The Schmooze lies at the intersection of high and low culture. Here, the latest developments and trends in Jewish art, books, dance, film, music, media, television and theater are all assimilated into one handy pop culture blog.
The Schmooze
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Israel: Want To Prove You’re The Best For LGBT People? Take Mike Pence To A Gay Club
Vice President Mike Pence is midway through a 35-hour whirlwind tour of Israel. The former Indiana governor has been received by Prime Minister Netanyahu, delivered a speech in the Knesset that included a recitation of the shehechiyanu prayer, and eaten dinner with the Prime Minister. In just a few hours he will meet with President…
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Please Let Me Be Sad About Lena Dunham’s Breakup
Here at the Schmooze, we’re not afraid to get extremely real. Commercial Israeli chocolate is disgusting. Howard Stern is a national disgrace. The premise that Jews are uniquely bad at sports is baseless. (All these are stories we’ve received hate mail for writing about.) But I put off writing about actress and “Girls” creator Lena…
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Scarlett Johansson Calls Out Franco, Time’s Up For Coercive Men
Scarlett Johansson is making headlines for attacking James Franco at the Los Angeles women’s march this weekend. But her decision to focus her speech on the grey areas of sexual misconduct that some see as “bad sex” and others as “sexual assault” is the real news. In a brilliant speech, Johansson raised the level of…
The Latest
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‘It’s About Time’: Ruth Bader Ginsburg On #MeToo
“How dare you? How dare you do this?” Those were Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s words in response to the man who gave her her first ever “#MeToo” moment, requesting a sexual favor in exchange for information about an upcoming exam. He was her professor at Cornell, and she was an undergraduate student. As…
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Aly Raisman Tells Abuse Doctor: ‘You Are Nothing’
Jewish Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman stood in front of her childhood sexual abuser, a courtroom full of onlookers and the world and delivered a clear message. “Abusers,” she said. “Your time is up.” The 23-year-old athlete, who in the past months has become one of the most ferociously outspoken activists against sexual abuse and…
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‘I Love Dick’ Has Been Canceled By Amazon, With Other Shows
Tastes change. Amazon Studios has canceled the Jill Soloway-helmed TV series “I Love Dick” after one season. In what seems an attempt to scrub the studio’s slate clean after the ouster of top executive Roy Price, who resigned in the wake of accusations of sexual harassment, the production company has canceled a slew of shows…
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‘Grace And Frankie,’ ‘The Stowaway’ And More To Read, Watch And Do This Weekend
It’s frigid out; the flu is frightful; the government might shut down; hey, at least books still exist. So too, thankfully, does solidarity: This weekend, thousands are predicted to take to the streets in a first-anniversary replica of last year’s Women’s March. In the moments over the next few days when you’re not shivering, sneezing…
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‘The Gays And Jews Are Over’ In New ‘Heathers’ TV Trailer
In the TV remake of the 1988 cult-classic bildungsromurderous movie “Heathers,” times have changed. In the first trailer for the Paramount Network series, high school is run not by a ruthless squad of preppies but by a threesome that includes a genderqueer student, a black student and a plus-sized ringleader. “Asian kids can be popular…
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Movie News: Woody Allen And Mark Wahlberg Cause Controversy, Gal Gadot Glows
It’s been quite the week for shocking film and television news: A controversial article accusing Aziz Ansari of sexual misconduct elicited dozens of inflamed responses, a scandal over gender pay disparity ripped through Hollywood and, most stunningly of all, “Paddington 2” — which is, in fairness, supposed to be quite good — became the best-reviewed…
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This Is The Dream Cast For The ‘Fire And Fury’ TV Adaptation
“Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump Whitehouse” will be developed into a TV show, it was announced on Wednesday. It would be “unpatriotic,” even bordering on “treasonous,” for us to not speculate about our dream cast. Here are our picks for actors who could portray the wild and wacky characters Wolff dreamed up* in the…
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The Beastie Boys Are Set To Release A Memoir This Year
The world has been waiting for a Beastie Boys memoir since surviving members Mike D and Ad-Rock inked a deal to write one back in 2013. Now we will finally be able to say “Hello, Nasty” to the long awaited memoir. “We’re actually going to finish it, and it’s going to come out finally,” Mike…
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Most Popular
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Fast Forward Tucker Carlson calls for stripping citizenship from Americans who served in the Israeli army
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Opinion This German word explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power
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Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
In Case You Missed It
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Opinion Americans keep getting killed in the West Bank. Here’s how the US could fight that awful trend
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Culture Katz’s Deli is a mecca for food influencers — it kills me to see them butcher its good name
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Film & TV Whoever said ‘you can’t take it with you’ never reckoned with this Jewish patriarch
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Fast Forward Students at Netanyahu’s Pennsylvania high school want him ejected from the alumni hall of fame
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