After numerous complaints about the hit PBS show “Downton Abbey” not having any Jewish characters, Downton makers Carnival Films has confirmed it is developing a similar show with a Jewish family, U.K.’s Jewish Chronicle reports.
MTV is searching for a Jewish mama’s boy for an episode of \”True Life.\”
An artist who recently appeared on Palestinian Authority TV described one of his paintings that featured an ogre—wearing a skullcap with the Star of David—killing children on a bayonet before eating them, Palestinian Media Watch reported.
It’s hard to tell, what with the requisite girdles, supervised weigh-ins and protocol panty hose (“not too dark; this isn’t a cabaret”), that the 1960s world depicted in “Pan Am” is supposed to be about the era’s most worldly women.
One of Italy\’s most prominent Jewish figures is at the center of the latest round of scandals surrounding Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Journalist, author and TV personality Gad Lerner, host of a popular late-night Italian TV talk show called \”The Infidel\” on the independent La7 channel, was berated live on air by the premier earlier this week. Late Monday night, a furious Berlusconi called in to the show and let loose a barrage of insults against Lerner and the program, which had centered on Berlusconi\’s allegedly improper relations with underage women. He blasted the show as \”a disgusting program with vile, obscene, repugnant presentation. A bawdy-house.”
“I hate lying,” Jon Lovitz, the comedian, actor and comedy club owner, said without a touch of humor in his voice. “I just can’t stand it. I don’t see the advantage of it. It makes me physically ill.” It’s the reason, he said, that he has become something of a specialist in portraying characters who are truth-challenged, or, in his words, “sleazy.” He was Tommy Flanagan, president of Pathological Liars Anonymous, on “Saturday Night Live”; the guy on “Seinfeld” who fibs about having cancer, then dies in a car crash; a loudmouth baseball scout who steals scenes from Tom Hanks in “A League of Their Own”; the voice of an obnoxious movie reviewer in the animated series “The Critic”; and the father, in the film “Rat Race,” who tells his family they are on a minivan “vacation” when he is actually trying to win $2 million in a cross-country dash.
David Hosley thinks a scene in which a group of devious Jews slash the throat of a young boy in a ritual slaughter to cull his blood for Passover matzah is not the type of thing that should be shown on television. Yitzhak Santis thinks it\’s exactly what we should be seeing.
Here, then, are 10 memorable TV b\’nai mitzvah, moving over the years from well-meaning, almost saccharine reverence for ritual to critical, even scathing send-ups.
During a recent interview, Michael Showalter at times seemed as socially uncomfortable as the character he plays in his frothy new comedy, \”The Baxter,\” an ode to the romantically challenged.\n\nAlthough casually dressed in jeans and a blue knitted shirt, he spoke formally and sat rigidly in his chair in the lobby of Le Meridien hotel. He squeezed the black straw that came with his iced coffee, pulverizing it into a lump. He rubbed his temples and placed a hand on his chest, sighing deeply.\n\n\”If I\’m coming across awkwardly,\” he said, \”I guess my \’Baxterness\’ is coming out.\”\n\nThe 35-year-old single Jewish actor-writer-director invented the word, \”Baxter,\” to refer to the character who never gets the girl in romantic comedies. He is the guy who has few social graces, two left feet, and not a clue of how to deliver the witty repartee that comes so effortlessly to, say, Cary Grant.\n\nThink John Howard\’s character in \”The Philadelphia Story,\” Woody Allen in \”Crimes and Misdemeanors\” and Albert Brooks in \”Broadcast News.\”
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