tagged: celebrities

Jews in the News: Funny and Not So Funny Fantasy

Posted by Nate Bloom in Arts & Culture

Nate Bloom blogs on this week’s Jews in the News

Final Olympics Update

I share information with Jewish Sports Review (JSR) magazine, a print-only publication that is the best source, by far, about who is Jewish in sport from the high school level through the pros. Their policy, re the Olympics, is not to release their info about first-time Olympic athletes to me until that info appears in the pages of the magazine. That issue is now out. Here are the London Games Jewish athletes not mentioned in my prior columns: OLYESA POVH, 24, won a bronze medal as a member of the Ukraine’s 4x100M relay team. Povh recently spoke to an Israeli paper and said she may make aliyah to Israel; BEN PROVISOR, 22, wrestled for the U.S. in the 163-lb. Greco-Roman competition. He won his first match, but then was eliminated; and NICOLE ROSS, 23, U.S. fencer (foil). She lost in the first round.

Pro Football Round-Up, 2012-13

Following is a list of Jewish players in the NFL as of Sept. 20. Jewish Sports Review (JSR) helped me and this list it is far more accurate than other lists that “float” around the web, including one provided by the Jewish Telegraph Agency. Let me say this: a lot of Jewish fans think there’s some cluster of “unknown” Jewish pros. Their “mantra” is to respond to this list with “what about?” and then “chant” the names of players with “Jewish-sounding names”, like Andrew Luck (who isn’t Jewish).  The fact is that by the time players reach the NFL, JSR has run-down virtually every Jewish player. Now and again, a “half Jewish” player, who was raised secular, is “uncovered” after he reaches the pros. Such players number about one every three years.

GREG CAMARILLO, 30, wide receiver, New Orleans. GABE CARIMI, 24, right tackle, Chicago; ANTONIO GARAY, 32, nose tackle, San Diego; ERIK LORIG, 26, fullback, Tampa Bay;  TAYLOR MAYS, 24, strong safety, Cincinnati; ADAM PODLESH, 29, punter, Chicago; GEOFF SCHWARTZ, 26, outside linebacker, Minnesota; and Geoff’s brother, rookie MITCHELL SCHWARTZ, 23, outside tackle, Carolina. (The brothers Schwartz, Carimi, and Podlesh have two Jewish parents; Garay and Mays, who were raised Jewish, and Camarillo, who was raised secular, have Jewish mothers/non-Jewish fathers; Lorig, raised secular, has a Jewish father). Veterans released in the off-season or pre-season: KYLE KOSIER, OG, Dallas; IGOR OLSHANSKY, DE, Miami; and SAGE ROSENFELS, QB, Minnesota.

Footnotes: Brian DeLa Puente, center, New Orleans, has been removed from the JSR list. To be listed, a player must have one “fully” Jewish parent and be raised Jewish or secular. DeLa Puente recently clarified his background: his father isn’t Jewish and his mother’s father wasn’t Jewish. His maternal grandma was Jewish (which makes him a “halachic Jew”). The player considers himself “nothing” in a religious sense. Also: Wikipedia, the on-line user-edited encyclopedia, has “made-up” what JSR says about Adam Goldberg, tackle, MN. Goldberg’s father is Jewish, but he was raised in his mother’s Christian faith. Goldberg’s bio article now says that JSR reported that Goldberg now “considers himself Jewish.” JSR has NEVER reported this.

Funny and Not So Funny Fantasy

The following movies open on Friday, Sept. 28:

The 3-D animated film “Hotel Transylvania” is the first full-length movie directed by GENNDY TARTAKOSKY, 42. He was born in the former Soviet Union. In 1977, he immigrated to the U.S. with his parents (both were professional people fed-up with Soviet anti-Semitism). The family eventually settled in Chicago, where the future-director mostly grew-up.  Two years of college animation classes led to a TV animation job and then a decades-long climb up the “animation ladder” (including being hired by George Lucas to direct the Emmy-winning 2003 mini-series, “Star Wars: Clone Wars”).

The plot: Dracula (ADAM SANDLER, 46) owns a lavish hotel where monsters can live it up without humans bothering them. One weekend, Dracula invites some of the world’s most famous monsters to celebrate the 118^th birthday of Mavis, Frankenstein’s daughter. Then an ordinary guy (ANDY SAMBERG, 34) stumbles on the hotel and takes a shine to Mavis. FRAN DRESCHER, 54, voices Frankenstein’s wife, with JON LOVITZ, 55, as the voice of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, now working as a gourmet hotel chef.

“Looper” is a sci-fi thriller set in the year 2042. The plot: time travel is possible, but illegal and available only to criminals. A gangster gang gets rid of people by sending them to 2012 where Joe (JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, 31), their crack killer, eliminates them. Then the mob decides to “close the loop” by sending the 2042 Joe (Bruce Willis) to 2012, where the young Joe will kill his future self.

Nate Bloom writes a weekly column on Jewish celebrities, broadly defined, that appears in the Atlanta Jewish Times, the Cleveland Jewish News, the American Israelite of Cincinnati, the Detroit Jewish News, and the New Jersey Jewish Standard. It also appears bi-weekly in j., the Jewish news weekly of northern California. Most of the items in Bloom’s weekly newspaper column differ from the items in his bi-weekly column on interfaith celebrities for InterfaithFamily.com. If you wish to contact Nate Bloom, e-mail him at middleoftheroad1@aol.com .  The author welcomes questions and celebrity “tips,” especially about people you personally know.