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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The trailer for War Dogs is out, the new film where Miles Teller and Jonah Hill play, respectively, David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, two twenty-somethings from Miami who became arms dealers during the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

The story is a true one (or Hollywood version of “true”), and Packouz and Diveroli, known as the “stoner arms dealers,” actually met in Yeshiva as kids, and Packouz is the son of a prominent rabbi.

This film is clearly in the new sub-genre of American Hustle or The Wolf of Wall Street of white guys making tons of money in a reprehensible manner and living hedonistic lifestyles, as some kind of post-recession message about the men we love to hate for near-sociopathically exploiting others for their own material gain. And when these men are Jewish, it just makes it that much more embarrassing.

While the trailer makes no mention of the characters’ ethnic identities, the casting speaks for itself. Plus, Hill and Teller replaced original intended stars Jesse Eisenberg and Shia LaBeouf. So, there you go.

War Dogs is out in August, but in the meantime you can watch the new trailer below:

Image Credit: YouTube.com

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If you haven’t heard about Spike Jonze’s newest film, Her, it’s a movie about a lonely man, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who falls in love in the future with a Siri-like operating device with the pretty voice of Scarlett Johansson.

Jonah Hill hosted Saturday Night Live on Saturday and starred in a parody version of Her, titled, Me, where Hill falls in love with his OS who then reveals himself as Michael Cera. The dialogue is hysterical and of course, the pants are super high.

(Photo by Getty)

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Funny guy/serious actor Jonah Hill couldn’t walk into a Best Buy “in character” for fear of recognition, so instead, he decided to prank call the store in the voice of his Wolf of Wall Street character, Donnie.

The 30-year-old actor, whose real surname is “Feldstein,” told Jimmy Fallon that the phone calls proved especially helpful for mastering the voice of his character, because he had to get used to talking with prosthetic teeth while doing a Long Island accent.

Jonah spent “hours” on the phone with various Best Buy employees, and gave a special shout out to his favorite store, the Honolulu, Hawaii Best Buy.

Well, all that prank calling must have paid off, because Jonah is nominated for an Oscar under the category of “Best Supporting Actor,” for his amazing work in the Martin Scorsese directed film.

He was also paid “peanuts” in comparison to his other co-stars. Jonah received $60,000 for the seven-month production; $60,000 is apparently SAG’s minimum wage.

Watch Jonah chat with Fallon about his pranking-prep for the film.

(Photo by Getty)

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Adam Levine, Jewish rock star and reality TV’s bad boy with a heart of gold (see: The Voice), sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and showed us that deep down he’s just a regular guy trying to make it in the biz. That’s why he did that fragrance line.

The article, which calls Levine “at once charming, cocky, self-deprecating, self-aware, funny and grateful,” also reveals a ton about the Maroon 5 frontman. Your degree in Levineology starts here:

1. His childhood best friend—and longtime manager—is Jonah Hill’s brother, Jordan Feldstein (I KNOW, right).

2. His father, Fred Levine, founded clothing store and online retailer M. Fredric.

3. He knows that before he joined reality singing show The Voice as a judge, “the occasional soccer mom probably thought I was a slut.”

4. According to a polling firm, his “likability” has increased by more than 20 percent since he’s been on the show.

5. He was “a total dickhead” in high school.

6. He watches The Daily Show.

7. He briefly attended Five Towns College on Long Island.

8. His first band, Kara’s Flowers, performed on an episode of Beverly Hills, 90201. At the Peach Pit:

(Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for A&M/Octone)

Related: Network Jews: Andrea Zuckerman, the Brainy Girl on Beverly Hills, 90210
Culture Kvetch: Jon Stewart’s Happily Ignorant Jew Routine is Getting Stale

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• According to Lena Dunham, Drake has a crush on Jewish actress Kat Dennings. Could it be beshert? [Vulture]

• You can send Mark Zuckerberg a Facebook message, but it might set you back $100. [Newser]

• What happens when you discover your husband’s great uncle was a Jewish gangster. [Tablet]

• Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger has some restaurant recommendations for you. [Immaculate Infatuation]

• Jonah Hill + Leo DiCaprio = BFF [Page Six]

• Here’s the trailer for Joan Rivers’ latest DVD, Don’t Start With Me:

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In what seems like the next logical step for the stoner comedy rat pack, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and James Franco have dropped the whole playing characters charade and instead just play themselves in This Is the End, Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s bro-pocalypse comedy out next summer. It’s kind of perfect, though, since we get to see Danny McBride make fun of Seth Rogen for The Green Hornet and voice our collective uneasiness about the fact the Jonah Hill is now Academy Award nominee Jonah Hill.

The premise of the movie—something terrible happened last night, the details are hazy and drug-clouded, and now we’ve got to face the consequences—is hardly novel (though to their credit, they’ve added the whole world-is-ending thing), but these guys are funny enough that they can pull off the improv-heavy narrative. Plus, they seem like they’re really friends, which is pretty awesome. Anyone who is friends with Craig Robinson is a friend of mine.

It’s no Sephardic Judd, but let’s be real, nothing is.

Movie: This Is the End
Release Date: June 2013
Stars: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Rihanna (allegedly)
Spoiler alert: Michael Cera’s dead.

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Responding to a Twitter follower who questioned whether the fellow in the picture below, seen rooting for Portugal in the Olympics, might be Judd Apatow, the director offered two simple, beautiful words. “Sephardic Judd,” Apatow tweeted back, both identifying the man and coining the title of what would be his most overtly Jewish (if entirely hypothetical) directorial project yet.

Sephardic Judd would probably star Jason Segel, with the requisite Jonah Hill supporting character and maybe even a Paul Rudd subplot, if we’re lucky. And a lot of circumcision jokes.

“@musicflick: Any reason @juddapatow would be representing Portugal? twitter.com/musicflick/sta…”Sephardic Judd.

— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) August 13, 2012

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• This Santa Claus look-alike was asked to stop agreeing to pose for pictures with children while visiting Disneyworld.

• A look at how the Israeli television series, Prisoners of War, stacks up against its Claire Danes-starring American equivalent, Homeland—and a reminder that the first season of Prisoners of War is available for online viewing on Hulu.

• Israeli designer Yigal Azrouël crafted a trendy baseball tee as part of a high-fashion collaboration between the New York Mets and the CFDA.

• Goop maven Gwyneth Paltrow’s new film is called Blood, Bones & Butter, gulp.

• Gene Wilder had a lot of input on his Willy Wonka costume.

• Akiva Schaffer, the other guy behind SNL Digital Shorts, talks about directing the new Stiller/Vaughn/Hill flick, The Watch. Here’s a very foul-mouthed, definitely NSFW preview:

The post Daily Jewce: ‘Prisoners of War’ vs. ‘Homeland,’ Yigal Azrouël and the Mets appeared first on Jewcy.

While one could argue that all the digital shorts are Jewish due to the heavy involvement of Andy Samberg and his menschy The Lonely Island crew, to tide you over till next season (or at least for the next 20 minutes) here are the top five Jewish digital short guests. While they may not hold a candle to such famed sketches as “Dick in a Box,” “I’m on a Boat,” or even my personal favorite, “Jack Sparrow,” they’re absurdly entertaining.

5. Some strange stuff happens in this trailer/promo/something for a fictional movie starring Paul Rudd and Andy Samberg (there’s some Titanic-style sketching and lots of fake blood). Even if we don’t love, or understand, this short so much, we always love us some Paul Rudd:

4. Pre-Moneyball Jonah Hill starts dating Andy’s dad. Be prepared for some uncomfortable kissing:

3. Natalie Portman has a cameo in the mashup that makes up the 100th short, an ode to her uncharacteristic rap from 2006:

2. There are so many great lines in this Andy Samberg-Adam Levine love song to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “Iran so Far:”

1. No need to explain the brilliance of this interview with Jewcy favorite Drake:

Still want more Samberg? Here’s the Harvard graduation speech he gave yesterday.

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