Actress Jessica Lundy was mostly working TV guest starring roles when she landed the part of Roberta in John Patrick Shanley\’s \”Danny and the Deep Blue Sea\” last month.
Rain Pryor solemnly chants the "Kol Nidre" as the spotlight reveals her silhouette — wearing a hilariously oversized Afro wig.
Rena Sofer always seems to land ethnic roles. As the newest regular on NBC\’s \”Just Shoot Me,\” Sofer plays Vicki Costa, a hairdresser from Brooklyn, whose name is Greek, but whose ethnicity is undefined. It\’s reminiscent of her Emmy-award winning role of Lois Cerullo Ashton, the brassy Italian Brooklynite she played for five years on the soap opera \”General Hospital.\”
She\’s also known for playing journalist Rachel Rose, the stereotypically ideal Jewish woman who goes out with a Reform rabbi (Ben Stiller), in the 2000 film \”Keeping the Faith.\”
When Brad Garrett accepted his best supporting actor Emmy on Sunday, Sept. 22, the irony was thick as a Sicilian pizza — or a deli sandwich. The 6-foot-8-inch Jewish actor plays Ray Romano\’s sullen cop brother, Robert, on the CBS hit \”Everybody Loves Raymond,\” featuring the sitcom world\’s favorite Italian American family. But Garrett (born Gerstenfeld), a rabbi\’s son, drew huge laughs when he joked, \”I just hope that this award breaks down the door for Jewish people who are trying to get into showbusiness.\”
She\’s back, baby — and dare we say it? — she\’s shaggable. In the third go-round of Mike Myers\’ Bond spoof, "Austin Powers in Goldmember,"
Somewhere in the middle of the Israeli import "Late Marriage," a 12-minute sex scene unfolds between the main characters.
Linda Hamilton, the buff action star, is studying Yiddish-language tapes. The image is startling for anyone who remembers her as Sarah Connor, the all-American waitress-turned-warrior in James Cameron\’s \”Terminator\” flicks. It\’s even more startling when you consider that the Yiddish is for a play, Lou Shaw\’s \”Worse Than Murder: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg,\” which opens tomorrow at the Ventura Court Theatre in Studio City. Hamilton plays Ethel Rosenberg, who was strapped into the electric chair in 1953 and executed, along with her husband, for conspiring to pass atomic secrets to the Soviets. Sitting on a faded gold couch in the bland rehearsal space at the Court, the petite, smoky-eyed actress says even she was surprised she accepted the part. \”I\’d sworn off heavy roles since \’Terminator 2\’ because I was just so sick of playing these very earnest, strong women,\” she says. Instead, Hamilton did some acclaimed TV movies, films such as \”Dante\’s Peak\” and a comedy or two.
A month before the release of her new film, \”Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones,\” Natalie Portman tackled a more terrestrial conflict: defending Israel.
In the Weston, Conn., cotillion class she was forced to attend at age 12, Nancy Balbirer learned that girls were expected to wear white gloves, to keep a dance card — and to keep quiet.
\”Why don\’t we f— this audition and I\’ll play you right now for the part?\” she said. \”If I lose, you\’ll never see me again. But if I win, I walk out of here with the script.\”
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