Did you know this was happening? I feel like I knew this was happening, and I forcibly removed that knowledge from my brain.

But now, the fact has returned— returned with a trailer that proves that yes, there is about to be a TV remake of Dirty Dancing.

Listen, there have been plenty of media take-downs of this thing already, and it doesn’t even premiere for another month. They point out all the obvious problems— that it’s a movie that doesn’t need to be remade, that the songs sure as hell don’t need to be re-recorded, that there was already a terrible sequel, that despite ABC insisting that this movie is going to add some sort of epilogue, it looks practically identical to the original, but worse, etc.

So let me spare you all that and add one additional fear: that this movie is going to be goyishe.

Listen, Jews don’t always need to be played by Jewish actors. And it’s not like this cast is completely Jew-less; Baby’s mom is going to be played by Debra Messing. Abigail Breslin, playing Baby, has a Jewish father, though she doesn’t seem to identify as Jewish. But for the most part, it looks like a poignant look at secular Jewish culture in the Borscht Belt is going to be swapped out for ham-fisted (emphasis on the treyf) messages about race and gender in the 1960s that’s going to erase Baby’s ethnic identity beyond her surname.

The original movie wasn’t full of Yiddish songs and references to Yom Kippur, but it still feels authentically Jewish to Jews— the statements about American Jewry and class and changing tides are subtle but present. Heck, a New York Jewish theatre troupe used the film as a core text of a project they did just a few months ago.

And of course, the most important detail here is Baby herself. Perhaps the producers were thinking that casting Breslin would reflect the original decision to cast an actor who’s not a conventional sex symbol. But that completely misses the fact that what made Jennifer Grey not fit normal beauty norms were her ethnic features— her curly brown hair, her large nose (z”l Jennifer Grey’s nose). Other than Streisand, traditionally-Semitic looking women in Hollywood are far and few between. Baby didn’t need to do or say anything Jewish in the original film— seeing her was enough to raise the spirits of Jewish girls like Baby soaring above Johnny’s head.

At least one executive producer of this film, Eleanor Bergstein, is Jewish. The writer, Jessica Sharzer, is Jewish. So they may prove me wrong! But odds are, this is going to be a bland disaster.

And the worst part about all this is, I’ll probably hate-watch it for the followup article.

Dirty Dancing airs May 24 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on ABC. Hold your children close.

Image via Twitter.

The post We Need to Talk About the ‘Dirty Dancing’ Remake appeared first on Jewcy.

In case you needed another reason to stick out your chin and pull through 2017, here’s a doozy, that is, if you watched sitcoms from 1998-2006 and enjoyed the antics of four New York friends, two of whom are gay men, one of whom is a Jewish woman, and the fourth of which is Megan Mullally.

Yes, the rumors are true. Will & Grace is coming back to TV. Rumors have been circulating ever since the core cast reunited for an election special, but now NBC has confirmed that the original creative team (including Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, because of course the show was created by Jews) will bring us ten new episodes.

“We’re thrilled that one of the smartest, funniest, and most defining comedies in NBC history is coming back,” said NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said, according to Variety. “This groundbreaking series for everything from gay rights to social and political commentary — all disguised as a high-speed train of witty pop culture — is coming back where it belongs.”

And the timing couldn’t be better (well, aside from the fact that Debbie Reynolds, who played the show’s stereotypical Jewish mother, died while talks were still in progress for the revival). Still, despite it being a great sitcom, some of the social politic and approach to LGBT issues— after all, it’s almost exclusively the G, sometimes the L, occasionally the B (usually for a joke) and almost no T, other than some admittedly transphobic jokes. The ten new episodes are really going to have to step up and update the show— and that doesn’t mean adding jokes about Grindr.

And yet, since America seems to be back-stepping these days, maybe we’ve gotten less far away from this show as we would like. For Americans who aren’t willing to watch Transparent, maybe it’s important to have a somewhat more comfort zone-oriented queer-Jewish TV show to watch.

In any case, it’s nice to have a show that knows what to do with Debra Messing. Welcome back to TV, Grace Adler. We look forward to hearing your Jewish references and musical theatre references real soon.

Image from Twitter, via Variety.

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• For his final episode of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain hit up kosher Brooklyn spot Jay & Lloyd’s Deli.

• A Belated mazel tov to Muhammad Ali’s grandson, Jacob Wertheimer, who was bar mitzvahed in Philadelphia in April (Ali was there!).

• Debra Messing has filed from divorce from husband Daniel Zelman.

• SNL alum Andy Samberg has some helpful advice in the event of a zombie apocalypse:

The post Daily Jewce: Another Anti-Internet Rally, Bourdain’s Kosher Finale, and more appeared first on Jewcy.

• Debra Messing’s on and off-screen love interest, Smash co-star Will Chase, met her parents.

• “I feel like my acting is always on the border between creepy and charming”, says Jason Segel, who wants to be creepier.

• So long, Jew Pond.

• Jerusalem, I Love You will feature 10 stories about love in the holy city, one of which will be directed by Footnote’s Joseph Cedar.

The post Daily Jewce: ‘Gypsy’ Film Moving Forward, Joseph Cedar to Direct Part of ‘Jerusalem, I Love You,’ and more appeared first on Jewcy.