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 Does Mark Zuckerberg know what Meta means in Hebrew?
Facebook is dead, long live Meta. But, actually, Meta is dead, too. Let me explain. On Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new name for Facebook to mark its transition to what he calls “the metaverse.” The name, which is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Meta, doesn’t translate well. Unless that’s the point. While the word, now applied to…
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Culture How a notorious Nazi almost got a Hollywood biopic — and why Kubrick refused to direct
Albert Speer, the Nazi architect who built a Cathedral of Light for Hitler and commanded millions of prisoners in the forced production of weaponry, had a comfortable second life. After serving 20 years in prison, Speer became a best-selling author, penning the memoir “Inside The Third Reich.” Naturally, in 1971, he and his publisher were…
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Fast Forward Looks like that Kathryn Hahn Joan Rivers show isn’t happening after all
Joan Rivers’ estate is getting the last laugh. In this week’s “Well boy, we sure got worked up over nothing,” Variety is now reporting that the planned Joan Rivers Showtime series “The Comeback Girl,” the origin of the “Jewface” controversy that launched a thousand think pieces, will not move forward. Looks like the producers didn’t…
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Culture With a new score and new ideas, ‘The Golem’ is a must for your Jewish Halloween
How do you breathe new life into an age-old tale of creation? With a little help from the bassist of The Flaming Lips. On Oct. 28, Jewish arts and culture non-profit Reboot is launching “The Golem Rescored” a digital series that adds a fresh score to the 1920 German Expressionist classic “The Golem: How He…
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Culture Metatron? MarkCo? Betting on Facebook’s new (Jewish) name
Mazel tov, Mr. Zuckerberg, it’s a metaverse! The social media giant Facebook, which has come to include former competitors WhatsApp and Instagram, is planning to change its corporate name to better reflect the wide variety of its offerings, The Verge reported Tuesday. The move is meant to highlight Zuckerberg as the architect of a “metaverse”…
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Culture All the history Mel Brooks will cover in his new ‘History of the World’ (probably)
It’s finally happening. After 40 years, Mel Brooks will give us the long-promised “History of the World Part II.” He has a lot of catching up to do. While Brooks, who will deliver the sequel as a Hulu variety show with the help of Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes and others, teased some segments of the…
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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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