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 No, David Zucker, you couldn’t make ‘Airplane!’ today — but why would you want to?
In a lengthy essay published in the New York Post, we learn that filmmaker David Zucker was recently asked an inane question at an anniversary screening of his 1980 film “Airplane!” “Could you make ‘Airplane!’ today?” an audience member asked. Zucker’s response was, “Of course, we could. Just without the jokes.” Really? Is there a…
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Books ‘What she’s doing is anti-translation.’ Why Israeli translators are upset about Rooney’s boycott.
Sally Rooney’s decision to refuse the translation rights of her latest novel to “Israeli-based” publishers has implications not just for BDS, but for the greater dialogue across languages. While Rooney clarified her position to state that she is not boycotting Hebrew, the prospect of a widely-available Hebrew translation not published in Israel seems unlikely. In…
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Fast Forward Sally Rooney clarifies: She’s boycotting Israel, not the Hebrew language.
On Tuesday, celebrated Irish novelist Sally Rooney clarified her stance on Hebrew translations of her new novel “Beautiful World, Where Are You.” “The Hebrew-language translation rights to my new novel are still available,” Rooney wrote in a statement the Forward received from her agent, Tracy Bohan, on Tuesday following reports that she had declined to…
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Culture He read over 27,000 comics — and now he knows everything about the Marvel universe
While Marvel comics are famous for their hyperbole, it’s no exaggeration to refer to them collectively as the “Biggest Story Ever Told.” It’s possible only one man knows the entire tale so far. With over half a million pages over innumerable lines and iterations, the Marvel canon is, per Eisner Award-winning writer Douglas Wolk, “the…
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Culture In Tammy Faye Starlite’s Israeli chanteuse, a remembrance of Judaism — and pop culture — past
It’s unclear what circumstances brought Tamar, the mononymous Israeli chanteuse, to the dining room of Pangea in the East Village this October, but it is her feeling that the venue is quite lucky to have her. “Normally I play great concert halls,” Tamar told the crowd Thursday, “Like Leonard’s of Great Neck.” Decked out with…
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Culture In Russia, a Jewish couple dubbed ‘Spartacus.’ In Israel, they’re doing phone sex and voicing air-raid alerts.
When the Iron Curtain fell and Soviet refuseniks were finally allowed to settle in Israel, many found some novel worries, and some familiar ones, waiting on the other side. While they looked for work, these Jews found themselves navigating a new country and a new language. But, amid the stress of assimilation they still had…
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Culture Sarah Silverman, let’s not use the word ‘Jewface’
Sarah Silverman has once more weighed in on a perennial debate in the world of casting: who gets to play a Jew? It’s a slippery question, and also the name of a parlor game a friend of mine likes to play. Per this friend’s rules, Zachary Levi, a non-Jew who changed his last name from…
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Culture Jon Stewart’s new show is not very funny — it is a mitzvah
The title of Jon Stewart’s new show might have had a double-meaning for almost anyone else. “The Problem with Jon Stewart” sounds like the beginning of a rant by your conservative uncle, or maybe a gripe from a pedantic comedy critic. In its current usage, there is little publicly problematic about the diminutive host, beloved…
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