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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Film & TV ‘Curb’ Director Larry Charles Feared Getting Comfortable, Now He’s Swapping Jokes With ISIS
In many ways, Larry Charles has stuck quite close to his creative associate Larry David. They met as writers on the show “Fridays” in the 1980s, collaborated as writer-producers on “Seinfeld” through the ‘90s and continued their partnership well into the new millennium with Charles’ directing on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” But while David, at least…
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Books Ottessa Moshfegh Fangirled Out At Whoopi Goldberg’s House
Author Ottessa Moshfegh has defied the old warning, “never meet your heroes.” She wasn’t disappointed. Those who’ve read Moshfegh’s second novel, 2018’s “My Year of Rest and Relaxation,” won’t have much trouble guessing who that hero is. Like her book’s unnamed protagonist, who spends a year fettered to her bed self-prescribing medication and binging films…
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Theater A ‘Lolita’ Musical Flopped 50 Years Ago. After #MeToo, Does It Have A Future?
Almost no one wanted to publish Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita.” After multiple rejections, the Russian writer finally managed to place the novel at Olympia Press, a publisher with a reputation for accepting borderline pornographic work, in 1955. While many might have applied those terms to “Lolita,” the narrator of which, Humbert Humbert, is a pedophile, Nabokov…
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Film & TV 30 Years Ago, A Fatwa Against Salman Rushdie Shook The World — And Inspired Larry David
In 2007, on the occasion of his first day teaching literature at Emory University, Salman Rushdie told reporters he receives a “sort of Valentine’s Day card” from the Iranian government each year reminding him the country hasn’t forgotten the bounty it placed on his head in 1989. Today marks the 30th anniversary of Iranian cleric…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of ‘Russian Doll’
Netflix’s “Russian Doll” is a Rorschach of a show. The early press has been hot with takes crowing that the dark and funny series is inseparable from star and co-creator Natasha Lyonne’s history of addiction and AA’s signature 12 steps. Others have posited that the constant respawning of the game-programmer protagonist in the same location,…
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Theater The Folksbiene Has A Hit With ‘Yiddler,’ Here’s How It’s Bringing Back The Hits We’ve Forgotten
Yiddish musicals never had much of a chance to become part of the Great American Songbook. Like so many Jewish cultural developments, the medium was a victim of assimilation in the United States and tragedy in Europe. The works of the Gershwins and of Rodgers and Hammerstein supplanted Yiddish songs as English became the vernacular…
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The Schmooze BAFTA Takes Bryan Singer’s Name Off ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Nomination
“Bohemian Rhapsody” may win a BAFTA, but it looks like the film’s director, Bryan Singer, won’t. The BBC reports that Singer’s nomination has been suspended from the Queen biopic’s bid for Outstanding British Film. The decision is due in part to allegations, including an expose from The Atlantic, of sexual misconduct and statutory rape. Singer…
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Film & TV Jonah Hill Crashes Zabar’s To Direct Vampire Weekend Music Video
The typical crowd at Zabar’s is a far cry from most music video background actors. That didn’t stop Jonah Hill. Shoppers at the Upper West Side staple were confronted with a film crew led by the “22 Jump Street” star Wednesday evening, The West Side Rag reports. Patrons’ reactions to the shoot, apparently for a…
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