A jobbing actor toils in near-obscurity on the stage until two of the top filmmakers of the age choose him as the lead of their next semi-biographical, highly Biblical, ultra-Judaic dark comedy. It sounds like a Hollywood story itself (and, as with all Hollywood stories, is a little exaggerated—said actor had already been recognized for acclaimed turns in the likes of Long Day’s Journey into Night and Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman), but Michael Stuhlbarg is a man who invites cliché: one scene wonder.

Keep an eye on this guy. There are no small parts, only small actors. Everywhere you turn lately, it seems there’s another screen showing Stuhlbarg’s face—expressive, kind, put-upon, dangerous—and with his end-of-year burst of Call Me By Your Name, The Shape of Water, and The Post in quick succession, it seems his star is finally burning brightly.

It has not been an easy road from that initial moment of onstage discovery to the now-omnipresent whispers of Oscar glory, however. Stuhlbarg first reached public consciousness playing the protagonist in the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man (chances are you’ve seen the film already, considering its status as new rite of passage amongst Members of the Tribe, but if not, think the Book of Job meets your Reform aunt’s stories of confirmation).

Stuhlbarg’s harried performance as Larry Gopnik was epiphanic, one moment belligerent, the next wide-eyed with confusion, and always hilarious. (It is even more remarkable when one views archival footage of the actor, who is soft-spoken and considerate, and whose professorial airs make it seem as if he just wandered out of a lecture on Shakespearean verse.) The role garnered praise for Stuhlbarg (and a Golden Globe nomination), but more importantly established an onscreen persona for the actor that, though tweaked from part to part, sustains his body of work as one of the premiere character actors of our time.

Consider the anatomy of a character actor: a face you remember out of the corner of your eye but a name always on the tip of your guy, aka, That Guy; a sub-marquee credit; a whiff of ethnicity; an easy hand for dialogue. If you catalogue a character actor’s moments on screen, you’ll often assemble a Rolodex of quirks and foibles, blemishes and flaws. These are the characters that test our imagination of how far humanity can stretch, and Michael Stuhlbarg is privileged to rank high.

In his next major role, he used every tool in the character actor kit to bring a cool-blooded menace to his portrayal of Jewish gangster Arnold Rothstein on the HBO drama Boardwalk Empire. A vampiric widow’s peak and a pair of endlessly versatile eyebrows—doleful, perturbed, intimidating, aggrieved, judgmental—that should have won their own Emmy? Check.  A habit of smiling toothlessly while dealing threats? Check. A pocketful of quips? Check and check. It was the character’s wit, and Stuhlbarg’s capacity for combining levity with danger, that elevated his portrait from a pale Godfather rip-off. He is a jester, perhaps, but he is no fool.

There is a moment that encapsulates this balance: Rothstein has just finished discussing digestive affairs with his wife at the breakfast table when he receives a call from fellow gangster, Nucky Thompson. Holding the phone to his chest, he pitches a practice “Mr. Thompson,” before settling in for another more authoritative “Mr. Thompson.” The switch from family man to mobster, evident, with just two lines of a dialogue and a comical change of voice.

Since then, Stuhlbarg has mostly made his bones breathing life into biopic bit parts: a U.S. Representative during the debate for Emancipation (Lincoln), a studio boss and mover-and-shaker (Hitchcock), a record producer (Miles Ahead), an agent interested in boosting American standing during the Cold War (Pawn Sacrifice), an Apple inventor (Steve Jobs), and Edward G. Robinson himself (Trumbo). A lesser actor might feel wasted in these roles, but Stuhlbarg invests himself in every scene. Indeed, his dedication to his work is apparent—a recent Chicago Tribune interview noted that the actor sketches profiles of each character he plays, filling notebook after notebook. Yes, even the methodology of his preparation seems gentle—where other actors mail their costars dead pigs or submerge into alternative careers, Stuhlbarg learns to play pool, or perhaps, to the admiration of his Boardwalk Empire cast mates, tie a bow tie, on camera.

The pool-playing came in handy for his supporting part in last year’s Miss Sloane, but it was the bow tie—and a mustache, again, worthy of its own Emmy—that once more valued his skills in FX’s Fargo. Stuhlbarg is Sy Feltz, a shady hand-shaker spiraling, Kafkaesque, through a gauntlet of bad apples until he no longer recognizes his very world. And again, he gives a comedic performance for the ages. It is the flexibility of a stage actor blown up to heights and unafraid to scale the peaks and valleys of human expression. His face—a character actor’s bread and butter—often stands in as punchline. Pathetic comedy is some of the hardest to pull off, and all season Sy was both the comedian and the butt of the joke.  When (spoilers) Sy eventually took his bow with a cup of poisoned tea, Stuhlbarg’s absence was certainly felt.

Transformative and memorable, hard-working and unpretentious, the time is ripe for an actor like Michael Stuhlbarg. For too long has he wandered in the desert, watching from Nebo as his peers claim his prizes—and screen time. Perhaps this year, at last, he will cross into the Promised Land.

Image via Wikimedia

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During her acting heyday, Hedy Lamarr was described as “the most beautiful woman in the world.” The Austria native was well-known in Hollywood in the 1930s for her appearance in the German film Ecstasy, which featured her entirely nude in one memorable scene, and soon became a part of the American movie industry thanks to a contract with Louis B. Mayer. But there’s much more to the inimitable Lamarr than meets the eye, and a new documentary entitled Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story seeks to unmask the true story behind a woman who should be remembered for much more than just her beauty.

Lamarr’s story began in a Jewish home in Vienna. Her early marriage to a rich Austrian man closely connected with both Mussolini and Hitler started her career out in Europe, but she soon fled to Paris and then came to the United States with the promise of an exciting film career. She starred in some memorable movies, to be sure, but her legacy doesn’t compare to the likes of other actresses of the time, and her final film appearance came just twenty years after her Hollywood debut.

The way in which Lamarr was used by the moviemaking industry is particularly disturbing, with stories of how she would be given speed in the morning to wake her up and sleeping pills at night to put her to sleep so that she, like other actresses, could be ready to function at exactly the moments when she was needed to fulfill her contract. Her twenty-five-year relationship with Dr. Max Jacobson, better known as Dr. Feelgood, meant that she was constantly being medicated and rarely able to function as a person normally should, leading her to become a recluse, get arrested for shoplifting, and even sending a stand-in for herself at a divorce hearing (to predictably poor results).

Through all of this, Lamarr was still a pioneer in the area of technological innovation. She was responsible for developing a frequency hopping system designed to combat frequency jamming by the Nazis during World War II, a system that was put to much more use by the United States later on and is attributed as an early inspiration for modern-day tenets such as wi-fi. Much more than just a pretty face, Lamarr was decades ahead of others in the science and technology industry and eager to have her ideas come to fruition.

Lamarr’s Jewishness wasn’t something that she discussed often since it was seen as a black mark on her purity as an actress, and she had also been married to a man considered to be a Nazi sympathizer. This history led many to believe that she was a spy, deliberately sent to sabotage Allied war efforts, when it couldn’t have been further from the truth. Bombshell shows that amongst the many unfair aspects of her life, Lamarr was extremely under-appreciated as a scientist in her time. Even the patent she received for a “Secret Communication System” didn’t give her the rights it should have. Her little-known contribution, only acknowledged many years later, is reminiscent of Alan Turing’s story, brought to life on screen in The Imitation Game a few years ago.

In a fascinating anecdote, this film also shows that Lamarr’s two lives, as scientist and actress, converged in an unexpected way. As she aged, Lamarr had a good deal of plastic surgery and took an active role in telling the surgeons what to do, figuring out innovative ways of continuing to look young. Actresses, both at the time and after, would ask for whatever Lamarr had suggested, showing her influence and the respect people had for her. Lamarr died in 2000, more or less a recluse by the time of her passing at age 85.

This documentary does a superb job detailing Lamarr’s life and uncovering her true personality through interviews with her adult children and with others who interacted with her during her life, including Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Peter Bogdanovich. German-born actress Diane Kruger is also featured, discussing Lamarr as a role model for those who come from Europe to make it in Hollywood. Much of Lamarr’s story features disappointing and unfair developments, and this documentary manages to convey it all in an engaging and, yes, entertaining manner.

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story opens Friday, November, 24, at the IFC Center in New York City, and is slated to screen at a number of Jewish film festivals after that.

Image via Zeitgeist Films

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Today marks 50 years since the premiere of the first Star Trek series that’s still going strong in franchise today. There’s lots of reasons the show boldly went where no other had gone before, from its progressive casting choices, to its heavy influence on the presence of science fiction in popular culture. And of course, Members of the Tribe have been involved every step of the way.

Listen in 50 years and several series, movies, you name it, there have been a lot of actors involved with the franchise of Jewish origin. We don’t have to talk about, say, the fact that Data’s short-lived daughter Lal was played by Hallie Todd, the daughter of the woman who played Fran’s grandmother Yetta on The Nanny.

We’d like to, but let’s keep it simple.

While series creator Gene Roddenberry was probably not Jewish (it’s never been definitively decided), many of the original writers were— like Robert Bloch, Shimon Wincelberg, Don Mankiewicz, Harlan Ellison, Jerry Sohl, and David Gerrold. Many of these writers were great science fiction authors, in a smart move by producers. Sean Penn’s father, Leo, directed an episode (he went over budget, so it was only the one).

As for onscreen work, the two highest-ranking officers in the original series were both played by Jewish actors. Captain James T. Kirk is beloved Canadian Jewish actor, song-stylist, and all-around treasure William Shatner. Spock, you know, the guy with the pointy ears (yes I know he’s half-Vulcan— don’t send me angry emails), was Leonard Nimoy, who not only was Jewish, but was very invested in his identity, even releasing a photographer book about Jewish femininity and the Divine.

By now, you almost certainly know the story: Nimoy came up with the gesture for “Live Long and Prosper” himself— he adapted it from the Jewish priestly gesture of blessing that he encountered as a little boy in synagogue. And now even the president has done it!

Also Jewish in the original series was Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov, the Russian-born character in the main roster (during the Cold War? Gasp!).

Unfortunately, we lost the latest addition to Star Trek’s Jewish legacy earlier this year. In the latest movie reboots (there have been three) Chekov was played by another Jewish actor, Anton Yelchin, who died in a tragic accident in June.

Other Star Trek series also Jewish actors in prominent roles. Brent Spiner, one of the leads from The Next Generation series, played the aforementioned Data, the android who struggles with what it means to be human. Whether or not Data has a soul is one question, but Brent Spiner certainly has a yiddishe neshama.

Or take Worf, the tough Klingon with a heart of gold. No, actor Michael Dom isn’t Jewish, but Worf’s adopted (human) parents, the Rozhenkos, were portrayed by two great Jewish performers: Georgia Brown and the legendary Theodore Bikel. The characters may or may not be Jewish as well; it isn’t explicit, but it’s been suggested.

Wallace Shawn also recurred on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Zek, the Ferengi leader— the Ferengi have been called into question altogether as an alien race based on Jews, but let’s focus on the positive.

The positive is that when you name an incarnation of the Star Trek franchise, there are Jews involved, and that on a whole it’s been a world that argues for compassion, diversity, justice, and the pursuit of knowledge— in our own world and beyond. According to Star Trek, while you may have to deal with, say, a having to fight a lizard man, or combat in a gladiatorial arena, or the occasional loss of a girlfriend to avoid seriously destroying the time stream as we know it, the future still looks utopian compared to today. What’s not to love?

Watch Worf with his maybe-Jewish parents, below, and remember:

Live long and prosper, kinderlach.

Image via Wikipedia.

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Daniel Radcliffe is, as it is said, a precious cinnamon roll. The Jewish actor has done everything, from Harry Potter, to Harry Potter for seven additional movies, to a flatulent semi-sentient corpse in Swiss Army Man. And now, in a bit of a turn, he stars in Imperium, a film about an FBI agent, Nate Foster who goes undercover to infiltrate a white supremacist group, uncovering a terrorist plot.

Is it unsettling watching Radcliffe march with a shaved head? Sure, but his motives never seem called into question; Foster spends most of the trailer repulsed by the very people he’s supposed to befriend, and terrified of exposure.

You can watch the trailer below. It’s actually rather intense, with a lot of suspense crammed into two minutes. The film premieres in limited release, as well as on demand, August 19th.

Image credit: Wikipedia

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There have been multiple heroes to take on the mantle of the Flash, but this one is Barry Allen, the man with super-speed who still can’t catch a break (seriously, he has an entire section of his Wikipedia page entitled “Tragedy“). Playing Allen is Ezra Miller, a Jewish actor with an eccentric persona and beautiful face who is perhaps best known for his roles in We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (congratulations on appearing in a shorter-titled film, Ezra).

Multiple sources invited to visit the Justice League set report witnessing the scene in which we first meet Allen, imbued with a sense of humor who apparently describes himself as a “very attractive Jewish boy.” (His skills, he claims, include web design and playing the viola.)

That’s it. No Holocaust sob story. No forced references to Chanukah. Just a young man whose secret identity is not his Jewishness. It’s unusual, and refreshing, and a step up from Marvel, though there is still the risk the line won’t make the final cut of the film.

Please, producers, editors, whoever has this decision in their hands: Keep the reference.

An interesting note about this decision is that Barry Allen is not a traditionally Jewish superhero (there have been a few theories, but really weak tea). Rather than, say, accentuate Superman’s Jewish metaphor, this franchise is simply adding a Jewish character to its universe, perhaps partially based on casting. Considering neither the director nor writer are Jewish, it’s an interesting choice.

Honestly, this film has the odds stacked against it being good (mostly because of prior DC films/director Zack Snyder’s track record), but at least the combination of diverse casting (including Jason Momoa and Ray Fisher) and multi-ethnic characters looks promising.

Also, Miller won’t be the only Jewish actor in the film; Gal Gadot and Jesse Eisenberg will reprise their respective roles as Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (and Wonder Woman’s solo feature film comes out only a couple of months before Justice League).

So here’s to 2017, and, perhaps, Justice League. You’re only a year away.

Image credit: Nick Step via Flickr

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The Book of Mormon (the musical, not the scripture), opens with young Mormon missionary Elder Kevin Price trying to interest people in the holy Book of Mormon.  If a door-to-door missionary looked like Kevin Price—perfect hair, gleaming smile, all-American good looks—I would let him prattle about Jesus forever. As one of his peers gushes, Price is  the “smartest, best, most deserving Elder the world has ever seen.”

Other charming, put-together missionaries join in. They ring doorbells and sing in perfect harmony, smiling, complimenting houses, and praising their amazing holy book.

Then, the unkempt Elder Cunningham breaks the synchronicity, barging in and shouting: “HELLO WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHANGE RELIGIONS I HAVE A FREE BOOK WRITTEN BY JESUS!!!”

Price and Cunningham are a Mormon Odd Couple, a devoted Golden Boy partnered with a schlubby, loud, and shrill Star Wars nerd. Eventually, Cunningham reveals that he hasn’t even read the Book of Mormon, to Price’s horror. Together, they must go to Uganda to convert as many people to Mormonism as they can.

Andrew Rannells, whom Ben Brantley called a “human Ken doll,” originated the role of Elder Price on Broadway. Josh Gad—the voice of Olaf from Frozen, lest we forget—originated Elder Cunningham. Rannells went to an all-boys Catholic school in Omaha. Gad is Jewish, as was his understudy and eventual replacement Jared Gertner, as was Gertner’s understudy, Jon Bass (I could go on).

In the Chicago tour, the pair was played by Nic Rouleau, another Catholic school alumnus, and Ben Platt, another Jew. Although Platt deviates from the physical formula of previous Cunninghams (“You’re skinny, I’ll say it,” Rouleau says in an interview), he still looks more New York corned beef than Utah cornfield—in other words, visibly Jewish.

Gertner is the only actor to talk at length about how (at that time) every Elder Cunningham had been played by a Jewish person. In an interview with Jewish Journal, he explains, “Maybe if you’re looking for people who are very different from an all-American, uptight, very white, very blond person, then physically you’re going to look for a difference; maybe you’re going to find a Jewish person… And if there’s any Jewish humor in the show, it’s just humor that comes from us, because we actually all are Jewish.”

Sure, Jews are funny, but there are other types of people who look different than, say, Rannells and Rouleau. So why are Jews consistently cast as a Mormon? Is it anti-Semitism? Should we be offended?

Maybe—if the show’s character arcs didn’t end in brilliant subversion.

It turns out Price’s greatest asset in Utah is a liability in Uganda. He’s too full of his faith—and himself—to convince anyone to listen, let alone convert. His preaching of the “blonde-haired, blue-eyed voice of God” is profoundly tone-deaf (meaning “not receptive to his African audience.” Everyone who has played Elder Price sings beautifully). He bravely marches up to a warlord, confident that his faith will protect him. He is wrong.

On the other hand, Elder Cunningham breaks through to the Ugandans, not through strict adherence to the Scripture, but through creativity and adaptation. Unlike Price, he is willing to alter Mormon text to include problems like dysentery and AIDS, which are conspicuously absent from the original teachings. Cunningham starts as the comic relief and sidekick, but his weakness  in Utah—making things up—becomes his strength.

If  the embodiment of Mormonism starts out as a rigid literalist from the American Midwest heck-bent on converting as many people as possible, then clearly his physical—and ideological—opposite would be Jewish, or at least Jewish-coded.

Strangely, show-writers Trey Parker and Robert Lopez are not Jewish. The third writer, Matt Stone, is the exception, having a Jewish mother, though he identifies as Jewish only ethnically, and religiously as secular/agnostic.  Still, the show taps into Judaism’s inherent curiosity and questioning as a contrast to Price’s strict adherence to stories that, by his own admission, sometimes don’t make sense.

Yes, there is the immediate physical contrast of the Mormons’ perfect (usually light) hair and impeccable posture with the slouching Cunningham’s dark, wild Jewfro. There’s also the strong connection of Judaism and humor, as Gertner points out. But more important than the comedy of the mismatched duo is the musical’s message about faith.

At the end, a humbled Elder Price proclaims, “We are all Latter Day Saints, even if we change some things, or break the rules, or have complete doubt that God exists.” His new faith focuses on helping others, not his own personal glory. The conclusion wouldn’t be possible without the culture clash between not just the Americans and the Ugandans, but also between Price and Cunningham. When unquestioning faith fails, Price embraces what Cunningham represents: a fluid, realistic, but still hopeful religion—what Judaism happens to be known for.

That’s not to say that The Book of Mormon is like an inverted Jews for Jesus, trying to stealthily convince Mormons to become Jewish. The Book of Mormon ends with a message that is oddly both agnostic and faith-affirming. As irreverent as The Book of Mormon can be, at its heart is deep respect for whatever belief systems help create kinder, better people.

Image credits: Wikimedia and André-Pierre du Plessis via Flickr.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYcx43AmAyY

Here’s the thing: It gives one great hope that one can be, say, an academic, and be portrayed in a film by Rachel Weisz. This isn’t to denigrate Lipstadt’s appearance or Weisz’s acting abilities; they just really don’t look alike. Still, at least Weisz is actually a Jewish woman portraying a Jewish woman.

This got me thinking: Who plays Jewish women in biopics, and what do they look like? I dove down the worst kind of rabbit hole: Wikipedia.

In a list of biopics (film or TV), Jews don’t tend to come up often; we’re a minority, fine. But (with the exception of Holocaust movies, ugh) Jewish women seem to be a rarity, and have films depicting their lives and accomplishments far less frequently than men. Furthermore, the women more often tend to be “glammed up” with their casting. It’s easier to be an accomplished actor without outlying attractiveness if you’re a man, and this is especially clear in biopics.

Male Jewish real-life folks on screen have a range of portrayals— in recent or prominent films depicting Jewish men, we’ve had Peter Sarsgaard as Stanley Milgram, Vincent D’Onofrio as Abbie Hoffman,Kevin Spacey as Jack Abromoff, and Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman. None of these men (actors or subjects) read immediately as heartthrobs, and none of the actors are Jewish. Or, you can have schlubby-coded Jewish men play these roles (very recently, Jonah Hill has portrayed Michael Finkel and Efraim Diveroli).

Occasionally, you can have heartthrobs portray Jewish characters: take Allen Ginsberg, who’s been portrayed by both James Franco  and Daniel Radcliffe (both of Jewish descent).

So what of the ladies?

It’s so hard to find real Jewish women portrayed on screen, particularly as the leads, and especially if you remove Holocaust victims and Biblical characters (enough Christian-made films about Esther. Please).

Somewhat recent Jewish women on film include:

• Keira Knightley as psychoanalyst Sabina Spielrein— Jon Stewart once aptly said of Knightley that she “acts with cheekbones so improbable they were probably sprinkled with God Dust,” though to be fair, this film also cast Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud, so, an upgrade all around.
  
• Helen Mirren has played Ayn Rand. I’m not even going to touch how ludicrous that is.
  
• An upcoming HBO series about the Madoffs (Bernie is Robert De Niro) has Michelle Pfeiffer as Ruth Madoff.

Note that all of these woman are both Hollywood standards of attractive, and also not Jewish. Once again, there are exceptions; Natalie Portman plays Ruth Bader Ginsburg in an upcoming film, and she’s a Jewish actor. And Gertrude Stein has been played by a range of wonderful actors not cut from the Hollywood glamor mold, both Jewish (like Miriam Margolyes) and Gentile (like Kathy Bates). But honestly, the sample size is too small to get any reliable patterns, which in and of itself is telling.

And so, keep an eye out for my next piece: A list of ideas for Jewish female actresses that could easily star in biopics, and ideas for  who they might portray. We need more examples, period.

In the meantime, please comment below, or tweet Jewcy with your own ideas.  Try to keep both actor and subject of Jewish descent, and if possible, avoid movies about sex symbols,  therefore repeating casting the same three gorgeous Hollywood actors. As in, try to resist casting Mila Kunis as Hedy Lamarr, as great as that might be.

Images via YouTube

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So, we decided to fix that. Here are other fascinating Jewish women ripe for depiction on screen, and ideas for Jewish actors that could easily star in these projects:

1. Clara Lemlich— Ever heard of the New York shirtwaist strike of 1909? It was Lemlich who brought the bubbling conflict to a boil, in an extremely climactic (dare we say cinematic?) speech (in Yiddish!) at a labor meeting that convinced the crowd to strike— a high point in her long career advocating for workers’ rights.

Who should play her: Clara actually has a pretty close resemblance to Hailee Steinfeld, and the Oscar-nominated Actor showed in True Grit that she can play a young person who has been made mature beyond her years from hardship.

Heck, Steinfeld could also play Rose Schneiderman, who coined the phrase “bread and roses,” and was somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum (she had a female partner for much of her life). Gertrude Stein was not the only queer Jewish woman, people!

2. Shulamith Firestone— Firestone’s story has all the makings of a great film, from her transformation from Yeshiva girl to secular artist, to her powerful, sometimes controversial work in the feminist movement, to her struggles with mental illness.

Who should play her: Lola Kirke. Kirke is perhaps less well-known than her sister Jemima (a star of Girls), but she’s had some pretty hefty roles already, including in Gone Girl. Put her in a pair of round glasses and watch her go.

3. Rosalind Franklin— Franklin‘s scientific career was in some ways tragic, partially due to her tragic death at age 37 of cancer, and partially because of her relegation to obscurity despite the hugely important work she did in exploring the molecular structure of DNA (these days, there is even some controversy on whether or not Watson and Crick appropriated her work).

Who should play her: Mara Wilson. You may be going, “Wait, Matilda?” But Wilson has a vibrant (if intentionally indie) career today, as a writer, comedian, and, yes, actor. She’s still got it, and with a convincing British accent, this would be a chance to shine. (Also, she has an amazing Twitter).

4. Doña Gracia Nasi— Remember when the child of Inquisition survivors rose up to become one of the most successful merchants in Renaissance Europe? Remember when she used her fortune to rescue Jews from Portugal, build Jewish communities, and support Jewish scholarship? No? Well, then the time for a biopic is ripe. (She actually appears as a character on a Turkish TV show, but that’s not nearly enough.)

Who should play her: Neve Campbell is of Sephardic heritage, a good age to play Nasi, and has the acting chops. If Campbell can handle the Underwoods on House of Cards, she can handle the Inquisition. Campbell is actually a practicing Catholic, but she identifies ethnically as Jewish, and this would be an interesting twist in playing a woman whose family had once faked a Catholic conversion to survive.

5. Me and all my friends— This is just an excuse to cast Jenny Slate as anyone I know, and maybe anyone you know. I don’t know who’s going to end up famous enough for a filmed account of their life, but Slate is brazenly Jewish enough, funny, has a sensitive side (Obvious Child is amazing) and really feels like a peer. Slate for life.

We conclude with a special shout-out to commenter Greg M., for suggesting:

Like the meet cute Rom Com “Hannah + Martin, The Hannah Arendt Story” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Martin Heidegger, a right-leaning morally ambiguous philosopher and Alison Brie as Hannah Arendt, a foxy student of moral issues. They Kant help themselves from falling in love!

Sign us up.

Images from Wikipedia

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Acclaimed British thespian Sophie Okonedo won the Tony award for best actress in a play last night, for her performance as Ruth Younger in the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun. In a gracious, emotional speech, she thanked producer Scott Rudin, who “somehow had the vision that a Jewish Nigerian Brit could come over the pond and play one of America’s most iconic parts.”

Okonedo, who is a graduate of London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, was born to a Jewish mother and a Nigerian father. She attended a Reform synagogue in London with her Yiddish-speaking grandparents, who were immigrants from Eastern Europe. In 2005, she told the UK’s Daily Mail, “I came across as much racism in the Jewish community as I did outside the Jewish community. No more, no less.”

In 2009, she spoke passionately about her Jewish heritage to the Jewish Journal. “It’s all in my blood,” she said, recalling her grandparents’ Jewish home. “They celebrated all the holidays, and they spoke Yiddish when they didn’t want me to understand the conversation. I feel sad I didn’t learn Yiddish as a child. It’s such a fantastic language, so expressive. And now my grandparents are too old to teach me.”

Her acceptance speech sparked a flurry of interest on Twitter and blogosphere—we learned the news from @JewishTweets, who tweeted “#MazalTov” to Okonedo. And @Dramaturgs wrote, “I don’t know about you, but Sophie Okonedo is my favorite Jewish Nigerian-English Tony winner.”

Watch her acceptance speech here:

http://youtu.be/1Ko46Bf-qls

Image: Entertainment Press / Shutterstock.com

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There hasn’t been a scene as cinematically important as Meg Ryan’s fake orgasm in When Harry Met Sally, right? Wrong. What we could have had was a scene of Rob Reiner’s fake orgasm, which we can all agree would be a profound piece of film. You see, on the first couple of takes, good-ol’ Meg couldn’t get her climax right, so—obviously— Rob Reiner showed her how it’s done, according to Billy Crystal on the Today Show.

“Meg was a little nervous, so the first orgasm … so so,” he said. “The second one was like you’re married 12 years. And then Rob said, ‘I want you to do it this way. Like this.’ And he sat down opposite me — so now it looks like I’m on a date with him or Sebastian Cabot — he has an orgasm that King Kong would be jealous of.

The best part is that the extra, famous for the “I’ll have what she’s having” line, was none other than Estelle Reiner, the director’s mother. Yes, Rob Reiner faked an orgasm in front of his mother.

You’re welcome, world.

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