At the official Oscar party March 7 for the Israeli foreign film nominee “Ajami,” the tension between art and politics threatened to overwhelm the night. And rather than celebrate a win for the third consecutive Israeli film to be nominated for an Oscar, private sighs of relief followed the film’s loss to Argentina.
I learned about Jewish spirituality in a yoga class in 1971. I lay prone on the carpeted floor, relaxing after achieving the challenging bridge posture for the first time. I had thought that the pose’s name came from its shape: Lying on my back, I pushed my feet and hands into the floor until the trunk of my body rose in an arc that resembled a bridge. But as I regained equilibrium after the posture, I became uncertain about the name. As I lay there, I had the sense that the pose had enabled me to bridge the breach between the living and the dead, the holy and the profane, the body and the soul. Everything felt profoundly connected. I began to weep, and from my unconscious rose the words of the Shema. I chanted and lingered on the word echad (one). I lay there, my cells tingling, sensing the holy connection between all things. Like Job, I knew God in my flesh.
The body of missing actor Andrew Koenig is believed to have been found. Koenig is known for his performance as Richard Boner, on ABC\’s \”Growing Pains.\” Koenig is the son of Jewish actor Walter Koenig (\”Star Trek\”) whose parents were Russian immigrants.
“Jews are fascinated by anti-Semitism whether they’re victims of it or not,” Ethan Coen said.
Mel Gibson and a Jewish broadcaster sparred over the actor\’s anti-Semitic rant in 2006.
Jackie Mason is a tough customer. The rabbi-turned Borsht Belt comic jokingly gave Ed Sullivan the finger on live TV in 1964, which gained him pariah status in Hollywood for years. Since then the irascible Mason has become as famous for his uber-right-wing politics as he has for his Jewish schtick, irking Democrats, for example, by quipping that President Barack Obama is an “arbiter of change — he changes his story every five minutes.” He feels entitled to use the word schvartze because, as he’s said, “I’m an old Jew. I was raised in a Jewish family where \’schvartze\’ was used. It\’s not a demeaning word and I\’m not going to defend myself.” And he staunchly refuses to turn down his bile — where all things liberal are concerned — either in his video blog, “The Ultimate Jew,” or on stage. On Jan. 20-24, he’ll bring his tenth one-man show, “Jackie Mason: No Holds Barred,” to the Wadsworth Theatre. In advance, the 73-year-old comedian refused a telephone interview with The Journal, but agreed to answer e-mailed questions so that he could ensure his answers would run verbatim.
“My father was a hero of the early Israeli air force — isn’t that an amazing story?” Paul Reubens said recently between rehearsals of “The Pee-wee Herman Show” at Club Nokia.
Late-night television audiences have come to expect zany song-and-dance numbers from Conan O’Brien’s “The Tonight Show,” but the show’s recent Mormon Christmas send-up actually had its roots in an unusual place: an offline brainstorming session among progressive Jewish bloggers.
In Hollywood, a good entrance is paramount. Two weeks before the theatrical release last month of their first feature film, “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” producers Alan and Gabe Polsky threw themselves a coming-out ball.
Steven Spielberg, a man of many talents, revealed a new one when he delivered his own commentary on the meaning of Chanukah Wednesday night.
