Oscar night is almost upon us, and there is considerable talk (and pride) about three of the chief contenders — Halle Berry, Will Smith and Denzel Washington — all of whom are black. But don\’t be fooled: Hollywood and the film industry is still primarily a Jewish story, no matter who deserves and carts off the evening\’s prizes.
Michael Bender and Mia Kirschner admit there\’s no Jewish archetype in Joel Gallen\’s \”Not Another Teen Movie\” — a \”nasty and frequently hilarious assault on 20 years\’ worth of youth pictures,\” according to The New York Times. \”The \’Jewish kid\’ isn\’t really a character that\’s consistently come up in teen movies,\” says Bender, one of the writers and co-producers of the comedy which does to teen movies what \”Scary Movie\” did to the horror genre. Maybe that\’s why the football team in the film\’s fictional John Hughes High is called the Wasps, suggests Kirschner, who plays the school\’s \”Cruelest Girl\” (a spoof of the film, \”Cruel Intentions\”).
My worst Passover was my first in Los Angeles, more than half a lifetime ago. I had nowhere to go the first night, and the second night, a college friend took me to an institutional seder that was so sterile and faceless that I went home early and, paraphrasing Scarlett O\’Hara, vowed, \”As God is my witness, I\’ll never go without a seder again.\”
My 25th wedding anniversary iscoming up fast. Wish me luck.
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