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| Tuesday, March 30, 2004 |
Super Seinfeld
 Heebs Barry Levinson and Jerry Seinfeld have teamed up with Superman (yes, that one) and American Express to make mini-movies featuring Seinfeld and the Man of Steel hanging out on the streets of New York City. The hilarious shorts can be watched online at jerry.americanexpress.com. In other Seinfeld news, the comedian spilled the beans about a potential new show with NBC about family life. Seinfeld, who is turning 50 next mnth, has a wife and two kids. So, maybe this show will be about something.
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| Monday, March 29, 2004 |
The definition of chutzpah
Lea Fastow, the wife of accused former Enron head Andy Fastow, asked the judge in her tax fraud case to postpone her setencing -- because the date fell on Passover. The judge told her to suck it up.
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Sunday! Sunday?
The Pope believes that Sunday should be for God and not the gridiron. Every major sports league in the world had no comment.
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'Passion' inspires
A Norwegian neo-Nazi has confessed to two bombings a decade ago after a pang of repentance triggered by watching Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of the Christ. It was at least the second confession sparked by Gibson's film, which has been criticized for graphic violence. A Texan man admitted last week, after seeing the movie, to murdering a 19-year-old woman who was pregnant with his child. That's not all the movie is inspiring. The film has sparked anti-Semtic incidents around the globe including in France and Denver.
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Religious redux
Dogville director Lars von Trier talks about finding out that his dad was a Roman Catholic classical musician and Text goes herenot a Jewish communist academic in the new issue of Newsweek. "Can you imagine? That you are part of a plan that a bitch had -- to contrive your creation and then destroy your life? Who does that to a child?" he told the magazine. Um, somebody's got issues.
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| Sunday, March 28, 2004 |
Survivor challenge
Ten years after Jerry Seinfeld got caught necking during Schindler’s List, reverence for the Holocaust still makes Larry David squirm. Read Stephen Vider's essay at Nextbook.org.
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| Friday, March 26, 2004 |
Novel idea
Entertainment Weekly reports that member of the tribe Ben Stiller is working on a dramatic screenplay based on the 1941 novel entitled What Makes Sammy Run? about the rise of a ruthless Jewish Hollywood mogul. It's sensitive topic has many studios scared to make the film, but word now comes that Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks are negotiating making the film. Stiller's dad Jerry (most famous for playing George Costanza's dad on Seinfeld) told the magazine that he worries that the film may cause anti-Semitism. "I worry about that, I do," he said. "How can you like that character? It could be very inflammatory at this time, when Jewish people seem to be on the firing line."
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Polley posits
Actress Sarah Polley on why her zombie flick, Dawn of the Dead, beat out Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ at the box office. "It makes sense that we beat 'em out," she says. "I mean, we've got more people rising from the dead. They've got one. We've got thousands."
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Cruise control
Tom Cruise has split with Penelope Cruz and his publicist says it has nothing to do with his religion.
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| Thursday, March 25, 2004 |
Courtney the Christ killer?
Embattled rocker Courtney Love is upset that she's being blamed for so many things these days. Her incredulous response? "Am I the one that killed Jesus too? I'm part Jewish."
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| Wednesday, March 24, 2004 |
Kerry's Kike Konnection
A little known Czech historian believes the presidential candidate John Kerry is a descendant of the famous Maharal of Prague, the 16th century Talmudic scholar, kabbalist, and philosopher. Does this mean Kerry's now lost the self-hating Jewish vote?
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This is your brain on drugs
Prince Asiel Ben Israel, Whitney Houston's spiritual advisor, says that the pop singer’s drug problem is the result of living a high-pressure celebrity life. In related news, two plus two equals four.
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Brian's resurrection
 Attempting to jump on the Passion bandwagon, the producers of Monty Python's Life of Brian will be re-releasing the film in April in select cities. The 1979 film is a biblical satire is a controversial film about a Jewish guy from Nazareth who is worshiped as the Messiah and crucified by the Romans. What, no Holy Grail re-release?
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| Tuesday, March 23, 2004 |
Rebel rabbi
Jewish motorcyle clubs are nothing new (Chai Riders, Star of Davidson, etc.), but a South Florida group is going one step further. The King David Bikers are seeking a motorcycle riding rabbi. "It would be great to start every ride with a little prayer, a blessing and some meaningful message," says the group's founder Jeff Mustard, who rides a 1600 cc Yamaha Road Star. "What could be better than combining things you love -- riding, a little religious message and something to eat?"
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Daily dose continues
Comedy Central has brains. They just signed Jon Stewart to host The Daily Show for another four years. "A lot of people like to get out when their show’s still going well," Stewart said. "This gives me the opportunity to beat this thing into the ground."
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Stop wine-ing
MSNBC offers up their list of the best Passover wines where, among other things, they debunk myths about kosher wine. "The idea that kosher wines have a particular 'kosher taste' is nonsense," says Anthony Dias Blue, wine and spirits editor at Bon Appetit. And, despite popular belief that to make a wine kosher all you have to do is "dump a cup of sugar into it," kosher wine need not be sweet. Could've fooled us.
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Write makes might
Literary wonder Joseph Skibell has received the Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Fiction 2003 from the Texas Institute of Letters for his Jewish angst novel The English Disease.
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| Monday, March 22, 2004 |
I'll be back ... in Israel
Continuing his "Just-because-my-dad-was-a-Nazi-doesn't-mean-I'm-anti-Semtic" campaign promise, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will travel to Israel in May to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's for Human Dignity - Tolerance Museum in Jerusalem. Man, is it re-election time already?
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Hanks' holiday
 Tom Hanks needs to get himself a Hebrew calendar. He told a reporter that working on his new film with the Coen brothers was a breeze. "It's very calm and there's no panicking that goes on," Hanks says of the Jewish directors. "I must say sometimes the production office was so quiet when I came in, I wondered, 'Is there a Jewish holiday or something?'"
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'Dead' beat up Jesus
Jesus is not the only dead guy making it big at the movies. After spending three weeks atop the box office list, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was finally unsetaed this week by ... the Dawn of the Dead, a campy remake of a 1979 horror classic. Who would've thought?
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Ashton gets heady
In Time Out New York magazine (Feb 10), actor Ashton Kutcher reveals his penchant for yarmulkes: "Most of the energy that we receive comes in through our head, much like the heat in our body comes out of our head. So the only way to achieve enlightenment is to restrict that. You wonder why Jewish people wear a yarmulke? That's why. I'm not even Jewish, but I'm telling you man, it's gotta be working in some way because there's no reason why I should be in the position I am now."
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| Thursday, March 18, 2004 |
Spielberg refuses blood money
Out promoting the 10th anniversary DVD release of Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg told Katie Couric on the Today show that he didn't take any of the profits from the film. "It is blood money. Let's call it what it is," he said. "I didn't take a single dollar from the profits I received from Schindler's List because I did consider it blood money. When I first decided to make Schindler's List I said, if this movie makes any profit, it can't go to me or my family, it has to go out into the world and that's what we try to do here at the Shoah Foundation. We try to teach the facts of the past to prevent another Holocaust in the future." And then he gave Couric a Hebrew lesson. "We have a thing, we say in Hebrew, tikkun olam which means, the world always needs fixing and we as Jews, we as all people, have a responsibility to help fix things when they're broken and I think Schindler's List and the Shoah Foundation does exactly that." Wonder is Mel Gibson will be taking the phenomenal profits of his Passion and doing the same thing.
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| Wednesday, March 17, 2004 |
The Passion of the Maccabees
In a radio interview with WABC's Sean Hannity, director Mel Gibson said he wants to make a movie about the story of Chanukah. The story that's always fired my imagination ... is the Book of Maccabees," Gibson said. "The Maccabees family stood up, and they made war, they stuck by their guns, and they came out winning. It's like a Western." When Abe Foxman, the head of the Anti Defamation League and a virulent opponent of Gisbon, heard the news, he quipped: "My answer would be 'Thanks but no thanks.’ The last thing we need in Jewish history is to convert our history into a Western. In his hands we may wind up losing," he joked.
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A hard pill to swallow
A Madison, Wisconsin pharmacist refused to fill a woman's birth control prescription because of his religious beliefs. Believe it or not, the law allows for such actions by pharmacists. But he got in trouble when he then refused to even transfer the prescription to a more liberal pharmacy.
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Fight for peace
Mike Tyson, he of ear-biting fame, says he wants to stage a "Peace in the Middle East" boxing bout at Tel Aviv's Ramat-Gan soccer stadium. The former heavyweight champ made the comments while performing 100 hours of community service arising from a disorderly conduct conviction.
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Jesus' European vacation
Jim Caviezel, who portrays Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson's film, has been traversing around Europe promoting the movie. Two highlights this week: Caviezel, a devout Catholic actor, actually got to meet the Pope. And now the actor is telling London newspapers that he told J.Lo to keep her clothes on. While taping a sex scene during the filming of Angel Eyes, Caviezel told the diva to keep her bra and knickers on. Note to Janet Jackson: Stay away from Caviezel.
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| Tuesday, March 16, 2004 |
Adam ... and Eve?
 Reality television is getting some religion. NBC debuted its latest installment of Average Joe this week with the return of audience favorite Adam Mesh. The 28-year-old self-made millionaire is looking for love and his Jewish mother may be happy to hear that one of the girls that's courting him is Jennifer Lifshitz, the daughter of a Chicago rabbi. We're surprised JDate hasn't bought commercial time during the show.
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Paris invasion
It's not news that Paris Hilton has been sporting a red Kabbalah bracelet for the last several months, but she's now upped her Jewish mysticism quotient by seeking solace in the study of Kabbalah after the death of her grandmother last week. She's been seen going to Kabbalah classes on both coasts. As for the grandmother, the funeral mass was held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills.
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| Monday, March 15, 2004 |
Welcome to the tribe
 How did we miss this story? Apparently, Today Show host Katie Couric came out of the religious closet recently by announcing that she is Jewish. She said that even though she was raised an Episcopalian, her mother was Jewish. So, yes, the Jews do control the media.
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Cell block
Israel's Mossad may be the spy agency respected round the world, but it still can't find the guy who stole the boss' cell phone.
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From 'Yentl' to 'Focker'
Barbra Streisand may be a lot of things to a lot of people, but one thing she'll be to movie audiences this December is Rebbetzin Focker. She'll play Ben Stiller's mom alongside Dustin Hoffman in the upcoming sequel to Meet the Parents entitled Meet the Fockers.
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Costume ball
Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie attended a masked Purim ball at the L.A. Kabbalah Center. She dressed up as a French courtier and he was dressed as a Viking. Also in attendance were Demi Moore and Ahston Kutcher -- dressed in baby costumes and drinking out of a baby bottle. Somewhere, Queen Esther is rolling in her grave.
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| Thursday, March 11, 2004 |
Making radio waves
 After moe than a year of planning, Chicago Jewish philanthropists Anita and Sheldon Drobny are launching Air America Radio, the liberal answer to the onsluaght of conservative talk radio. Jewish satirist Al Franken, who has always been at odds with conservative giant Bill O'Reilly, will lead off the programming with his aptly titled show "The O'Franken Factor".
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Jesus was a kike
 The Jewschool blog is selling a new t-shirt sporting Jesus with a yarmulke. The caption? Jesus was a kike.
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Joining Jesus' bandwagon
In light of the phenomenal success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, CBS announced that they will re-show a Jesus mini-series that originally aired on the network in 2000. And this time instead of airing all four hours, CBS has said that they will just air the second half of the film which deals with the crucifixion. Do you really think people will watch now that they already know the ending?
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| Tuesday, March 09, 2004 |
Miss America Cites Queen Esther As Her Inspiration
 As an African-American woman competing on the pageant circuit, 2004 Miss America Ericka Dunlap counted among her early inspirations Queen Esther -- the Jewish hero who saved her people from an oppressive tyrant by proclaiming her faith publicly.
"Queen Esther was one of the driving forces behind my success," said Dunlap. "Being connected to Queen Esther has always been a very special thing to me." I dunno. Forgive me for being cynical, but somehow I find this all very hard to believe. Suuuure Queen Esther's your hero and suuure you're not just saying that because you're addressing a Jewish audience.
Then again, she's not running for President, so, well...I guess anything's possible.
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Comic genius
Harvey Pekar, the Jewish cult comic book hero and inspiration for the acclaimed film American Splendor, has agreed to write three graphic novels for Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, Inc. Nebby Jews everywhere just had an orgasm.
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The eyes have it
Historical inaccuracies aside, it seems Gibson's The Passion of the Christ has many more errors in it. According to MovieMistkaes.com, there are plenty of glaring errors -- including this one: While Mary is holding Jesus after he dies, you can see him blink a few times. Maybe that was just the prelude to the resurrection.
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Fiddler or freak show?
Olek Mincer, a 46-year-old Jewish Polish actor, is happy he chose to star as part of the angry mob that kills Jesus in The Passion of the Christ. "I gave up the role of a Russian boy, Fiedka, in an Italian version of 'Fiddler on the Roof’ to play the Jew Nicodemus in Mel Gibson’s version of the Gospels," he said.
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I'm not fat
 You no longer need to turn on Nick at Nite to watch Facts of Life star Mindy Cohn (aka Natalie, the fat one). She now co-stars as a Maggie the Cook in the new WB sitcom The Help with fellow Heeb Tori Spelling. The show, which airs on Friday nights after services, is about a rich family and their hired help.
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Gang banger
 Jamie-Lynn DiScala (formerly Siegler), who plays mob boss Tony Soprano's daughter, said it took a brave man to make her marry out of her faith. "I dated one celebrity during the third season and he didn't treat me very well," Jamie-Lynn tells FHM. "Tony Sirico [a mob guy on the Sopranos] knew who I was dating and he honestly wanted to find this guy and kill him." Siegler, who married her manager A.J. Discala last year, is currently promoting her new made-for-TV film Going Down: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss.
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| Thursday, March 04, 2004 |
Phone home
Steven Spielberg, who will be releasing Schindler's List on DVD next week, says he has yet to see the controversial Gibson film The Passion of the Christ. But when he does, he plans on calling Gibson directly. "When I do see the film, the first person who will hear from me will be Mel Gibson and no one else," says Spielberg.
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Baptism by auto
From Salon.com: "A Connecticut woman, perhaps attempting to baptize herself, drove her car into the water at a local park. When officers reached her she told them she wanted to reenact a scene from the movie "The Passion of the Christ," which she had seen recently."
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Publishing bonanza
Due to the success of cultural phenomenons The Da Vinci Code and The Passion of the Christ, it seems Christian-themed books are just jumping off shelves. Somewhere, in a corner office in Artscroll, someone is figuring out a way to take advantage of the trend.
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Passion already on DVD
A Pennsylvania man was stopped for a traffic violation and when the cops searched his car they found ... drumroll please ... found more than 1,500 bootleg compact discs, DVDs and videocassettes, including a couple dozen copies of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. How ironic for someone to break the law with a film that promotes the ethical teachings of Jesus Christ.
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Toon time
A Polish Catholic studio plans a 45-minute animated film version based on the poetry of Pope John Paul II. So this is what the definition of esoteric looks like.
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Madonna making pilgrimage to Israel
Kabbalah devotee Madonna is set to perform at Israel’s historical King Solomon's Mine this summer as part of a world tour. News reports say that she has also scheduled a special concert in the archaeological remains of Timna National Park, north of Eilat, in the Red Sea Desert. As well, we can assume she'll stop by the Western Wall for the typical celeb photo-op and will certainly make her way to Tzfat, the kabbalah capital of the world.
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I want my Arab TV
An Arab television channel said it was temporarily pulling the plug on its Arabic version of the hit reality show Big Brother after charges of indecency. In the Arab version of the hit (?) show, separate living and sleeping quarters for male and female participants have been introduced, as well as a prayer room. Protestors were complaining the show was un-Islamic. Mel Gibson's rep could not be reached for comment. Oh wait ... that's a different story.
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Queer makeover
 NBC announced that it has signed television personality and Jewish fashion maven Isaac Mizrahi to an overall development deal. Gay Jews everywhere are celebrating.
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Sein of the times
The cast of Seinfeld has finally settled their dispute over potential earnings from the planned release of the sitcom on DVD. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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Gibson's celebrity cheerleaders
It seems that despite the better efforts of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the Hollywood community is standing behind Mel Gibson. MSNBC.com reports on several celebs who are lending moral support to the Passion director including Lara Flynn Boyle, Sandra Bullock, Donald Trump, Angie Harmon, Paul Sorvino, Hillary Swank, Chad Lowe, and Jewish Hollywood legends producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Kirk Douglas. Jon Voight, it seems, was one of the few celebs who si speaking out against the film. "I'm not happy with it," he said. "I have been to Israel and am very supportive of Jewish concerns. I have seen the movie and I don’t think it was fair." When asked if he thought the film was anti-Semitic, Voight replied, "I think I just answered that question."
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| Monday, March 01, 2004 |
The anti-Passion
 Hoping to capitalize on the public's fascination for all things Jesus, the ABC network will be airing a made-for-television film called Judas about Jesus' disciple-turned-betrayer. The show, which will air on Monday, March 8, has yet to have the profound benefit of an ADL screening.
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Locusts coming. Seal your windows.
As Passover draws near, the liklihood of a locust attack ala the ten plagues is picking up steam. Seriously. In a warning issued by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, they claim a locust outbreak is "in progress on the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia where swarms are forming."
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Church music
In the Scientology is stranger than Judaism department, a new CD is being released this week based on a much maligned off-Broadway staging of "A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant". The Church of Scientology was not too happy with the spoof, in which little kids portray famous scientologists like Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
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French toast
Amid fears that it would cause more anti-Semitism, The Passion of the Christ may not make it to France. "There's enough anti-Semitic stuff circulating here already without us throwing oil on the fire," said one industry insider. Nice meatphor, you Nazi lovin' bastard.
UPDATE: French-based Quinta Communications has picked up the film and will be distrubuting it there.
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O father, where art thou?
The Showtime Network has greenlit a made-for-cable-tv movie about the sex scandals in the Catholic Church. The movie, entitled Our Fathers, will be based on a book about the church scandal written by Newsweek's David France. Man, it seems you can't look anywhere these days without seeing some Christian movie.
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Controversial fashion company 
Jewish pop duo 
More than six years after it was 
Jewish geeks unite! Thanks to the guys over at the 