Finally! The Natalie Portman-led Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic that has been stalling in development hell for years is finally going to start filming in September.

There’s just one problem— Portman’s not in it anymore.

…

Jewcy is on a summer residency! To read this piece, and our others for July and August 2017, go to our big sister site, Tablet Magazine!

The post The De-Jewification of Ruth Bader Ginsburg appeared first on Jewcy.

After three rounds with some really close competitions, Round 4 was almost entirely landslides! Andy Samberg, Gal Gadot, and Steven Spielberg all did really well up to this point, but you wouldn’t know it from how hard they fell.

The only person who came even close to their opponent and lost this round was Daveed Diggs. Let’s raise a glass to the rising star.

And so, our remaining Top 4 are now all the heaviest of hitters: Mel “The Man” Brooks, Natalie “Natch” Portman, Bette “Beat You” Midler, and the Notorious RBG (OK, that last nickname is real).

Who will win? Who will lose? Who’s the best at singing the blues (OK, probably Midler, but still)? We need your help to decide.

(For your consideration, after polls we’ve added some relevant clips of the nominees being great.)

New subscribers to our email list will know who’s going to the finals before we announce the results:

You know the drill by now. Vote, and you have until Sunday, April 2nd, at 10 p.m. And the next day, THE FINALS BEGIN.

YOUR FINAL PICK FROM THE “ACTORS” SIDE:

YOUR FINAL PICK FROM THE “OTHERS” SIDE:

Image via Wikimedia.

The post Jewish Celeb Madness: YOUR TOP 4 appeared first on Jewcy.

Round 3 of this bizarre tourney was harsh and unforgiving, like a 19th century schoolmaster before some Anne Shirley-type waltzes in and gently points out that you don’t need to strike children for them to learn in a classroom environment.

Anyway, what we mean to say is, Scarlett Johansson is gone. As is Daniel Radcliffe, Mayim Bialk, Lenny Kravitz, Rachel Bloom, Aly Raisman, Rachel Platten, and Mark Zuckerberg. A moment of respect for our fallen heroes…

OK, time to regroup. We’re voting to turn out remaining 8 into a Fab Four. That’s right; this is the quarterfinals. The competition is getting tighter. Choose wisely.

New subscribers to our email list will get the results of this round before we post Round 5:

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!

Voting ends this Thursday night, March 30th, at 8 p.m. And you can still tweet us with why you think your fave deserves to go all the way to number 1!  For example here are a couple of reader arguments for (and against) two of our top competitors:

RBG is 84 but could beat up anyone else on that list. Also, she is basically standing between us and the apocalypse. She should win this award and also every other award.— Ayelet Parness

Mel Brooks will win. As great and awesome and Jewish as Ruth BG is, Mel Brooks’s career has done more for the culture, people, heritage, and world than any judge could hope to accomplish in a lifetime. — Dov Alpert

So how are you voting?

THE ACTORS:

THE MUSICIANS (For the last time!):

THE OTHERS:

The post Jewish Celeb Mishegas: ROUND 4, OR THE TOP 8! appeared first on Jewcy.

In ongoing “2017 isn’t as bad as it could possibly be, but let’s spit everywhere to not tempt the Evil Eye about it” news, Andrew Garfield is nominated for an Academy Award for the very first time!

The Jewish actor is nominated for playing a religious Seventh-day Adventist pacifist turned WWII hero in Hacksaw Ridge (the kid has played a lot of Christians this year). Unfortunately, also nominated for an Academy Award is the film’s director, Mel Gibson. But remember, Andrew Garfield says working with a notorious anti-Semite as a Jew was totally fine.

Garfield’s odds of winning are rather low (his competitors include Denzel Washington and Casey Affleck, the latter of whom took home the Golden Globe for Best Actor this year). But still, Mazel Tov to Andrew! It’s no small achievement, and at 33, he’s got plenty of career ahead of him (*insert more superstitious spitting here*).

Coincidentally, Garfield’s ex-girlfriend Emma Stone is nominated for Best Actress this year, but the two are on good terms, so it probably isn’t weird. Up against Stone is Natalie Portman, nominated for Jackie, but she already has an Oscar, so whatever.

Finally, while it’s going to be a shame to see Lin-Manuel possibly miss the final letter of his EGOT this year, if he loses, it will almost certainly be to a songwriting team that includes Benj Pasek, a Member of the Tribe.

Good luck to all the Jewish (and not Jewish) nominees! The Oscars air on Sunday, February 26.

Image: Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge. Via IM GLOBAL.

The post Andrew Garfield is Nominated for an Oscar! appeared first on Jewcy.

Fans of Natalie Portman who proudly count her among the Jewish people likely know that she was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Long Island. Though she previously played a Hasidic Orthodox woman about to be married in one of the segments of New York, I Love You, she has rarely tapped her Jewish background in her cinematic career. The thirty-five-year-old actress is inarguably successful, starring in the first of the Star Wars prequels at age eighteen and winning an Oscar just eleven years later for her magnetic performance as a ballerina losing her grip on reality in “Black Swan.”

Now, Portman has proven that she can act across a variety of genres, and she seems ready to step into new roles both in front of and behind the camera. After helming a segment of New York, I Love You (not the one in which she starred) she makes her feature film debut as director with A Tale of Love and Darkness. This adaptation of Amos Oz’s nonfiction novel finds Portman and the rest of her cast speaking only in Hebrew, and this depiction of early Israel from one of its foremost writers is sure to receive plenty of attention thanks to the prominence of its proudly Jewish and Israeli director-writer-star.

For those unaware of who Amos Oz is in real life or why it might seem appealing as a film subject, this film offers no clarification. There’s no explanation of little Amos’s later career as a writer, or that he’ll one day turn his childhood memories into a book. But even if you know the greater context, A Tale of Love and Darkness opens as an alluring and intriguing look at an old man recounting his childhood in British Mandatory Palestine with a particular focus on his mother, Fania (Portman), who struggled to adjust to normal daily life after a harrowing escape from extermination in Europe during the Holocaust. Though details of Oz’s later career might be helpful, this film instead ensures that its story is engaging enough in its own right.

Where Portman’s film succeeds wildly is in capturing the mood of the times. The birth of the State of Israel isn’t about religion; little about faith or being Jewish is even discussed. Rather, it’s about a sense of freedom, but a highly tentative one for Fania, Oz, and his father, Arieh (Gilad Kahana), wrought with tension. One memorable scene finds Oz joyfully playing with the daughter of Arieh’s Arab colleague and having the moment ruined entirely by an unfortunate accident that demonstrates the large gap between their cultures. Only a short time later, Arieh celebrates with tears in his eyes when a United Nations vote passes for the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab.

That feeling of joy and achievement doesn’t last long, however. The film is full of potent observations on what it was like for the Oz family to live, and in Amos’s case grow up, in Palestine as it became Israel. One poignant moment expresses the roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict aptly: two peoples so persecuted should have become friends, yet the Palestinians saw the Israelis as yet another European conqueror and the Israelis saw the Palestinians as anti-Semites who were essentially bringing back lingering Nazi sentiments. How could either side be expected to see eye to eye with the other with that pretext?

Portman’s film shouldn’t be considered a political movie, even though it does deal with politicized events. What Portman has done is taken an autobiography and turned it into a narrative, one shaped around a character that she embodies and plays well. Portman is skilled at digging deep into the minds and souls of troubled yet powerful women, and her performance here is strong. Her impressive Israeli accent (she honed it especially for this project) doesn’t hurt either. Kahana complements her well as her eager, excitable husband, not the muscular pioneer she dreamed of, but a hard worker committing to providing her and Amos with a fulfilling life. And young Amir Tessler, who portrays Oz, is a particularly revelatory find, demonstrating exceptional depth and maturity as the writer-to-be.

There is much in the way of social commentary to be found in A Tale of Love and Darkness, perhaps even more than anything political. This is a sign that Portman has a promising career ahead of her in many aspects of the film industry, and a triumphant and exciting intersection of Israeli cinema and American stardom at the same time.

A Tale of Love and Darkness is out in limited release on Friday, August 19. You can watch a clip here on Jewcy.

Image credit: Still from A Tale of Love and Darkness

The post Jewcy Review: ‘A Tale of Love and Darkness’ appeared first on Jewcy.

You’ve come to the right place!

Portman makes her directorial debut in the film that’s been about a decade in the making: A Tale of Love and Darkness. The movie is an adaptation of Amos Oz’s 2002 autobiographical novel about coming of age as British-Mandate Palestine transitioned into early-Israel, and his relationship with his family and his history.

Portman also stars as Amos’s mother, Fania, who ultimately committed suicide. The film is in Hebrew, with English subtitles.

The film isn’t out in the U.S. yet (it did play Cannes), but you can watch a never-before-seen clip below. It involves intense discussion about borscht, academia, and awkward family dynamics. What’s not to like?

The film is out in limited release on August 19th (which is Tu B’Av, so there’s your “love” in “Love and Darkness”).

The post An Exclusive Clip From ‘A Tale of Love and Darkness’ appeared first on Jewcy.

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

The post Jewish Women in Biopics? Part 1 appeared first on Jewcy.

Ah, the holidays! It’s that time of year when your crazy great-uncle gets even crazier, and, prompted by your annual—and only—encounter for the dreaded extended-family Hanukkah party, adds you to his “informative” (read: conspiratorial) “newsletter” (read: email chain). This is basically what happened to Natalie Portman, as revealed by the epic Sony email leak and Gawker. Celebrities: they’re just like us (with their dumb, spammy inboxes)!

Somehow the Portman’s email address was added to the most bizarre forwarding chain of all time, featuring Russell Simmons, producer Ryan Kavanaugh, SodaStream rep Scarlett Johansson, and—most bizarrely—Ryan Seacrest. Topics covered included Israel, the war in Gaza (“Is it really over?), the Holocaust (“Hollacast”), and the importance of acknowledging the suffering of Palestinians in one’s “messaging.”

At one point a restrained Portman magnanimously writes to Kavanaugh: “you should not be copying me publicly so that 20 people i don’t know have my personal info. i will have to change my email address now.” To which Kavanaugh responds: “You are right jews being slaughtered for their beliefs and cannes members calling for the boycott of anything Israel or Jewish is much much less important then your email address being shared with 20 of our peers who are trying to make a difference. my deepest apologies.”

(Guess he missed that time when Portman condemned designer John Galliano for anti-Semitic remarks.)

Finally, fed up—and now without hope of ever being removed from the Worst Email Chain of All Time—Portman emails Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton: “How did I get on this list? Also Ryan Seacrest?”

Read the full story here.

More: Natalie Portman’s Husband Converting to Judaism

(Image: Natalie Portman is quietly judging you for your sub-par email etiquette.)

The post Natalie Portman’s Reaction to This Crazy Email Chain is Perfect appeared first on Jewcy.

Israeli-born Natalie Portman, French husband Benjamin Millipied, and their 2-year-old son, Aleph, are currently in Israel while Portman works on her directorial debut, a film adaptation of Amos Oz’s classic A Tale of Love and Darkness.

While there, Millipied, a dancer and choreographer, has announced his plan to convert to Judaism. In a recent interview he said he feels very connected to Israel, and that becoming Jewish is very important to him.

He also is ready to just be a Jew already! Millipied is “in the middle of the conversion process.” He added that he hopes that the conversion process will “come to an end soon and I will become a Jew.”

We welcome you to the tribe, Benjamin!

(Photo by Getty)

The post Natalie Portman’s Husband Converting to Judaism appeared first on Jewcy.

Whether or not you think Zach Braff’s Kickstarter campaign last April was a bit bogus for an actor of his stature, I am pleased to report that we will be seeing him back on the big screen in the near future. Thanks to crowdfunding support from his adoring fans, Braff completed the rest of his film, and it’s now headed to debut at the Sundance Film Festival.

Braff emailed his backers (he reached his goal of $2,000,000) on Wednesday to announce that the film would debut at the highly acclaimed festival:

“”It is quite an honor,” he wrote. “It means so much to me to premiere this film at the very same festival where I premiered Garden State exactly 10 years ago.”

Wish I Was Here, co-written by Zach and his brother Adam, tells the story of a struggling actor married with children, still trying to find purpose in his life. The star studded cast includes Kate Hudson, Mandy Patinkin, and of course, his main bro, Donald Faison.

Best part? Even if you didn’t donate to his campaign, you can still follow Braff’s every Wish I Was Here move by joining the production community! Braff posted a message on the film’s new website, where he will add his videos, playlists, and photos from the set.

Now the only question is…Team Kate or Team Natalie? We shall see how the on-screen chemistry compares.

The post Zach Braff’s ‘Wish I Was Here’ to Debut at Sundance appeared first on Jewcy.