Oren Moverman’s ‘The Messenger’: The unseen casualties of war

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

A Private Eye’s Adventures Are Author’s Dream

By Naomi Pfefferman

Uninhibited author Jonathan Ames — creator of HBO’s quirky detective comedy, “Bored to Death” — once followed a pursuit he describes as “religious cross-dressing”: primping his blond hair and donning blazers to “infiltrate WASP society” in his 20s. While at Princeton University, Ames had become smitten by what he calls “the aesthetics of the WASPy young gentleman” as depicted in the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and W. Somerset Maugham. When this charade put him in hearing distance of an anti-Semitic remark, he often said nothing, hoping to “pass” and to be liked.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Sharon Waxman Takes on Hollywood

By Danielle Berrin

In August, when Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein gave his first on-the-record interview addressing the widespread speculation that his company was failing to a New York Times reporter who had written little about Hollywood, Sharon Waxman was, well, pissed.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

What We Must Learn from Letterman

by Mark Pearlman, JInsider.com

Monday, October 12, 2009

Dan Glickman: Hollywood’s man in D.C.

By Eric Fingerhut , JTA

After six years as agriculture secretary and five years as chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Dan Glickman knows something that might surprise some people: You can find plenty of Jews in both industries.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Tarantino and “Basterds” Come to Israel

By Dina Kraft

Quentin Tarantino winced as the young Israeli journalist took the microphone and asked what must rank as one of the heavier questions he's ever encountered: "How do you relate to the Jewish tragedy of the Holocaust personally?"

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Anti-Israel Protests Roil Toronto Film Fest

By Danielle Berrin

Rather than celebrating artistic freedom, this year’s Toronto International Film Festival became the locus of an artist-led, divisive boycott against Israel.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

David, ‘Seinfeld’ Cast Reunite, Rant

By Naomi Pfefferman

In its last two seasons, Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” pushed politically correct notions of Jewish identity and race to cringe-worthy and hilarious extremes. David, playing an exaggerated version of his misanthropic self, briefly made nice when he mistakenly believed he had been adopted and was not born Jewish, then he returned to his callous self when his wife — now estranged — took in an African American family that had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. “So your last name is Black,” he says to the family upon their first meeting, arriving late to pick them up at the airport. “That’d be like if my last name were Jew: Larry Jew.”

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Toronto film fest calls Israeli PR strategy into question

By Ben Harris, JTA

When Amir Gissin helped come up with an idea to remake Israel's international image several years ago, it's unlikely he imagined that the showcasing of Israeli films in Toronto would spark a star-studded Hollywood brouhaha over artistic expression and cultural boycotts.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Jane Fonda responds to Toronto backlash

Jane Fonda

I recently signed a letter protesting the Toronto International Film Festival's decision to showcase and celebrate Tel Aviv. This in the very year when Gaza happened.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

A self-respecting Jew in Hollywood

By Danielle Berrin

Rob Kutner is a veteran comedy writer for “The Daily Show” and author of the tongue-in-cheek “Apocalypse How” (Running Press, 2008). Having just returned to Los Angeles to work for “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien,” he talks about being an observant Jew in Hollywood, why George W. Bush is more fun to write about than President Obama and why he doesn’t believe you ever really “make it” in Hollywood.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Army Archerd: January 13, 1922 - September 8, 2009

Variety.com

Army Archerd, whose 52-year run as a Daily Variety columnist made him unique among showbiz reporters, died Tuesday

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Madonna visits Western Wall

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Madonna made a late-night visit to the Western Wall. Accompanied by bodyguards, Madonna on Sunday night visited Judaism’s holiest site and toured the attached underground tunnels. Madonna arrived in Israel, accompanied by her children, for two concerts in Tel Aviv.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Pop music’s leader of the pack, Ellie Greenwich, dies at 68

HAARETZ.com via The Associated Press

Ellie Greenwich, who co-wrote some of pop music's most enduring songs, including Chapel of Love, Be My Baby and Leader of the Pack, died Wednesday, according to her niece. She was 68.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Hunky Antonio Sabato Jr. looks for love on TV, with help from his mother

By Allison Hoffman, Tabletmag.com

What kind of person would go on a reality dating show with his mother in tow giving every potential love connection the once-over? A nice Jewish boy, of course -- one like Antonio Sabato Jr., the Italian-born heartthrob best known for gracing a 90-foot Times Square billboard wearing only his Calvin Klein briefs and a sultry half-smile.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Remembering Woodstock: Max Said Yes!

By Naomi Pfefferman

When the American Jewish dairy farmer Max Yasgur died in 1973, he became one of few non-musicians to receive a full-page obituary in Rolling Stone magazine. That’s because Yasgur said “yes” to organizers of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair 40 years ago this week, allowing half a million young people to camp out on his land in Bethel, NY, after neighboring towns refused to grant access to the flower children.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Madonna’s Jewish Infomercial?

JInsider.com

Thursday, August 6, 2009

‘Sex and the City’ star embroiled in West Bank controversy [VIDEO]

By Haaretz Service

Kristin Davis, who starred in the long-running HBO hit drama Sex and the City, is reportedly the subject of a controversy involving her association with an Israeli cosmetics company whose headquarters are situated in the West Bank.

Monday, August 3, 2009

The star of ‘Blossom’ reflects on how belief changed her look

By Mayim Bialik, Tablet Magazine

Earlier this year, producers from the TLC makeover show “What Not to Wear” chose me to “fix.” It was eight months after I had given birth to my second son (my first was 3 years old), and I had just completed a doctorate in neuroscience.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Hollywood Shakes Hands With Israel

By Meredith Price Levitt

The 11th annual Tel Aviv-Los Angeles Master Class at Tel Aviv’s Cinematheque began this week offering both negative and positive news for Israeli students and professionals. Founded by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and co-sponsored by HOT cable company, the event was established to forge connections and create partnerships between Hollywood and Israel’s film, television and new-media professionals.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Did an Israeli anesthetic cause Michael Jackson’s death?

HAARETZ.com via The Associated Press

United States federal drug enforcement officials have contacted Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals - the maker of the powerful anesthetic Propofol - as part of their investigation into Michael Jackson's death.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Michael Jackson and the Jews

By Tom Tugend

Michael Jackson’s life was full of contradictions, and his relationship to Jews and the Jewish community was no exception.

Friday, June 26, 2009

MICHAEL JACKSON: Memories of my Childhood

by Michael Jackson

When I look back on my childhood, it is not an idyllic landscape of memories. My relationship with my father was strained, and my childhood was an emotionally difficult time for me. I began performing when I was five years old, and my father - a tough man - pushed my brothers and me hard, from the earliest age, to be the best performers we could be.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Jackie Mason Calls Obama the ‘SCH’-word

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Friday, March 13, 2009

NBC’s ‘Kings’ Revamps David, Goliath and Saul

By Tom Tugend

Michael Green was walking down a street in Jerusalem in late 2006 when the concept of the new television series “Kings” came into focus.