PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
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Culture Absolutely every anti-Semitic thing Mel Gibson has ever said
That we know of
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Culture ‘The Politician,’ season two: A voice of a generation without a voice of his own
Season two of Netflix’s “The Politician” belongs, like a Ralph Lauren cologne ad or a Nancy Meyers film, to the culturally confused yet well-worn aesthetic of WASPy Jewishness. And somehow, even after all the decades of Jews having country clubs and garden parties of their own, it still feels transgressive. As Payton Hobart (Ben Platt),…
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Culture To Bruce Springsteen, the Jewish writer of ‘Strange Fruit’ was the ‘Bob Dylan of his time’
To quote the bard Adam Sandler, “Bruce Springsteen’s isn’t Jewish, but my mother thinks he is.” When the Boss sat down with New York Times columnist (and debatable Jew) David Brooks to assemble a playlist for this moment of racial justice protests and social distancing, he picked two songs that were written by an oft-forgotten…
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Culture With ‘oven dodger’ comments coming home to roost, Mel Gibson runs afowl of ‘Chicken Run 2’
Mel Gibson’s clay chicken is cooked and no longer kosher. The actor and filmmaker, who made news this week for allegedly calling actress Winona Ryder an “oven dodger” in 1995, will not be asked reprise his role of Rocky in the sequel to Aardman Animation’s “Chicken Run” two sources with knowledge of the film told…
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Culture ‘Batman Forever’ and Brat Pack director Joel Schumacher dies at 80
Joel Schumacher had style. His was an edgy, campy, critically divisive panache somehow both ahead of its time and regressive. It was the open-shirted vampire chic of “The Lost Boys” and the lamentable “Bat nipples” of “Batman & Robin.” The filmmaker, who died Monday at the age of 80 after a yearlong battle with cancer,…
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Culture What John Bolton’s tell-all tells us
Vladimir Putin digs Bibi Netanyahu. Jared Kushner screens Netanyahu’s calls. Donald Trump thinks that Chinese concentration camps are the right move and would support an Israeli strike on Iran. These are some of the insights in John Bolton’s long-awaited memoir “The Room Where It Happened,” out today from Simon & Schuster. He’s not holding much…
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Culture What Michael – yes Michael – Bolton’s book tells us about Trump and Ukraine
Author’s note: On Tuesday, June 23, Simon & Schuster will release John Bolton’s tell-all, “The Room Where It Happened.” Since the book first made headlines in January for what it had to say about Trump’s dealings with the Ukraine, its content has been a regular source of speculation and exclusive excerpts. The Trump administration was…
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Culture Trump’s Tulsa rant makes a lousy adult alternative song — Josh Radnor shows us why
Bob Dylan isn’t the only Jew who can sing longform ballads about presidential tragedies. “How I Met Your Mother” star Josh Radnor has set President Trump’s protracted monologue about his careful descent of a ramp at West Point to music. By the musician’s own admission, the speech is pretty bad lyrically. I set Trump’s insane…
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