Jewish Weddings in Space

Joss Whedon's quirky space Western, "Serenity," features outlaws who act like Wild West gunslingers, an assassin who forces his victims to commit hara kiri, a telepath who inexplicably goes berserk, a Buddhist planet -- and Jewish nuptials in space.

Based on Whedon's short-lived 2002 TV series, "Firefly," whose fan base helped spur the movie, "Serenity" revolves around the outlaws' attempts to discover the telepath's true identity after she beats up everyone in a bar.

Enter hacker broadcaster Mr. Universe (David Krumholtz), who plays the bar's security tapes for the renegades -- as well as a video of his wedding to a bimbo android. In one of the film's funniest moments, she looks on robotically as Krumholtz (CBS's "NUMB3RS") ecstatically stomps on a glass at the end of the Jewish ceremony.

Mr. Universe is not the first member-of-the-tribe character the non-Jewish Whedon, has created, says Jewhoo Editor Nate Bloom; his titular Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a sidekick named Willow Rosenberg, among other multicultural pals.

Whedon said he created "Serenity," which opens Friday, as a kind of "Wagon Train" in space. That's about how Gene Roddenberry described his conceit for the original "Star Trek" series. But unlike "Trek" and many other sci-fi works, "Serenity" depicts real, rather than invented, human religions. So while a Jewish wedding in space may sound offbeat, hey, just think of it as the final frontier for the Diaspora, though don't expect bubbe to approve of the intermarriage android thing.