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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Winona Ryder: Actress, 90s Icon, Constitutional Scholar?
Winona Ryder has recently come back into the spotlight after something of a hiatus from show business, blowing audiences away with her performance as frantic but determined mother Joyce Byers in the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” As part of her re-emergence, Ryder (born Winona Horowitz) gave an interview to New York Magazine’s Heather Havrilesky, in…
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Mel Gibson Tells Glenn Beck: Jews Stole My Jesus Film in Smear Campaign
Is Mel Gibson still blaming his problems on the Jews? That seems to be what Glenn Beck said last week on his radio show — and what a staffer wrote in a post on the conservative talk radio host’s website. Beck said Gibson told him the “Jewish People” had stolen his movie “The Passion of…
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WATCH: The First Clip From Woody Allen’s New Amazon TV Series
“Life doesn’t imitate art,” Woody Allen said in “Husbands and Wives,” “it imitates bad television.” Come September 30th, when the writer, director, and actor’s series “Crisis in Six Scenes” is released on Amazon video, audiences will have their first chance to see how he handles that much-maligned format. The news that Allen was creating a…
The Latest
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MazelTov: Jeremy Piven Becomes A Man — Again — On Trip to Israel
Jeremy Piven is a bar mitzvah boy — again. Last week, at a private ceremony overlooking the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Piven — star of “Entourage” and “Mr. Selfridge” — celebrated his second bar mitzvah, surrounded by his friends Omri Casspi and Amar’e Stoudemire. He posted a picture to his Instagram account, writing, “Today I…
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WATCH: Five Revealing Takeaways from New “Transparent” Trailer
Amazon just released a trailer for the hotly anticipated third season of “Transparent,” and fans can rest assured that there’s still plenty of complex family dysfunction to go around. The dramedy, which nabbed ten Emmy nods for its second season, will return on September 23rd complete with some serious life changes for the Pfefferman’s. Here…
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You’re Probably Mispronouncing Barbra Streisand’s Name
Entertainment icon Barbra Streisand is full of surprises. In a recent interview with the New York Times the Jewish singer revealed some fascinating facts, such as how to really pronounce her name and the eerie thing that Judy Garland told her just years before her death. We compiled the most surprising and interesting information from…
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How Gloria DeHaven Helped Me Tell My Father’s Story
News of movie star Gloria DeHaven’s death on July 31 at 91 brought back a wrenching memory. In 1966 we were both featured on Virginia Graham’s daytime TV talk show “Girl Talk” in a segment titled “Women of Courage.” When the episode aired, it would be the last time my father, journalist-writer Matvey Bernstein, would…
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3 Things We Learned From Deborah Kass’s Lenny Interview
Deborah Kass made headlines in November when her sculpture “OY/YO” was installed in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The much-Instagrammed, bright yellow aluminum sculpture of the letters “O” and “Y,” close to 8 feet tall, reads “OY” to viewers from Brooklyn and “YO” to those from Manhattan. Earlier today, Lena Dunham’s Lenny published parts of an extensive…
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‘Ranch it Up!’ Eric Andre Show Returns for Season Four
Comedy fans, get pumped: The Eric Andre Show returns for its fourth season tonight (or, technically, tomorrow) at 12AM on Adult Swim. Andre, who identifies as “Bluish” (Jewish mom, Haitian dad), has a uniquely outrageous style that evades description, but suffice it to say, it’s absolute gold. Here’s a clip of one of his amazingly…
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Holocaust Memorial Museum Receives Donation of Blue Card Collection
The Blue Card, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to Holocaust survivors, has donated a substantial collection of its records and documents to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The collection’s contents date to shortly after The Blue Card’s establishment in the United States in 1939. (The Blue Card was originally founded in Germany in…
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8 Great Lenny Bruce Routines
Lenny Bruce died in August of 1966, but you can still hear his voice online. Here are a few clips that show the range, depth, and volatility of a man Complex magazine calls the most controversial comedian of all time. (Note: some clips contain profanity or other language that may not be appropriate for listening…
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