October 30, 2009 | 4:10 pm

Rabbi Schmuley to rescue Jon Gosselin

Posted by Danielle Berrin

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Jon Gosselin is moving from the dog house to a house of God, thanks to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

The embattled reality star of “Jon and Kate Plus 8” is seeking spiritual guidance from “Rabbi Schmuley” as he is known in Hollywood circles, and who counseled Michael Jackson before Jackson admitted to sharing his bed with young boys. (Boteach cut off ties after that, though he plans to release the book, “The Michael Jackson Tapes” based on recorded conversations he had with the deceased King of Pop.)

Boteach, host of TLC’s “Shalom in the Home” and who likes to think of himself as “one of the world’s leading relationship experts and spiritual authorities” isn’t one to let an floundering star founder.

Lately, Gosselin, who is self-proclaimed “half Jewish, half Korean” has come under fire for alleged infidelity, looting $200,000 from his and Kate’s joint account and for neglecting his duties as a father.

“I have allowed myself to become somewhat severed from my own moral anchor and be carried away by the challenges of fame,” Gosselin told CNN.

“It is for this reason that I have endeavored of late to reconnect with my deeper, more spiritual, more altruistic self with regular study sessions and counseling with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.”

As the good book says, all human beings are created in the image of God, which is evidently why there’s hope for Gosselin’s newfound spiritual self.

“I have always endeavored to be a loving father and a devoted parent who serves as a moral exemplar to his eight children,” he said. As such, Gosselin has agreed to appear at Rabbi Schmuley’s upcoming lecture, “Fame: Blessing or Curse?” at New York’s West Side Synagogue, where he plans to apologize to those he’s hurt.

“More than anything else, Rabbi Shmuley, as someone who has counseled others in similar circumstances, has impressed upon me the moral obligations inherent in celebrity and I understand that if a spotlight is shined on me, especially as a father of a large family, that I have to inspire others to do the right thing always.”

But is Gosselin waking up to his parental obligations too late? And where has Boteach been all along, while Gosselin has been serving up his children’s childhoods for the viewing pleasure of millions?

October 29, 2009 | 8:11 pm

Taylor Swift’s Swastika Shock

Posted by Danielle Berrin

Everyone’s in a tizzy over a photo of Taylor Swift dancing next to a dude sporting a swastika.

Last weekend, Swift attended singer Katy Perry’s birthday paint party where guests splattered their clothes with various words, squiggly lines and symbols. Somehow, the squeaky clean Swift found herself dancing next to a guy with a bright red swastika painted on his chest.

“Taylor Swift Parities With Nazis,” read one headline at Celebjihad.com. To add insult to injury, the Web site referred to Swift as a “blond hair Aryan super race beauty.”

But Blackbook put it best when they described the incident as deliciously shocking because Swift is “who we love best as a victim and not as a woman who can probably hold her liquor.”  At last month’s MTV Video Music Awards, Swift was famously upstaged—and insulted—by Kanye West, who jumped on stage during her acceptance speech for Best Female Video and blurted out that Beyonce deserved it more.

“It’s backlash season for Swift now,” Rohin Guha wrote on the Blackbook blog. “As a celebrity whose star is sparkling especially brightly following some incident that we’ve long forgotten that left her looking a lot like those wounded kittens on those Sarah McLachlan-ASPCA commercials, any measure of swastika-proximity is not advisable.”

So why was Swift dancing next to a parading paint Nazi? And who is this guy?

One blogger speculated that it was all a silly, let-the-good-times-roll joke: “This guy looks Jewish, so I’ve decided he’s Jewish and therefore is just some nerd who does stuff like this for attention.”

Sadly, judging by this photo, the Nazi in question does look a lot like a Jewish boy.

Someone ought to call the “Inglourious Basterds” and tell them someone needs a skinning. Or at least, a paint lesson.

UPDATE:

A reader drew my attention to a TMZ update on the Swift swastika scandal. Turns out, swastika guy is A.J. English, and he says Swift couldn’t possibly have noticed the chest-encompassing symbol on his shirt when he pulled her close for a pic. English says the swastika started as an “X” but told TMZ it was “perverted” throughout the night. Either Swift needs glasses or she can’t hold her liquor after all. What do you think?

Read more at TMZ

ANOTHER UPDATE: A colleague just emailed that some people are saying the “JH” on Swift’s dress stands for “Jew Hater.” Outrageous! As much as the world loves to aggrandize Jewish victimhood, this is ridiculous. In all likelihood, “JH” stands for Julianne Hough, Swift’s friend and fellow songstress, whom she was photographed with at the party. But like my colleague says, “It’s Hollywood! Why let truth get in the way?”

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October 28, 2009 | 3:36 pm

Larry David pees on Jesus, pisses off Catholics

Posted by Danielle Berrin

Larry David has once again proven his ability to indiscriminately offend—this time, with a bodily function.

On Sunday’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Larry takes a new pill that causes him to pee with the force of a firetruck spray hose. While in the bathroom at his assistant’s house, the back splash lands on a portrait of Jesus, which his assistant later interprets as Jesus “crying” and perceives as some sort of miracle.

According to the Huffington Post, however, Catholic League president Bill Donohue is not feeling especially humored.

In a statement, Donohue said:

Mention Larry David in a word association game and “Seinfeld” rolls off the lips. That show, which David created, wrote and produced, was brilliant. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is not. Indeed, last night’s episode demonstrates that David’s best years are behind him. He ought to quit while he’s ahead.
...
Was Larry David always this crude? Would he think it comedic if someone urinated on a picture of his mother? This might be fun to watch, but since HBO only likes to dump on Catholics (it was just a couple of weeks ago that Sarah Silverman insulted Catholics on “Real Time with Bill Maher”), and David is Jewish, we’ll never know.

Check out the clip with a cameo by Jerry Seinfeld:

 

 

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October 26, 2009 | 7:29 pm

Ivanka Trump’s ‘Big Fat Jewish Wedding’

Posted by Danielle Berrin

After converting for her storybook wedding, billionaire heiress Ivanka Trump, 27, married New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner, 28, in an Orthodox ceremony at Trump National Golf Course in New Jersey.

The couple was married by prominent New York rabbi, Haskel Lookstein, who also coached Trump through her yearlong conversion.

Things weren’t always smooth sailing for the couple of moguls, though. According to a profile of Kushner in New York Magazine:

Dating Ivanka was fraught with family peril. Though she is converting to Judaism, studying with Rabbi Haskel Lookstein at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on East 85th Street, it has not always been easy. Jared’s mother, in particular, has struggled with their relationship. Last summer, Seryl told Jared to cool it. They broke up for a time but soon got back together.

Ivanka told me she and Jared plan to marry, but they aren’t officially engaged. “I am studying,” she said of her conversion, “and it’s been an amazing and fulfilling experience for me ... One of the jokes I first started making when Jared and I first started dating is, I’m a New Yorker, I’m in real estate. I’m as close to Jewish, with an ‘i-s-h’ naturally as anyone can start off.”

According to the New York Post, the 500 guests at the wedding included Andrew Cuomo, Barbara Walters, Anna Wintour, Rudy Giuliani, Joel Klein and Sheldon Silver, as well as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and ex-New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey. From Hollywood, Russell Crowe, Natalie Portman and actress Emmy Rossum attended.

The Huffington Post notes that Barbara Walters discussed the “absolutely gorgeous but not ‘glitzy’ wedding” (yeah right) on The View earlier today and gave the audience a peak at the invitation, which was in English on one side and Hebrew on the other.

Next up, the couple announces the birth of Moses.

 

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October 22, 2009 | 7:37 pm

Bar Rafaeli vs. the ultra-Orthodox

Posted by Danielle Berrin

A Tel Aviv billboard featuring scantily clad supermodel Bar Refaeli is discomfiting the ultra-Orthodox community.

Rabbi Mordechai Bloi, a Haredi rabbi, has himself in a tizzy over the giant visual of a half-naked Refaeli lying in bed beside a male model (apparently he missed her Sports Illustrated cover). Such lewd scenes are forbidden to the religious community because they violate Torah modesty laws. According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Bloi is threatening to boycott the Fox clothing company responsible for the billboard.

“Whether people wish to see this or not is a personal choice, and we don’t tell people what to do in the privacy of their home. But they cannot be permitted to poison the public environment,” Bloi told Haaretz.

Just think of it: If every billboard of Bar Refaeli was taken down, all of Israel could have a pure conscience.

Read more at Haaretz

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October 22, 2009 | 4:13 pm

Rachel Weisz on why Hollywood Jews prefer blondes

Posted by Danielle Berrin

Among studio executives, the name Rachel Weisz is not synonymous with “box office draw,” even though Weisz has appeared in a few blockbusters. She was the leading lady in a little franchise called “The Mummy” and played the voice of Saphira in the movie “Eragon,” based on the bestselling series. In general, Weisz is thought more of an actress than a movie star, but that may be about to change.

An article in today’s Variety declared that Alejandro Amenabar’s Spanish-backed epic “Agora,” starring Weisz, enjoyed an unexpected opening in Spain where it grossed $17 million during its first two weeks. Those numbers are decidedly unimpressive by U.S. standards, but for a film that cost $70 million to make and failed to find distribution after its premiere at Cannes, Variety found the numbers “stunning”.

But I’m more stunned by Weisz, who may be Hollywood’s best kept secret. According to The-Numbers.com, a box office database for movie stars, Weisz’s resume has grossed more than $2 billion worldwide ($860 million in the U.S.) with an average gross of more than $35 million per film. Her average opening weekend clocks in at around $11.2 million which puts her on par with Nicole Kidman, who, according to the same Web site, has an average opening weekend of $11.4 million. If the numbers are correct, that means Weisz is only about $2 million shy of matching Julia Roberts’s average opening weekend ($13.4 million) as well as Jennifer Aniston’s ($13.8 million), both of whom are considered two of the biggest movie stars in the world. In fact, according to The-Numbers.com, Roberts is ranked no. 37 on the list of highest grossing movie stars of all time. (Then there’s Angelina Jolie with an average opening weekend of $15.8 million.)

Weiss still needs $500 million to catch up to Jolie’s domestic gross and more than $1 billion to reach Roberts, but her average opening weekend is well suited to the competition. Not that Weisz cares—she is famously content with her private life and avoids getting caught up in the ills of Hollywood.

“Believe me,” Weisz told Blackbook in April 2009. “I get it. I’m living with a nice man, and I have a nice job and a happy family, blah, blah, blah… ”

Weisz lives in Manhattan’s East Village with her fiancé, director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler). She was raised in northern London, in the Hampstead Garden Suburb, by parents Edith Ruth and George Weisz. Her mother was a teacher and later became a psychotherapist; her father, an inventor, who was born in Hungary but fled to England to escape the Nazis.

Below, Weisz talks about being Jewish in Hollywood in a 2001 interview with writer Emma Forrest for Index Magazine.

EMMA: When we were at the drugstore you innocently opened up Talk Magazine and I heard a shriek of dismay.

RACHEL: Yeah, I literally saw not only the most disgusting, but the most ridiculous photograph I’ve ever seen of any woman.

EMMA: And who was it of?

RACHEL: It was me. [laughs] It was me photographed by David Bailey, who had some kind of concept that because it was for a Russian film, I would be wearing a Russian hat. But you can’t really see the hat, just fur everywhere. And my nose looks like it’s … just a really outsized nose, you know.

EMMA: But, you see, you’re holding back from saying what you said at the store, which was that you thought you looked too Jewish. Is it limiting as an actress to be perceived as being too ethnic in any way?

RACHEL: Well, I think you and I have always felt the same way — that we’re Jewish but we can get away with just being exotic. We’re kind of Jews in disguise. Those cultural stereotypes about the Jew with the big hooky nose and the fleshy face rub off on you. That’s terrible to admit, isn’t it.

EMMA: Well, it’s that Jackie Mason joke about how no Jewish woman wants to look Jewish: “‘You think I look maybe a little Italian, I look a little Russian, perhaps I can be Spanish?’ … ‘You look Jewish!’”

RACHEL: Hollywood’s run by Jews. I was advised by an American agent when I was about 19 to change my surname. And I said “Why? Jews run Hollywood.” He said “Exactly.” He had a theory that all the executives think acting’s a job for shiksas.

EMMA: Of all the self-loathing Jews in the world, the most self-loathing are the Hollywood Jews. They don’t want to see images of themselves on screen. That’s why Lauren Bacall had to hide her identity, and Winona Ryder changed her name from Horowitz.

RACHEL: In some way acting is prostitution, and Hollywood Jews don’t want their own women to participate. Also, there’s an element of Portnoy’s Complaint — they all fancy Aryan blondes.

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October 21, 2009 | 5:45 pm

Adam Lambert: The New American Sex Symbol

Posted by Danielle Berrin

Adam Lambert plays it straight in a steamy photo shoot for this month’s Details magazine, in which he defies his homosexuality and tongues a naked female model. He also grips her breasts and her behind—and apparently, he likes it.

“I am gay, but I like kissing women sometimes,” Lambert tells the mag. “Women are pretty. It doesn’t mean I’m necessarily sleeping with them.”

Nope, just appearing as if he’s sleeping with them. (It sells more albums..)

The photos are meant to challenge sexual norms and prove that Lambert’s sex appeal is not limited to a gay audience. He is a bisexual sex symbol, lusted after by both men and women. The photos were inspired by the fact that women hurl bras and panties at Lambert while he’s performing. And they don’t seem to care that Lambert, who is openly gay, isn’t the least bit interested in their feminine bits. To them, Lambert’s sexual preference is an exciting challenge; the best hard-to-get game ever.

Lambert, of course, is enjoying all the sexual attention. Much of his musical appeal after all, is enhanced by his sex appeal. According to Details, “Americans of every persuasion proved defenseless against Lambert’s vigorous pelvic exertions [on stage].” And he scoffs at any criticism of his super sexy act.

“I have no problem telling people, ‘You know what? I’m not your babysitter, and I’m not your church,’” Lambert tells Details. “They go, ‘Jesus loves you, too.’ One time I just blurted out, ‘I’m Jewish, okay? I don’t need another crucifix! This is not an appropriate gift for me!’”

“I know people are coming from a good place, but it can be offensive. Like, ‘Thank you, I’m not Christian! I don’t read that book.’”

Read the full article here.

See the steamy photos here.

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October 20, 2009 | 11:20 pm

Israeli band gaining attention for animated music vid [VIDEO]

Posted by Danielle Berrin

Israeli alternative rock band Eatliz is on the rise—but not necessarily because of their music.

Lead songwriter Guy Ben Shetrit, a creative virtuoso based in Tel Aviv, created an animated music video for the band’s hit single, “Hey” which has won acclaim at film festivals around the world. The video was awarded The Spike Lee prize at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival as part of the Babelgum online competition, a web-based indie film festival chaired by Lee.

In the video, a stop motion fantasy, a young girl is taken on a wild adventure by her oversize pet toad, who is chasing after a flea. The girl gets dragged along, tossed into the air, thrust from the top of a building and sets her sights on an evasive green balloon. The story begins with whimsy but evolves into something darker, its overall style recalling a Tim Burton fantasy, like those in the animated films, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “The Corpse Bride.” Shetrit’s animation is sharp, his transitions nearly seamless, and the action in the story is well paced with the music. There are a number of striking references to the 1956 French short film “The Red Balloon,” in which a young boy follows a balloon throughout the city of Paris, though this is decidedly more sinister. 

See it for yourself:

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