July 21-27, 2012

By Ryan Torok
Published on July 18, 2012

Mel Brooks' Tony Award-winning musical, based on his 1968 film, comes to the Hollywood Bowl.

Persian Jews break with tradition to break through in Hollywood

By Karmel Melamed
Published on February 22, 2007

Whether it's producing Oscar-winning films, appearing on prime-time network television series or performing stand-up comedy, young Jews of Iranian heritage have been breaking with their community's traditional norms and leaving their imprint on Hollywood.

The Furst Brothers’ Gamble

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on November 20, 2003

When producers Sean and Bryan Furst met Wayne Kramer in 2001, just about everyone had rejected his Las Vegas fable, "The Cooler." The screenplay was a hard sell, "because it defies any specific genre," Bryan Furst said. "It's not a mob flick, it's not a comedy or a love story, but all three together."

It didn't help that the inexperienced Kramer wanted to direct, although that hardly bothered the Fursts. With their eight-year-old production company, Furst Films, Sean, 33, and Bryan, 26, have made a name for themselves by discovering previously unknown talent. In 2000, their Sundance picture, "Everything Put Together," introduced filmmaker Marc Forster, who went on to direct the Oscar-winning "Monster's Ball." "Sean has this incredible, risk-taking entrepreneurial spirit," Forster told Variety, which listed the Fursts among 2003 "producers to watch."

Your Letters

Published on April 30, 2003

I was very disappointed that Tom Teicholz's article, "Hungarians in Hollywood" (April 18), omitted any reference or mention of my late uncle, Joe Pasternak, who was among the most prominent and successful Hollywood movie producers from the 1930s to the late 1960s.

‘Slap’ Happy

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on August 22, 2002

When Melanie Mayron read an early script of the iconic yuppie angst-fest "thirtysomething" in 1987, she rushed to the telephone. The series' creators had portrayed her character, Melissa, as Jewish, fat and troubled. But the famously redheaded actress didn't want any of that. She'd already been a recurring character on another show about a food-obsessed Jewish chick, the 1970s sitcom, "Rhoda." And she was tired of the cliché.

The Ongoing Dream

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on May 23, 2002

Producers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson are sitting behind twin prefab desks in their spare Los Angeles office, looking like the Odd Couple.

The Show Must Go On

By Michael Aushenker
Published on April 18, 2002

On the surface, it could have been any other Hollywood industry event: legendary producer Mike Medavoy and actress-director-producer Penny Marshall received awards before the festival-opening movie screening at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Business as usual in Hollywood.