Mitch Albom,highly decorated sportswriter for the Detroit Free Press, has probed every subject from Dennis Rodman to Latrell Sprewell. Yet his best-selling book, \”Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man,and Life\’s Great Lessons,\” finds him tackling an even more demanding subject: death.
In a world normally reserved for men, Mimi Lederhas achieved remarkable success. Chosen by Steven Spielberg to direct two of his DreamWorks studio\’s first features, she is making a name for herself as a talented action-entertainment director.
The peace process is stalled, pluralism issues remain unresolved and the Netanyahu government is in turmoil. But organizers of a major, star-studded 50th anniversary tribute to Israel later this year are focusing their attention on celebration, not contention. Indeed, a rare in-gathering of major Hollywood celebrities, Jewish communal officals and organizational leaders has come together to mark Israel\’s first half century.
\”He was a satyr, a black marketeer, a drunk and a savior.\”\nThe pithy description by author Thomas Keneally refers, of course, to Oskar Schindler, the flawed but ultimately heroic German businessman who saved his 1,200 Jewish employees during the Holocaust.
Rachel Rosenthal, her bald pate gleaming withsweat and her stark features grooved like gashes in alabaster, lookslike a female Erich von Stroheim — who, let\’s face it, could himselfhave been a woman in drag. Short, stubby, Teutonic, and with the kindof wracked expression one imagines Rimbaud wore after his season inhell, she could just as easily be the commandant of a Nazi death campas the most senior and compelling Performance Artist inCalifornia.
The list of films for which Elmer Bernstein has written orchestral scores reads like a roll call of cinema\’s all-time classics: \”The Ten Commandments,\” \”The Age of Innocence,\” \”The Magnificent Seven,\” \”Ghostbusters,\” \”To Kill A Mockingbird,\” \”CapeFear,\” \”True Grit,\” \”Animal House,\” \”The Great Escape,\” \”My Left Foot\”…just to name a few.
Last month,the Association of Jewish Libraries announced the winners of its Sydney Taylor Award for this year\’s most distinguished contributions to Jewish children\’s literature.\n
\”I\’m a Jewish girl, and my husband\’s a Catholic,\”says Barbara Lazaroff, who has been married for 15 years to renownedchef Wolfgang Puck.\n\nAbout 12 years ago, Passover was a lonesome timefor Lazaroff, most of whose Jewish relatives lived out of town. SoSpago regulars nudged her to create a restaurant seder, and she consulted withhubby Wolf (\”He said, \’We can make shrimp.\’ I said, \’I don\’t thinkso,\’\” Lazaroff quips).\n\nThe result was the first seder ever held in anupscale Los Angeles eatery, with kosher-style (i.e., not strictlykosher) fare a la Puck\’s trendy-interpretive cuisine.
Makers of short films routinely encounter the difficulty of getting their movies seen by an audience greater than their parents, cast and crew. But the makers of \”Visas and Virtues\”have had better luck than most.
