May 17, 2011 | 9:55 am

Fidelity, Terminated: Arnold Schwarzenegger admits fathering housekeeper’s child

Posted by Danielle Berrin

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Not so buff now: Arnold Schwarzenegger admits to fathering child with household staffer

I wish I was shocked at the news that former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to reporters last night not only to cheating on his wife, Maria Shriver, but to fathering a child with the couple’s housekeeper of two decades. Surprise! The “Governator” is no superhero, he’s a man.

“After leaving the governor’s office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago,” Schwarzenegger said Monday night in a statement to The Los Angeles Times. “I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry.”

He’s sorry. Easy words to say after you’ve had your dreamy run as governor of the most populous state in the nation, the eighth-largest economy in the world, after a Hollywood career in which you’d become an action-hero cliche. Easy words to say when it was your self-sacrificing wife who gave up her career, as well as her deepest held political values, to support you. Not so easy to hear, I’m sure, as the wife who loyally stood by you, having already endured a history of accusations about her husband’s sexual impropriety, and somehow, verily dismissing them, while wearing high heels and a smile.

According to The Times, Shriver moved out of the family’s Brentwood mansion a few months ago, after her hedonistic hubby admitted his paternity. Since then, Schwarzenegger “has maintained a high public profile, meeting with world dignitaries, attending a White House summit on immigration and working to revive his movie career.” Meanwhile, his wife has been glum and self-reflective, reaching out to her fans for support.

Earlier this month, just after the couple announced their separation, The New York Times reported:

Ms. Shriver gave a hint of her personal turmoil at this transition in a video posted on YouTube in which she appealed to supporters for advice on how to get through this period in her life.

“Like a lot of you I’m in transition: people come up to me all the time, asking, what are you doing next?” she said, adding: “It’s so stressful to not know what you are doing next when people ask what you are doing and they can’t believe you don’t know what you are doing.”

“I’d like to hear from other people who are in transition,” she said. “How did you find your transition: Personal, professional, emotional, spiritual, financial? How did you get through it?”

While Shriver seeks self-betterment, Schwarzenegger seeks stardom. Days before he’d announce the sad, stunning end to his 25-year-marriage, The Sperminator signed a movie deal that would recast him in the limelight. “He’s baaack,” reported Deadline.com. He’s certainly back where he belongs, as a cartoonish caricature of himself; the steely fallen star who can act out his virility in 3-D.

For the Jewish community, this comes as a unique disappointment. Schwarzenegger has spent much of his political career cozying up to powerful West Coast Jews and has frequently appeared at Jewish events and fundraisers. Just last week, he attended the Israeli Consulate’s Israel Independence Day celebration at the Skirball Center, where he thanked the audience for their “support and love” in the aftermath of the split announcement, assuaging community sadness by saying, “I just spoke to Maria an hour before I came here … we both love each other very much and are fortunate to have four extraordinary children … and we’re taking it one day at a time.”

Hard to believe that after 10 years of deceit, probably to his wife but certainly to his public, that Sperminator and Shriver would do anything but terminate their marriage. But we Jews like to believe in forgiveness and redemption. And so far, this Terminator just won’t self-destruct. But at least he’s baaack in Hollywood, where people will forget what kind of man he is, as long as he’s man enough to draw a crowd.

Video of Schwarzenegger admitting his paternity of his housekeeper’s child to L.A. reporters:
 

May 16, 2011 | 4:28 pm

Benjamin Brafman: Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s Orthodox Jewish attorney

Posted by Danielle Berrin

Attorney Benjamin Brafman, lead counsel for IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn who is currently awaiting trial in New York

His image may be in permanent ruin, but whether or not the disgraced IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will set his sights on the Eiffel Tower anytime soon is largely up to one man: his attorney, Benjamin Brafman.

No stranger to celebrity scandal, the New York-based Brafman has represented stars from all over the famous/infamous continuum, from the rappers Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jay-Z, to pop icon Michael Jackson to various reputed members of the mafia. New York Magazine dubbed him “the man to have on speed-dial when you’re in really big trouble.”

According to that same 1998 New York profile, Brafman’s wife Lynda, a librarian, had nicknamed him H.P. for “high profile”. At the time, he was representing “a Talmudic scholar-businessman accused of laundering money for the Cali drug cartel; a retired cop charged with murder; a rabbi charged, with Assemblyman Dov Hikind, of misusing federal funds; and the nightclub impresario Peter Gatien, who [was charged with] running his popular nightspots…as anything-goes drug supermarkets.”

The son of Holocaust survivors, Brafman grew up in Brooklyn and Queens and put himself through Brooklyn College night school and then Ohio Northern University Law School, before getting an additional Master of Laws degree from New York University: “Okay, so it’s not Harvard,” reported New York writer Meryl Gordon, “but Brafman uses his down-to-earth pedigree to put people at ease. He’ll even joke about his equally down-to-earth stature (he boldly claims five feet six) to score points with juries. ‘He’s short, and he uses it well,’” she quotes criminal-defense lawyer Fred Hafetz as saying of Brafman.

Fortunately for Strauss-Kahn, Brafman doesn’t cower from the lurid, the depraved, or the perverse. He defended Michael Jackson against those unforgettable child molestation allegations, as well as an alleged member of the Gambino crime family accused of car theft and murder (Brafman got this guy acquitted on 21 of 22 counts, according to The Financial Times). He also got Sean Combs out of a sticky spot, after that infamous nightclub shooting back in 1999, clearing Combs of the illegal weapons and bribery charges that could have marred his career. Despite eyewitness reports that claimed Combs culpable, the incident is a footnote in the bad memories department.

Now all eyes are on Brafman to see what he can do for Strauss-Kahn, the would-be French Socialist party presidential candidate who is now embroiled in an ugly sex scandal that threatens his ruin. Strauss-Kahn is currently awaiting trial on allegations of sexual assault, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment of a hotel chambermaid. According to ABC News, the complaint filed with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office says “he forcibly touched the housekeeper’s breasts, attempted to pull off her panty hose, twice, ‘forcibly made contact with his penis and the informant’s mouth’ and that ‘the defendant engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion.’”  Earlier today, Strauss-Kahn was denied bail because he is considered a potential flight risk.

It’s tough enough pitting a lowly chambermaid against a powerful international politico, but with Brafman in the mix, it seems even more unlikely the housekeeper will get a fair shake. In addition to legal skills, Brafman has a reputation for being charismatic, verily persuasive, and “imaginative and clever,” as Brafman’s colleague, L.A. attorney Mark Geragos put it to The Financial Times. He is, by many accounts, something of a star himself, a guy with real Hollywood style—and a background in performance.

The Financial Times notes:

Mr. Brafman’s wit, honed during a youthful stint as a stand-up comedian, has become a hallmark of his courtroom style.

Brafman is also known to be an observant Jew whose father rescued an endangered Torah on Kristallnacht, which Brafman wrote about for the Jewish press in 2007.

When earlier today prosecutors suggested Strauss-Kahn be denied bail because he might flee “like Roman Polanski”, Brafman vowed to appeal the ruling.

“This battle has just begun,” he told reporters.

And apparently, Brafman knows how to fight. According to New York Magazine:

His detractors see a darker side, accusing Brafman of using underhanded, albeit legal, courtroom tactics to win, and cynically manipulating the press with carefully orchestrated leaks. It’s fair to say that Perry Mason had a gentler style. But Brafman is effective, even if he doesn’t always play by Marquess of Queensbury rules. So fearsome is his reputation that critics, talking on the phone, sound a lot like Brafman’s Mafia clients fearing a wiretap. “I could trash him,” sniffs one antagonist, “but I’d rather take the high road.”

Despite his track record, Brafman has a tough road ahead. He acknowledged as much in 1998: “The baggage that comes with a remarkable track record,” he told New York, “is that people feel that you can pull off an acquittal despite what seems overwhelming evidence. But you can’t do it every time.”

Read more on Brafman’s Jewish background and the rest of the New York profile here:

Brafman was the class clown, a lazy, directionless student who dozed through yeshiva classes. Aaron Brafman, Ben’s studious older brother, now an Orthodox rabbi in Far Rockaway, says, “Our mother always worried: What’s Ben going to turn into? I was the goody-goody; he used to always be in my shadow.”

The two boys and their sisters, Malkie and Shevy, grew up in a house with shadows, the impermeable sadness of a family shattered by the losses of the Holocaust. Their mother, Rose, who died in 1996, fled Czechoslovakia for New York in 1938 at 16, the only one in her family to get papers to leave; her parents and sister were later killed in concentration camps. Ben recalls that he said in her eulogy, “This is the first day my mother is not afraid.” Their father, Sol, escaped Vienna with his parents after Kristallnacht in 1939. Shortly after meeting and marrying Rose, he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

After the war, the Brafmans settled first in Williamsburg, then in Crown Heights, and finally in the more upscale Belle Harbor. Sol made a modest living as a production manager for a lingerie company. This was a strict, deeply religious Orthodox household with a classic immigrant work-hard-my-child ethos. To this day, Brafman remains observant, scheduling trial dates around Jewish holidays, taking Saturdays off from work, and leaving the office early on Fridays to try to get home before sundown. “I figure God will understand if I’m trying to save someone’s life and I’m home five minutes late,” he says.

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May 13, 2011 | 12:35 pm

It’s Ryan Kavanaugh vs. Harvey Weinstein in ‘The Crow’ legal dispute

Posted by Danielle Berrin

Relativity Media topper Ryan Kavanaugh, attorney Bert Fields and Weinstein Co. head Harvey Weinstein

Two of Hollywood’s titanic producers are taking it to the mattresses over rights to distribute a remake of “The Crow”, the 1994 comic-book action film that took actor Brandon Lee’s life. And true to form, Weinstein’s entertainment attorney extraordinaire, the indomitable Bert Fields is keeping things lively and exasperating.

But this new battle, it seems, is over old bad blood.

Things apparently soured between the two moguls after The Weinstein Co. and Relativity Media co-produced the musical “Nine” which performed shamefully, despite an all-star cast—Daniel Day Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Nicole Kidman—lots of lush, sexy costumes and beautiful Italian scenery. It performed so poorly, in fact, it only recovered $20 million of its $115 million budget, according to TheWrap.com.

Fearing further losses, a disgruntled Kavanaugh decided he wanted out of another go with The Weinsteins. Only one problem: According to a lawsuit, some sort of contract was signed giving The Weinstein Co. rights to distribute the remake of “The Crow”. Kavanaugh explored his options. But at some point, it appears, Weinstein got wind (or “the impression” according to Fields) that Kavanaugh was quietly shopping “The Crow” around, eager to offload the distribution rights to a third party. To stop him, Weinstein called up Fields, a cantankerous tough guy, who has gotten the likes of Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and even The Beatles out of sticky spots. Fields filed a lawsuit demanding Relativity honor the original contract.

According to TheWrap.com, Relativity shot back: “This is yet another typical litigation stunt from the Weinsteins, who have a long history of threatening law suits with the sole purpose of intimidation.” They also singled out Fields, who, in good Jewish fashion, has a famous mouth. “While we expect these types of antics from the Weinsteins, we are shocked that a lawyer of Mr. Fields’ caliber would make such false, reckless and intentionally harmful statements to the press,” went a written statement.

Yesterday, Relativity filed a counter-suit, asking a Los Angeles Superior Court to prevent the Weinstein Co. from distributing “The Crow”. Because, basically, Relativity doesn’t think The Weinstein Co. can afford it. And their lawsuit cites the Weinsteins’ handling of “Nine” as support for their case. This of course, incensed Mr. Fields, who called the lawsuit “garbage”.

The lesson, ladies and gentlemen, is that in Hollywood, there are no second chances!

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May 13, 2011 | 9:11 am

Katharine Hepburn: A Hollywood Matriarch

Posted by Danielle Berrin

For months now, I’ve opened my top desk drawer to this half-used collector’s packet of stamps themed “Legends of Hollywood.” Who at the U.S. Post Office gets to decide what constitutes a Hollywood legend I cannot know, but the star I had the option to collect, in stamp form, and probably purchased around Oscar time (because she won the most Best Actress Oscars ever), was Katharine Hepburn.

I cannot tell you how this elevated my bill paying process. It was like wrapping presents to post outgoing mail with this glamorous black and white portrait of Kate, her perfectly coiffed hair and skin glowing in chiaroscuro lighting, and she, looking elegant and beautiful and sophisticated, her head not facing outward but up, as if something higher and in the distance held more allure than the camera before her. Maybe that’s why her performances were so transcendent.

I returned to the post office for my second packet and was informed by the attendant that the Kate series was a limited edition for stamp collectors: “You only get one shot to buy these,” the postal worker said. “They’re sold out and there won’t be any more printed.”

Oh well, I thought, and mustering some enthusiasm declared, “At least now I have some valuable stamps.”

“Not exactly,” said the attendant. “You can’t use any of the stamps for the packet to retain its value.”

Deflated, I settled on the trite Liberty Bell and vowed not to use a single other Kate stamp. I have six left. And even though I can’t recapture the stamps I probably sent to LADWP, Southern California Gas Company and popped on various thank-you notes for extra flair, Kate-the-legend is eternally recapturable on film. Which is an irony, of course, because in the Hollywood present age is like an ulcer, but in the history of Hollywood almost everything is ageless. Cinema gives the gift of immortality.

Which is why, even though she’s been dead since 2003, Turner Classic Movies is celebrating Kate Hepburn’s birthday. The other night I caught their promotional tribute, filled with her most famous film clips and a lovely little narration by Anthony Hopkins, who worked with her on 1968’s A Lion In Winter. What struck me was however daring and progressive Hepburn was then, she remains, by any standard, today.

“If I had manged sons for him instead of all those little girls,” she says as Eleanor of Aquitaine in ‘Winter’, “I’d still be stuck being Queen of France and we should not have known each other. Such my angels, is the role of sex in history.”

Hard to imagine a line like that being uttered today. And what actress has both the fierce sexuality and confident authority to utter it? Hepburn was so authoritative and in control, that even a line that today might come off as corny was said with complete conviction. Here’s one example: “He came down from the north to Paris with a mind like Aristotle’s and a form like mortal sin. We shattered the commandments on the spot.” I’m fairly sure she’s not channeling Moses here, so even if its cheesy, it’s still impressively forward.

Really what Hepburn’s legacy teaches is that it’s a mistake to conflate “classic” with “old”. Everything about her is as fresh and enlightened today as it was then; that she had “no starlike nonsense” as Hopkin’s says, that she was rebellious, that she “bucked the Hollywood system”, that remarkably, she wore pants, and “it just wasn’t done,” Hopkins reminds us.

Unlike so many stars today, Hepburn wasn’t a panderer; she was proud. In one of the clips from the 1952 film Pat and Mike, a man says to her, “You’re not gonna wear those pants, are you?” And without missing a beat, she snaps, “Not pants, they’re slacks. Watch your language.”

Measuring by her status, Hepburn was every bit an insider. But psychologically, according to her manner and her conduct, she stood outside the conventions of the time. In or out, she was always a legend, but much more than a star: a matriarch. 

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May 9, 2011 | 2:41 pm

MTV music staffer Gabriel Ben-Meir shot dead in Mid-Wilshire neighborhood [UPDATED]

Posted by Danielle Berrin

The freakish murder of Gabe Ben-Meir, a 30-year-old MTV music staffer is believed to be linked to a series of robberies in the Mid-Wilshire area and has LAPD officers on the lookout for a possible suspect: a 35-year-old black man with wire-rimmed glasses, gold jewelry and a shotgun.

Ben-Meir was found dead in a pool of his own blood on a Mid-Wilshire sidewalk near his apartment early Sunday morning.

This morning’s lead comes from the Weho Daily who picked up on a police feed and posted the news late last night. The L.A. Times went on to report the story, but LA Weekly’s Simone Wilson aggregated it best with a comprehensive post detailing the mysterious case.

Ben-Meir, a rising creative talent who worked on the music for MTV’s “Parental Control” and “Dudesons in America” as well as “Punk’d” was reportedly shot in the back of the head, ‘execution style’ as several headlines described it, around 1am Sunday morning. Although strangely, his body was not discovered until around 6:30am Sunday morning when a neighbor was out walking his dog. Residents who live near the murder scene—at Packard Street between Stanley and Spaulding Avenues—reported to police that they heard gunshots in the middle of the night, but no one called it in. At this time, there are no reported leads on suspects.

According to the LA Times, Ben-Meir was a resident of the neighborhood and had parked his car and was walking home when he was fatally shot.

Several reports described him as a rising force in the music industry, which seems to run in the family. According to the Hollywood Reporter:

Ben-Meir worked for MTV as a music and production coordinator on such shows as The Hard Times of RJ Berger, Parental Control and Punk’d. He started in the industry as an intern at Geffen Records. His sister, Alexis Ben-Meir, is a well-known figure in the music business who has worked at MCA Records, Suretone Records and is currently at Red Light Management. Their father, Nick Ben-Meir, is a longtime business manager who has represented musicians.

The following KTLA news report talks to some of Ben-Meir’s neighbors who describe their community as close-knit. This sounds a bit odd considering his body lay in a pool of blood for an estimated four or five hours before it was found, in addition to the fact that neighbors reported hearing gunshots without calling the police.
 

If anyone knows Ben-Meir or any details surrounding his death, please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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May 9, 2011 | 9:19 am

Jeff Zucker works through his Napoleon complex at his son’s bar mitzvah

Posted by Danielle Berrin

There are times when Hollywood inspires, enlightens and entertains—and other times when it exemplifies the worst of American culture, often in the form of greed, excess and ostentation.

Jeff Zucker can count himself in the latter camp.

Over the weekend, several tabloids including The New York Post reported that Zucker ‘spared no expense’ for his son’s bar mitzvah, at The Four Seasons of course, where rapper Drake performed, Katie Couric ate rack of lamb, and ipad stations reigned so the 13-year-old darlings wouldn’t miss an opportunity to update their facebook status. The Post estimates Zucker spent $250,000 on the affair, only refusing Kanye West’s $1 million demand to perform. Instead they went with Drake, a Jew, who offered a discount.

Zucker was reportedly given a $40 million exit package to walk away from his post as NBC prexy when Comcast took over last Fall. The network was under-performing and yet Zucker was rewarded anyway. According to the Post, he’s currently working on a syndication show with Couric, so until that goes live he seems to be spending his time spending his money.

But Mr. Zucker, just because you can afford it doesn’t mean you should. In good Jewish fashion, I assume you donated at least 10-percent of the bill to charity?

Read more at The New York Post (if you can stomach it).

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May 8, 2011 | 11:04 am

Rhea Kohan: The Hollywood Mother behind ‘Weeds’ and ‘Will and Grace’

Posted by Danielle Berrin

All In The Family: Jenji Kohan, the creator of "Weeds", David Kohan, the creator of "Will and Grace" and their mother, Rhea Kohan, a novelist.

Sunday afternoon at the Kohan home is one of those classic portraits of familial bliss: Children are screaming, singing and scurrying about, clamoring for attention, eager to play, while the adults assembled in the kitchen are trying to have a coherent conversation. Clearly, a tall order.

“Chris backed up an off ramp!” Jenji Kohan exclaims as she bursts into the kitchen 20 minutes late for the interview, in jeans and a T-shirt, her two sons in tow. “There was an accident in front of us, and we would have literally been on another hour, and so he backed up the off ramp.” Charlie, 11, is ecstatic at his father’s heroics: “My brother and sister were like, ‘Yeah, go Dad!’ ” This being the Kohan household, an ordeal on the freeway is nothing if it begets a good story.

Jenji and Co.’s arrival brings a swirl of energy into the room —Charlie wants to perform his latest magic trick (he’s telepathic), and Oscar, a playful, teasing 5-year-old, is hungry. “Have some cheese and crackers,” his grandmother, Rhea, directs with classic motherly insistence. “Would you like some cereal? Some raisins?”

Jenji and David, Rhea’s two writer offspring (son Jono is a music entrepreneur and day trader) have gathered today at The Journal’s behest to talk about their mother in honor of Mother’s Day. A novelist by profession, among her notable accomplishments is the fact that she managed to raise three well-adjusted, unpretentious children in Beverly Hills.

“Sorry, is this disrupting?” Jenji asks.

Well, yes, but the chaos of different characters all descending upon the family kitchen is where this family’s story begins. And even though the Kohan children — twins Jono and David, 47, and Jenji, 41, are all grown up with sizable homes of their own, their parents’ home is still family ground zero. It is here, amid a blend of California modern and deco interiors, that their talents were incubated and nurtured — the original writers’ room.

In fact, the drama that unfolded within these walls launched four enviable Hollywood careers: Buz Kohan, the family patriarch, is a television writer for variety shows and specials with 13 Emmys to his credit; Rhea is an author of three novels and a screenplay; David is the creator of the eight-season hit sitcom “Will & Grace”; and Jenji is the brain behind Showtime’s wickedly subversive comedy “Weeds.” A mere 10 minutes in their midst and it becomes obvious why so much of David and Jenji’s success flows from family spectacle, literally and creatively: Both modeled their career choice on their parents’ vocation, and both have found endless inspiration filtering their own refracted experience of family and turning it into entertainment.

Read the rest here: No one spits in her kids’ kasha

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May 6, 2011 | 3:14 pm

‘Jews Who Love Cruise’: The Simon Wisenthal Center honors Tom Cruise

Posted by Danielle Berrin

It was a Jews Who Love Cruise love-fest at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s annual entertainment industry dinner honoring Tom Cruise last week. The elephant in the room — Cruise’s high-profile affiliation with the Church of Scientology — proved too big to even joke about.

“I am not a comedian,” the evening’s emcee, the multihyphenate writer-director-producer J.J. Abrams, told the night’s 850 guests. “I am, however, a Jew who loves Tom Cruise — he’s kind, creative, smart, funny, he has a decent pair of teeth …”

And boy did Cruise have reason to flash the pearly whites. For starters, he received the Wiesenthal Center’s highest honor — the Humanitarian Award — presented by Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey, who praised Cruise’s “quiet generosity.”

“For a man who can’t walk down the street without being followed by paparazzi,” Grey began, “Tom has quietly provided funding for exhibits that grace the halls of the Simon Wiesenthal Center that for 18 years have helped fight bigotry and racism.”

In the tribute book, this was Ben Stiller’s ad: “Tom, You Complete Me.” Steven Spielberg wrote, “You make humanitarian missions possible.” And Jimmy Kimmel congratulated him on both his award and his “incomparable eyebrows.”

“I’m proud to be in the Jews-who-love-Cruise fan club,” Grey said, just before announcing that the world’s biggest blockbuster star helped raise $1.4 million for the Wiesenthal Center. Not exactly opening weekend numbers, but at this dinner every seat was sold.

Over the past few weeks, the Cruise award had stirred some debate because of the actor’s ties to Scientology. It was questioned whether Cruise deserved humanitarian kudos at the same time that the institution to which he is most closely linked is under federal investigation for alleged human trafficking. Some challenged the choice in light of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s funky views on the Holocaust (some say he blamed the Holocaust on psychiatrists; others cite teachings that advocate personal responsibility for everything that happens to an individual). And yet others just plain wondered about Cruise’s humanitarian work.

But, at the dinner, none of it mattered. Cruise was among his kin — including wife Katie Holmes and his adopted son with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, Connor Cruise. Cruise’s industry brethren also came to laud him, including CBS President Les Moonves, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, producer Mark Burnett, Creative Artists Agency partner Kevin Huvane and director Brett Ratner. 

“No one deserves this honor tonight more than Tom Cruise,” DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the dinner’s chairs as well as a museum trustee, said during brief remarks.

Yeah, we get it.

Aside from Cruise’s long, silky hair, other evening highlights included the Medal of Valor honors, presented by Wiesenthal Center founder Rabbi Marvin Hier to Peter Bergson, posthumously, for lobbying the Roosevelt administration to rescue Jews during the Holocaust; to Luis Alberto Urzua Iribarren, the foreman and self-styled spiritual leader for the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for 69 days last year; and to Gyongyi Mago, a Catholic high school teacher from Kalocsa, Hungary, who took it upon herself to teach her students about the lost Jewish history of their town.

There was also a brief tribute to the late Elizabeth Taylor, a longtime supporter of the center, who was honored with the museum’s first-ever Humanitarian Award in 1980. A clip of Taylor’s poignant acceptance speech played to a silent room. Then it was back to Cruise.

In his acceptance speech, Cruise told a story, told to him by Hier, about how Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father, begged Simon Wiesenthal to find the man who arrested the Frank family in order to prove Anne’s diary wasn’t fabricated. It was a good choice for Cruise, who through public recognition of the Holocaust could at least shush those who claim he’s a revisionist by dint of his affiliation with Scientology.

“Our challenge, ladies and gentlemen, is to make sure that we do all in our power to see to it that there will be no more Auschwitz/Birkenaus, no more Rwandas, no more Darfurs on our planet,” Cruise said. “That our children and their children may be free to live in a world where men and women are judged by their accomplishments and deeds rather than by their race or religion.”

Some people worried that the Wiesenthal honor would offer unmerited legitimacy to the Church of Scientology, as Cruise is its reigning ambassador. But really, Cruise’s honor affirmed the power of the Jewish community to turn a potential foe into a friend.

In closing, Cruise quoted not Hubbard, but Albert Einstein: “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

Humanitarian or not, the man sure can deliver a speech.

[this is an edited version of an earlier post]

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