Cinema suddenly seems preoccupied with male midlife crises (\”Winter Solstice,\” \”In Good Company\”) and actor Peter Riegert joins the trend with his comic directorial debut feature, \”King of the Corner.\”
Elaine Romero experienced \”a cool fusion of art and life\” when she wrote the play \”Secret Things.\”
The play tells the story of Delia, a Latino journalist, who goes to New Mexico to investigate the origins of an anonymous package she received postmarked from there containing articles about Crypto-Jews (that is, descendants of the \”Marrano\” Jews of the Spanish Inquisition, who openly practiced Catholicism but conducted Jewish rituals in secret to escape persecution). In New Mexico, Delia finds herself mysteriously drawn to the world of Crypto-Jews, and reluctantly comes to terms with her own Crypto-Jewish roots.
When Romero, also a Latino, was writing the play, the same thing happened.
Actor and Yiddish-language true believer Theodore Bikel grew up in prewar Europe, with German as his first language and Yiddish a quick second, partly due to his father reading his family Sholom Aleichem stories every Tuesday night.
Yvan Attal huddles on a velvet couch in a corner of the cavernous Chateau Marmont lobby, a study in nervous energy. The Israeli-born French actor-director, who is charming if energetic, furrows his brow and runs his fingers through his tousled black hair. It\’s not hard to believe that one of his film idols is Woody Allen (\”I identify with his neuroses\”) or that he makes films that serve as personal therapy.\n\nConsider his new dark comedy, the frenetically paced \”Happily Ever After,\” which explores his midlife crisis. He got the idea in 2003 when he dropped his son off at preschool and noticed most of the other parents were divorced.\n\n\”I began thinking about my own life and the choices I have made, and they felt enormous and scary,\” he said.
Meet Eric Schwartz, the 29-year-old actor, rapper and musician known to his fans as Smooth E. Think a combination of the satire of Weird Al Yankovich with hip rap persona, sort of Eminem with a Woody Allen smirk. He does both straight-ahead rap and parodies of well-known rap tunes, often with a Jewish twist, though he\’s also willing to get R-rated as the mood strikes him.
\”The Godfather\’s\” Michael Corleone has taken a crack at Shylock. Oscar-winner Al Pacino — always a daring actor — steps into the shoes of Shakespeare\’s notorious moneylender in the latest big-screen version of the Bard\’s classic, \”The Merchant of Venice.\”
Born-again Christian youth pastor Shari Putney is standing at the top of a stairway outside a theater in Hollywood presiding over a group of young adults, decked out in a sequined, pale-blue mother-of-the-bride dress and a huge diamond cross.
The first thing one notices about Theodore Bikel is the voice.\n\nAs he settles on a divan in his book-filled West Hollywood apartment, chatting about his upcoming 80th birthday gala, it\’s not so much his strapping frame, white beard or sharp blue eyes that make an impression as his voice.\n\nThis is the resonant baritone that has sung countless folk music concerts, recorded 27 albums in 21 languages and performed in approximately 35 films. This is the actor who has appeared more than 2,000 times as the milkman Tevye in \”Fiddler on the Roof,\” besides playing Captain Von Trapp in Broadway\’s \”The Sound of Music\” and opposite Bogie in the film, \”The African Queen.\”
\”If you\’re a pretty good actor and live long enough, you can play any role,\” said Len Lesser, sitting on a worn couch just after finishing an evening performance at A Noise Within in Glendale.
Josh Schwartz has been having trouble sleeping. Ever since his new show, "The O.C.," began airing on FOX this summer, he\’s faced insomnia Tuesday nights, anxiously awaiting the public\’s response to each new episode.
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