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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Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Top 8 Roles
It’s no surprise that the Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing” boasts Maggie Gyllenhaal in the role of Anna. She is a strong, intelligent activist and actor, a key player in this drama about marital love and infidelity. It’s the type of character Gyllenhaal regularly and successfully inhabits. For the young…
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Robert Downey, Jr. Welcomes A Baby Girl
Mazel tov! Robert Downey, Jr. and his wife Susan Downey (nee Levin) welcomed their second child on Wednesday and gave her a very Hebrew name. Welcome to the world, Avri Roel! The couple, who met while filming “Gothika” (he was acting, she was producing) were married in a Jewish-Buddhist ceremony in 2005. The happy father…
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Jill Abramson’s New Startup Pays $100,000
Getty Images Former Executive Editor of The New York Times Jill Abramson is back in the news — and it’s a bit of a head scratcher. Along with media entrepreneur Steven Brill, she has proposed a startup that would pay writers $100,000 (yes, that’s the correct amount of zeroes) for investigative journalism pieces that are…
The Latest
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What Was This Spanish Politician Thinking?
Representatives of Spain’s Jewish community demanded that a local politician apologize for dressing up as Adolf Hitler at a Halloween party. Toni Rodríguez, a representative of the ruling Popular Party on the council of the municipality of Gandia near Valencia in eastern Spain, posed for pictures with friends while in costume on Oct. 31. The…
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Bernice Eisenstein Plumbs Memory in ‘Genizot’
The concept behind genizot is simple. These spaces, usually housed in synagogues, would store disused documents that contained the written name of God — and thus couldn’t be discarded. But genizot also symbolize remembering. And that’s what Canadian artist Bernice Eisenstein so brilliantly explores in “Genizot: Repositories of Memory,” her new exhibition at the Royal…
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Watch Orange Is The New Black’s Big Boo Confront a Subway Preacher
Any fan of “Orange Is The New Black” knows not to mess with Big Boo. A New York City subway preacher learned that the hard way when actress Lea DeLaria, clad in “Bad Jew” t-shirt, confronted him about his homophobic views. A passenger on the Queens-bound M train grabbed a video of DeLaria telling the…
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Ben Stein Calls Obama ‘Most Racist President’ Ever
Anyone? Anyone? In a (sadly) non “Ferris Bueller”-related interview with Fox News, economist and author Ben Stein called President Obama the most racist president ever. “He is purposely trying to use race to divide America,” Stein told Fox news. Stein was on to discuss the main issue on voters’ minds today: the economy. A Fox…
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Jewish Stars Say Goodbye to Oscar de La Renta
Getty Images Who else could bring Henry Kissinger, Ralph Lauren and Barbara Walters together in the same place, at the same time? Jewish A-listers bid a sad farewell to Oscar de La Renta on Monday. The service, held at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City’s Upper East Side, saw politicians, actors,…
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Learning Jewish History on ‘Finding Your Roots’
Photo Courtesy of WNET/Joseph Sinnott Henry Louis Gates’ PBS series, “Finding Your Roots,” is invariably emotionally powerful. And tonight’s episode, which profiles the background of three leading Jewish Americans, is no exception. Carole King, Tony Kushner and Alan Dershowitz are the subjects. As always, Gates and his research team have done an excellent job checking…
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Elegy to ‘Car Talk’ Everyman
When Daniel Pinkwater learned on November 3 that Car Talk host Tom Magliozzi had died, he sent a one-line condolence to Doug Berman, the show’s longtime producer: “He improved the lives of millions. Weekly. For decades. They give Nobel Prizes to the wrong people.” Tom, better known as Click (or was he Clack?), co-hosted the…
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Brad Pitt Helped Shia LaBeouf Convert to Christianity
Getty Images Shia LaBeouf is many things: the former child star of “Even Stevens;” a sometimes weird performance artist; that drunk guy who crashes a performance of “Cabaret” and gets arrested. But a Jew? No longer. According to Haaretz, the actor has converted to Christianity, with a little help from Brad Pitt. LaBeouf, currently starring…
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