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.

Like choosing between your grandmother and grandfather, here at the end of Jewish Celebrity March Madness, we asked you to choose between Mel Brooks and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Some of you were certain of your path. Some made your choice begrudgingly, tears in your eyes. Some of you even refused to vote when faced with such a difficult choice.  It’s understandable, but there can only be one winner this year.  And so, we present to you… your champion:

That’s right, after extremely strong leads every other round of the competition, the Notorious R.B.G. kept it going when it mattered most.  All hail your victor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg: SCOTUS judge, feminist icon, Bubby. Notorious.

The post Your Jewish Celeb March Madness WINNER! appeared first on Jewcy.

We’ve been through a lot over the past few weeks with Jewish Celebrity March Madness. We’ve seen underdogs rise and titans fall. Just last round we had to bid goodbye to both Natalie Portman and Bette Midler.

But now, the most difficult choice is upon us.

In this, our sixth and final round, we ask you to choose between two kickass native Brooklynites: Mel Brooks, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

So get out there and tell everyone you know why your pick should be our reigning 2017 Jewish Celebrity champion.

Polls close tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 4th, just before midnight.

Plus, if you want to know the winner before we make the results public, sign up for our email list. Learn the truth. Taunt your friends with your inside knowledge:

Let’s do this:

Images via Wikimedia

The post Jewish Celeb March Madness: THE FINALS! 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.

We here at Jewcy would like to introduce you to a new feature we call: “Did you know this famous Jewish person has attractive progeny?”

We would like to launch this important series with the tale of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Feminist hero, Judicial Solomon, and fashion icon. And, now, it turns out, the grandmother of your new Jewish crush.

Meet Paul Spera, son of Ginsburg’s daughter Jane, a law professor. Spera is about 30 years old (it seems he graduated Yale in 2008). He was born in Paris, and raised bilingual in New York. These days, he lives in France where he has been working as an actor (he studied both French and theatre in college—swoon!).

Spera’s latest project is elsewhere in Europe: a production of The Merchant of Venice. This special series of performances through early August is actually staged in the Jewish ghetto, commemorating the 500th anniversary of its creation. Spera plays Lorenzo, a non-Jewish man who elopes with Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, who converts to Christianity. His grandmother not only travelled to Italy to see the show, but presided over a mock trial of Shylock accompanying a performance July 27th.

Spera does not describe himself as a practicing Jew (and his father isn’t Jewish), but describes his bonds with the Jewish “religion or ethnicity” as being connected to his sense of family. This sense of family, it would seem, includes calling his grandmother by the Yiddish word, Bubbe!

One more adorable parting factoid: When Paul was about 6, and his grandmother was going through the confirmation process for SCOTUS, he wrote her a book called My Grandma is Very, Very Special, which included a map of the U.S. that he illustrated. Aw!

We look forward to watching Spera’s career advance, and seeing Ginsburg continue to dominate the courts.

Image via “The Merchant in Venice“

The post The Notorious RBG’s Grandson is a Total Babe 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.

Goddess knows, we don’t need another reason to love Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but sister just keeps dropping wisdom all over the place, and—as president of the Notorious R.B.G. fangirl club—it’s my duty to report the latest. In a talk at Georgetown University on Wednesday, the 82-year-old Supreme Court Justice described her early days in the law, when it “was not a welcoming profession for women.”

“In those days, in the Southern District, most judges wouldn’t hire women. In the U.S. attorney’s office, women were strictly forbidden in the Criminal Division,” she explained. “And the excuse for not hiring women in the Criminal Division was they have to deal with all these tough types, and women aren’t up to that. And I was amazed. I said, ‘Have you seen the lawyers at legal aid who are representing these tough types? They are women.'”

Another gem: people often ask R.B.G. when it will be “enough”—i.e. when will there be enough women on the Supreme Court. Her answer? “When there are nine.”

Yes, yes, YES. This is delicious, right? But wait, there’s more! When asked what talent she would choose if she could have any talent in the world, Ginsburg responded: “I would be a great diva.”

To which we all say, in unison: You are a great diva, R.B.G. (And you sure as hell have mastered the art of the mic drop.)

(Image: Portrait by Simmie Knox, under commission of the United States Supreme Court)

Related: Halloween is OVER, Ruth Baby Ginsburg Has Killed It
Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Share Personal Trainer, Mutual Admiration

The post Ruth Bader Ginsburg: There Will Be “Enough Women” on the Court When There Are Nine appeared first on Jewcy.

Barack Obama embraced Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as he entered the House of Representatives to give the State of the Union address last night, and the internet (OK, the Huffington Post) subsequently went bananas, describing it as “The Best Hug in the History of Liberal America.” I don’t know about that, but it did look like a pretty tight squeeze. And I certainly wouldn’t turn down a cuddle with the Notorious RBG, who was looking fine in black crocheted gloves, vintage-y looking red earrings, and an elaborate beaded necklace. Can we just take a moment to appreciate her sartorial prowess, in addition to her brilliant intellect and intimidating professional achievements? Yes? [bows head] <moment> 

Ginsburg then appeared to fall asleep for a bit in the middle, but you know what? When you’re an 81-year-old feminist trailblazing judge who sleeps four hours a night and fights the good fight for Americans daily, you get to do whatever. you. want. in the President’s State of the Union address. And that includes taking a nap.

This has been your bi-monthly Ruth Bader Ginsburg fangirl update. We’ll see you in March.

(Image: Getty)

Related: Halloween is OVER, Ruth Baby Ginsburg Has Killed It
Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Share Personal Trainer, Mutual Admiration

The post Ruth Bader Ginsburg Looks Fierce at State of the Union Address, Hugs Obama appeared first on Jewcy.

Speaking at an event at 92Y in New York City on Sunday night, Ruth Bader Ginsburg made a supreme confession: she has “quite a large supply” of those ‘Notorious R.B.G.’ tees (for which we can thank the eponymous Tumblr page), which she gives out as party favors to departing brunch guests.

Here’s what transpired during R.B.G.’s chat with NPR’s Nina Totenberg. Come for the kvelling about the grandchildren, stay for the bit at the end where she nods like the boss that she is.

Totenberg: On a somewhat lighter note, I want to ask you about the Notorious RBG t-shirt. [Applause, Cheers]. I gather there are some people here who’ve worn them. I wear mine on the weekends all the time. And people will occasionally—The guy at the drug store said to me last weekend, he said, who is that woman, she looks very familiar, but who is she? I said she’s a supreme court justice. He said, oh good, I’ve learned something today. So how did you find out about the notorious RBG t-shirts.

Ginsburg: I think a law clerk told me about this tumblr and also explained to me what Notorious RBG was a parody on. And now my grandchildren love it and I try to keep abreast of the latest that’s on the tumblr. I have—and in fact I think I gave you a Notorious RBG—

Totenberg: Two of my three. I bought one.

Ginsburg: I have quite a large supply.

Totenberg: Do you have the one—what’s the one ‘you can’t have truth without Ruth’”

Ginsburg: Without Ruth. [nods] [h/t Time]

(Image: Portrait by Simmie Knox, under commission of the United States Supreme Court)

Related: Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Share Personal Trainer, Mutual Admiration

The post Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has “Quite a Large Supply” of Those Notorious R.B.G. T-Shirts appeared first on Jewcy.