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A 'Crazy' Look at Paris Strip Palace
Boycotting Israel and My Olive Tapenade
From Esperanza to Shprintze
Israeli Gas Masks Help Get You High(er)
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Why My Daughter Isn't Bilingual — Yet
Preaching Lost Art of Fermentation
'Homegrown' Story of West Coast Jews
Remembering Mike Wallace
Sisters in Skivvies on the Lower East Side
An Anthem for LGBT Youth
Jewish Gangsters at the Mob Museum
Mayim's Most Important Role
‘Cabaret’ Comes to Tel Aviv
A Transsexual at Yeshiva University
'Strange' Evolution of Legendary Song
Kehinde Wiley Paints Israelis in Color
Nudge, Nudge. Wink, Wink.
Sweating in the Cleveland Schvitz
Berlin Film Festival Gets Serious, Mostly
Addicted to Aggadah
Why Do Men Write All the Baby Manuals?
Jewish Oscar Winners, From Allen to Zinner
Cleveland Rocks — Not Really
Raised Christian, But Jewish by Birth
Be My Israeli Valentine
The Jew and Hitler's Bug
Academy Awards Slideshow
Oscar Wins for ‘The Artist’; ‘Footnote’ Shut Out
The Jewess of 'Downton Abbey'?
The Allure of the Burka
Who Will Light Up Jewish Kids Lit?
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
Saying Mazel Tov in Mandarin
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
How Authentic Is ‘Porgy and Bess’?
Sandra Bernhard Shows Her Softer Side
Gimme Some New Time Religion
Tintin and the Anti-Semites
Gimme Some Old Time Gossip
Jewish Cookies Santa Would Love
The Hanukkah Bush and Christmas Dreidel
Well, it was only a matter of time.
TMZ has obtained the first stills of “Farrah Superstar: Backdoor Teen Mom,” the XXX-rated porn flick starring former “Teen Mom” star Farrah Abraham and Jewish porn star James Deen.
If the pictures are anything to go by (don’t scroll through at work), the film — purchased by Vivid Entertainment for almost $1 million dollars — promises to be, well, pretty graphic.
“I think many fans will be shocked at how truly explicit it is, including stunning backdoor scenes,” Vivid Entertainment founder and co-chairman Steve Hirsch said in a statement.
Abraham originally claimed that the tape was for personal use, a statement that was later denied by co-star James Deen who told Today.com: “I told them that I am not a prostitute and I’m not going to go on fake dates with people for the tabloids.If you’re going to make a celebrity sex tape and try to pass it off as an amateur home video, you don’t hire a well-known porn star!”
After receiving several offers for her tape, Abraham settled on Vivid, and is reportedly pleased with the overall result.
“I am happy with the seven-figure settlement I have reached with what I feel to be the best adult entertainment company in the industry, Vivid,” she told In Touch. “I look forward to my future goals of completing my Master’s degree and focusing on being a great mother for my daughter as well as many other culinary business endeavors in my future.”
Click here for the pictures, if you dare.
Sarah Silverman has scored her first HBO special (finally!).
According to The Wrap, “Sarah Silverman” We Are Miracles” will tape in Los Angeles in May, and will premiere in the fall.
HBO president Michael Lombardo called Silverman a “fresh, fearless and utterly original comedy voice,” and welcomed her to the network.
“I’m thrilled that we can bring the humor of this unique talent to our viewers,” Lombardo added in the statement.
Silverman wrote the special, which will be directed by Liam Lynch — who incidentally also directed Silverman’s 2005 concert film “Jesus Is Magic.” — and co-produced by Funny Or Die and Black Gold Films.
The comedian will also star in the upcoming “Gravy” opposite James Roday, and in Seth MacFarlane’s “A Million Ways to Die in the West.”
James Franco turned 35 on April 19, but the actor saved his birthday bash for a trip to Miami, where he received the HBO Latin America Ally Award for his “unwavering support for the LGBT community” at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Sitting poolside on Tuesday, the actor tweeted a picture of his S and M-themed birthday cake — complete with a strap-on, a ball gag, a leather whip, and more — a nod to his film “Interior. Leather Bar.” a re-imagining of the deleted footage from the 1980 gay-themed film “Cruising.”
Though the directive was “cocktail attire,” it was follow your own fashion muse at the April 25 American Friends of Tel Aviv Museum of Art Spring Gala at The Pierre.
From the black baseball cap and white shirt worn by honoree Danish artist Tal R to the chiffon, silk and sparkly creations by some of the international guests, there was something for everyone. The dinner music was bluesy; the appetizer was lox. And as 300 guests dined, leggy dancers — two men and one woman — leapt like gazelles across the ballroom floor.
“I was born in 1967 during the Six Day War,” said Artist of the Year Tal R (born Rosenzweig in Tel Aviv). “My father was in the army and hitchhiked to the hospital where a nurse told him ‘you are going to have a son, because whenever Israel is at war, lots of boys are being born. So I was born a war child obsessed by the idea of being a soldier and always drawing guns. I could draw all the weapons of history of arms.” His decision to become an artist was due to a friend, who “on the beach in Herzliya hit me on the head with a surfboard and told me, ’You are not going into the army!’”
During our chat, Tal introduced me to his Turkish wife Everen Tekinoktay, a contemporary Danish-born artist. “My father was a survivor from Czechoslovakia, my mother converted to Judaism when she met my father in Geneva in 1963. She kept all the Jewish customs — she chose to become Jewish.” Tal, who works in a variety of media—collage, sculpture, installations—describes his work with the Yiddish word kolbojnik — meaning “leftovers” — a term used several times during the evening by some of the speakers including Anders Kold, Curator and Head of Acquisitions, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art near Copenhagen, Denmark.
Ex-Teen Mom Farrah Abraham has reportedly patched things up with her mother, Debra Danielson.
The two had been estranged since news broke of the existence of a sex tape featuring the reality TV star’s sex and porn star James Deen. Tuns out, the sex tape was actually a professionally produced skin flick purchased by porn king Steve Hirsch for nearly $1 million.
“We went after this movie as vigorously as any sex tape we’ve ever pursued,” Hirsch told the Los Angeles Times on Monday. “We felt it was definitely worth it, not only because of Farrah’s popularity, but because the footage itself is amazing.”
Farrah’s looks remind me of a young Kim Kardashian,” he added, “and we all know how her story turned out.”
Abraham denied that the tape was in fact porn, until Deen spilled the beans in early April. “I told them that I am not a prostitute and I’m not going to go on fake dates with people for the tabloids,” he told Today.com “If you’re going to make a celebrity sex tape and try to pass it off as an amateur home video, you don’t hire a well-known porn star!”
Though Danielson reportedly slammed Deen for “exploiting” her daughter, she apparently kicked Abraham out of the house.
Lena Dunham is moving up — literally.
The writer/actress/director/voice-of-her-generation has apparently been eyeing a $4.45 million penthouse apartment in Williamsburg’s Gretsch Building, a far cry from her character’s Greenpoint apartment on “Girls.”
The three-bedroom pad has twin walk-in closets, a 1,900 squre-foot-terrace with views of the Manhattan skyline and the Williamsburg Bridge, and a cavernous living room/kitchen area. The Gretsch Building was built in 1916 and turned condo in 2004.
Douglas Elliman listing brokers Pablo Cuevas and Michal Kuras refused to say whether or not Dunham had made an offer, the New York Daily News reported. Though Dunham hasn’t commented on her Sunday visit, she did send a text to a friend asking “Do you think it’s weird to bring my dog to see a realtor?” The text was later posted to her Instagram feed.
Dunham, 26, grew up in Manhattan and currently lives in Brooklyn Heights.
Curious? Check out the pictures below!
In case you missed it. Mel Brooks has joined Twitter!
This is my 1st tweet - watch me with @carlreiner & @juddapatow live at 5E/2P for #comedyfest P.S. Carl made me do it. new.livestream.com/comedyfest/mel…
ampmdash; Mel Brooks (@MelBrooks) April 29, 2013
The comedy genius hopped on the blue birdie train during a Comedy Central chat with Carl Reiner and director Judd Apatow.
Follow him at @MelBrooks.
Let’s see Farrah Abraham claim that her professionally produced porn flick was for personal use now.
The former “Teen Mom” star has struck a deal with Vivid Entertainment for a sex tape featuring herself and porn star James Deen for close to a million dollars, TMZ reported Monday.
After news first broke of the sex tape’s existence earlier this month, Deen, 27, admitted that it was a professionally produced porn video, unwilling to have people believe that he was dating Abraham.
Abraham denied that this was true. “After seeing James speaking about my personal video as a porn and not even contacting me before running his mouth, I have to say I am very disappointed,” Abraham told Us Weekly. The former reality TV star also said that if her boyfriend and baby daddy Derek Underwood, who died in a car crash in 2008, were alive, she would much rather have made the tape with him.
The 21-year-old Abraham emerged from a meeting with porn king Steve Hirsch last week with her father and daughter in tow. Apparently, it was a success. The 70-minute-long movie will be called — get this — “Farrah Superstar: Backdoor Teen Mom.”
Classy.
Eli Roth should just stay away from the ocean.
In 2010, the famed gore director almost died after he was stung over 200 times on his feet and palms by a sea urchin, while kayaking off the coast of Mexico. Rather than learning his lesson and sticking to the pool, Roth has reportedly suffered another sea-related injury: a octopus bite.
The producer of the newly released Netflix series, “Hemlock Grove,” was reportedly jet skiing when curiosity got the better of him — really, Eli, really? — and he reached out to touch a baby octopus. The eight-legged sea creature responded by biting his pinky finger. Roth told TMZ that his finger bled profusely for hours, and has to keep the wound covered until it heals.
Am I the only one that sees the horror movie potential for this? “Octo-gore,” perhaps?
It was wall-to-wall photo-op smiles as Jean Shafiroff, stunning in an azure blue strapless above the knee silk dress, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg faced the Red Carpet photo blitz at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services 2013 Spring Benefit on April 24. Proceeding from The Plaza’s Palm Court, past its “Great Gatsby” costume exhibit, to the Terrace Room, the 375 guests — who helped raise $1.3 million for JBFCS — looked up at the terrace’s balcony level from which the mayor joked : “This is another of those times I am singing for my supper…You are so generous. You are an organization that has done an enormous amount in the past century to help New Yorkers in need. Whether it is providing residential foster care, child abuse prevention facilities…JBFCS [a beneficiary of UJA-Federation of New York] has been in the forefront of reducing the stigma that’s often associated with mental illness…No one is turned away because they cannot pay [or] are too difficult a case.” The mayor praised JBFCS for “being on the ground helping families in need in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.”
Before departing for the “next place where maybe they will feed me,” the mayor congratulated the evening’s honorees: Seymour R. Askin, a JBFCS advisor, Jerold D. Jacobson, a partner at Proskauer Rose, LLP, Paul Levine, JBFCS’s Executive VP & CEO and Jean Shafiroff, a JBFCS board member. Often described as “a socialite” the nomenclature overlooks her solid credentials which include an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University, a BS in physical therapy from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a Wall Street finance career.
During my private chat with Shafiroff, I mention her recent Metropolitan Museum of Art near catastrophe: two days earlier, she literally caught fire at a gala at the museum when her red bouffant “Oscar de la Renta” gown was singed by votive candles on the floor near the museum’s Temple of Dendur’s reflecting pool. A quick-thinking guard saved her from what could have been a Joan of Arc moment. Shafiroff dismissed this tidbit with a wave of her hand. “It’s not about me,” she said. “We’re a means to an end. JBFCS changes the lives of people. It’s truly a beautiful, beautiful charity.” Shafiroff, whom I have dubbed “the lady of the stunning gowns,” always touts JBSFC at nearly every event where we chance to meet.
Among the long list of JBFCS trustees and supporters at the dinner: JBFCS trustee Lynn Korda Kroll, John Ruskay, executive vice president & CEO of UJA, and socialite Sharon Bush mother of Lauren Bush Lauren.
Oh, Gwynnie.
America’s most hated/loved celebrity made a splash during her appearance on “The Ellen Show” on Thursday when she was asked to impersonate singers based on a game that the actress often plays with her husband, singer Chris Martin. On the list? Jay-z, followed by Macklemore & Lewis, Kanye West and Beyonce.
Watch below, if you dare.
Neil Diamond will donate royalties from his hit song “Sweet Caroline” to help victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.
The song, which has become the unofficial anthem of healing for the city of Boston in the wake of the attacks, has been played during the eighth inning of every Boston Red Sox home game for the last decade. Following the April 15 attack, it has been played in sports venues throughout the country in a show of support for Boston.
Sales of the song were up 597 percent since the bombing and it was the 28th best-selling song in Boston, according to Billboard.
On Thursday, Diamond retweeted a message announcing the sale of 19,000 copies of the song since April 15, adding that he is: “Donating these royalties to #OneFund!”
One Fund Boston was formed to help the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Diamond performed “Sweet Caroline” at the Red Sox first home game at Fenway Park after the attack on April 20.
Gasp! Bieber? Drugs? Say it ain’t so!
Cops standing around the blonde hearthrob’s tour bus outside the Globe Arena in Stockholm, apparently detected a “strong smell” coming from inside the vehicle, People Magazine reported.
According to Swedish newspaper Afonbladet, that smell was marijuana.
Police spokesman Lars Bystrom told the AP that a stun gun was also found at the scene. The “substance,” as pot is apparently called in Sweden, has been sent to a laboratory for analysis.
The Biebz, who arrived in Finland Thursday, was unfazed.
some of the rumors about me….where do people even get this stuff. whatever…back to the music
ampmdash; Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) April 25, 2013
After all this controversy over his entry into the guestbook of the Anne Frank museum, maybe he just needs to unwind.
What do eight Nobel Prize winners, five Pulitzer Prize winners, Academy Award and Emmy winners and my husband, Joseph Leon (‘46) — at one time director of the Electron Microscope Laboratory at Columbia University — have in common?
All were graduates of The Bronx High School of Science, which on April 20 held its 75th Anniversary Gala at the Waldorf-Astoria. Among the 600 festive minglers noshing on pre-dinner pastrami, pickles, coleslaw and lo-mein, were mayoral wannabe John Liu (’85), singer-actor Dominic Chianese (’48) and journalist-author Jeff Greenfield (’60) who said Bronx Science was “where you felt welcome even if you didn’t like science” and joked that former English teacher (Isabel Gordon) “was so ferocious I think she trained the people who got Bin Laden.”
E.L. Doctorow (’48) admitted to circumventing math and science “by taking a course in journalism.” Assigned to do an interview, he delivered what he modestly admitted his teacher described as “the best interview she had ever read.” His subject was the stage doorman at Carnegie Hall. “A German Jewish refugee, — a camp survivor — a sweet man who wore a blue serge jacket, came to work with a brown paper bag lunch and thermos of tea which he drank Old World style, putting a cube of sugar between his teeth.”
The audience was entranced. “He knew the music repertoire. Vladimir Horowitz, Artur Rubinstein, Jascha Heifetz all knew him…called him by his first name—Karl the Stage Door man.” When his teacher suggested sending a school photographer, Doctorow told her it was not possible, “Karl is very shy.” The teacher said, “How shy can he be, he talked to you.” Doctorow fessed up: “There is no Karl. I made him up.” The room exploded with laughter. “I accepted her judgment which was an F and went about my business, ” said the author of such bestsellers as “Ragtime,” “ The March,” “Billy Bathgate.”
“Let’s face it. I don’t belong here,” said director-writer-actor Jon Favreau. “I wasn’t the best student. To understand Bronx Science you should watch [1999 teen TV show] ‘Freaks and Geeks.’ I started out as a geek went on to freak…. I was a Jewish kid from Queens who wanted to go to the School of Performing Arts but—my father told me I couldn’t. I passed the test. I was a B-B+ student…graduated from Queens College and ended up in Hollywood. [But] I can hold my own with people from all walks of life.”
Director of “Cowboy and Aliens,” the “Iron Man” franchise and actor in “Wolf of Wall Street” and “People Like Us,” Favreau recalled applying for a job as an usher at Flushing’s RKO Keith Theatre. “I was told there were no openings. I mentioned I go to Bronx Science. The guy said, ‘Stop. Wait. I’ll get you an application. It also impressed my wife’s family.”
The New School’s Jewish Student Union has put out a petition protesting John Galliano’s teaching appointment at the Parsons School of Design.
“We do not want money from our tuition going to this kind of person. We feel like we’ve been slapped in the face by our school. There should be no room for this kind of person as a staff member on the faculty at Parsons,” the petition statement reads.
“Imagine if the school were hiring a person who publicly voiced support for the KKK — there would likely be backlash because it’s not right to have someone like that teaching at a school. But because this is someone who has made anti-Semitic remarks, people are willing to look the other way. This is unacceptable.”
The Parsons School of Design announced on Monday that John Galliano would be teaching a 3-day design workshop called “Show Me Emotion.”
“It doesn’t matter if its for three months or three days,” the statement added, “hiring someone who has made such horrific comments shows that the school values Galliano over their entire Jewish student body.”
Galliano was fired from Dior in 2011 after he was caught on video making anti-Semitic remarks in a Paris cafe. The New School JSU included the video in its petition (see it below).
The JSU calls on students and alumni to sign the petition and write an email to David Van Zandt, the president of the The New School, and Joel Towers, the dean of Parsons, calling for Galliano’s resignation. So far, 110 people have signed.
Gwyneth Paltrow has had a busy month. After taking first place in Star Magazine’s annual “Most Hated Person In Hollywood” Top 20, the actress has been hailed as the “World’s Most Beautiful Woman” 2013 by People Magazine.
Paltrow told People she was stunned by their choice. When I first heard that I was gonna be on the cover of People’s ‘Most Beautiful’ issue, I honestly thought someone was playing a joke on me,” she said. “And I had to reread the email three times. I was like, ‘This can’t be true. I’ve developed dyslexia. I’m not reading right.’”
Paltrow, whose eating, cooking, and parenting habits have been the subject of recent controversy, published her second cookbook, “It’s All Good,” earlier this month, and will be appearing in the upcoming “Iron Man” film, the third installment of the blockbuster franchise.
But despite her success, the actress joked that her glamorous look is an illusion. “”Around the house, I’m in jeans and a T-shirt. I don’t really wear makeup,” she told People. “That’s what they’re used to,” she says. Her husband Chris Martin is a good sport: “He’ll make a joke about it. If I’ve gotten fully dressed up, he’ll be like, ‘Oh, wow! You’re Gwyneth Paltrow!’ Because he’s used to seeing me in like baggy shorts and frizzy hair.”
Other beautiful people included in this issue are Jennifer Lawrence, Kerry Washington, Amanda Seyfried, Jane Fonda and Pink.
Jon Stewart has a giant bone to pick with CNN about their coverage of the Boston bombing.
The 24-hour news network has been criticized by many for their reckless breaking news reporting — notable example being when they started a media frenzy by reporting a suspect was in custody when it wasn’t at all the case.
Stewart pointed out that CNN learned from their lesson, moving on to a different tactic of reporting a whole lot about not knowing much a at all, “a much more responsible way of broadcasting than your usual say it first and have Anderson Cooper correct it later.”
Ouch.
Check out the full segment below.
The movers and shakers of the glamorous set were out in droves Monday night to raise their glasses in a toast to Barbra Streisand, who was given the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Chaplin award at Avery Fisher Hall Monday night.
Called a “true legend and hometown girl,” Streisand is the first woman to have written, produced, directed and acted in an American film, the New York Daily News reported.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve been called ‘bossy and opinionated,’ ” said Streisand. “Well, I guess I am. Three cheers for bossy women!”
Former President Bill Clinton handed Streisand her award, while Liza Minnelli serenaded her with renditions of “Funny Lady” and “Isn’t This Better.”
Among the glittery guests were Blyth Danner, George Segal, Michael Douglas and wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeremy Irons, and Streisand’s hubby, James Brolin.
Way to go Babs!
The public discussion (or really, babble at this point) regarding Justin Bieber’s controversial entry in the guestbook of the Anne Frank museum doesn’t seem to be dying down. Now, Will.i.am has come out in defense of the blonde heartthrob, saying the whole thing was blown out of proportion.
In an interview with The Sun on Saturday, the judge of the UK version of “The Voice” defended Bieber, who will be featured on the rapper’s new single #thatpower.
“I remember when I was 19, it was pretty tough. The difference between me and him is that I got to grow up in private, he is growing up in front of everybody,” he said. “The dude was in freaking Amsterdam. He could get sex because it’s legal, he could get drugs because it’s legal, and now we are making a hoopla because he said, ‘I wonder if Anne Frank was a Belieber?’ “He went to a museum! If you go to Amsterdam you are going to see some crazy freaking s–t, you are going to see some titties, there is a lot of s–t to do in Amsterdam but he chose to go to Anne Frank’s house. The guy is all right.”
Others have rushed to the Biebs’ defense, including rapper 50 cent, who, when asked at the premiere of “Pain & Gain,” said “She probably would have been [a believer].”
Mark Wahlberg, also at the premiere as one of the film’s stars, agreed, saying: “I think it’s best to put down the phone and Twitter and all that stuff, and just be a little more low-key right now. Because they’re watching every move he makes, everything he says, and less is more. Go take a vacation.”
What do you think?
NEW YORK — Disgraced fashion designer John Galliano is continuing his public image rehabilitation with an upcoming stint teaching a master class at one of New York’s leading design schools.
Galliano, who was fired by Dior in 2011 after he was caught on camera making anti-Semitic remarks in a Paris cafe, will teach a course titled “Show Me Emotion” at Parsons The New School For Design, the school said on Monday.
Parsons said the class “will be a dynamic and intimate opportunity for our students to learn from an immensely talented designer.”
“We believe that over the past two years Galliano has demonstrated a serious intent to make amends for his past actions,” the school added.
Earlier this year, the 52-year-old British designer, widely thought of as one of the most talented and creative names in fashion, spent several weeks working at Oscar de la Renta’s studio in New York, preparing for de la Renta’s New York Fashion Week show in February.
A French court handed out a 6,000-euro ($8,000) suspended fine to Galliano in 2011 after he was found guilty of anti-Semitic behavior. Galliano has said an addiction to drugs and alcohol had left him out of control and he was determined to make amends.
Parsons said students in the master class “will have the opportunity to engage in a frank conversation with Mr. Galliano about the challenges and complications of leading a design house in the 21st century.”
Following his Dior dismissal, Galliano designed British model Kate Moss’s wedding dress.
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