you did this with has the urge to yell it out, when he should be professional and is not,” she said, alluding to co-star James Deen, who refused to pretend that the two were dating and outed the video for what it was — porn.
Despite the big talk, Abraham tweeted the following about the film’s release.
I KNOW WHAT’S OUT- Don’t talk to me about it:) Thanks #XXX
ampmdash; FarrahAbraham (@F1abraham) May 6, 2013
Copyright © 2013, Forward Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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