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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Learning the Wrong Lessons From the Rosenbergs
Photo: Rahav Segev/Photopass There are lessons to be learned from “Ethel Sings,” the new play about the Rosenbergs running through mid-July in Manhattan. The most obvious is about the dangers of governmental overreach. Also: less is more. And both playwright Joan Beber and director Will Pomerantz would do well to learn that. “Ethel Sings” is…
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Jew Bot Eugene Goostman Is Kind of a Perv
Eugene Goostman is a computer program masquerading as a 13-year-old Ukrainian Jewish boy. On June 7, he became the first program — and certainly the first Jewish program — to pass the iconic Turing test of artificial intelligence, after convincing several judges that he is, in fact, human. The Forward’s Hody Nemes sat down with…
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Taye Diggs Opens Up About Idina Menzel Divorce
Taye Diggs has taken ex-wife Idina Menzel’s “Frozen” advice and “Let It Go.” In an interview with Redbook, the Broadway actor opens up about the couple’s decision to divorce back in December. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when I thought, Oh, man, people are going to trip out [if we split]….
The Latest
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The ‘Jeopardy’ Rabbi
(JTA) — Sari Laufer isn’t allowed to say how well she did on the TV quiz show “Jeopardy” until the first episode featuring her airs Wednesday night June 11. One thing the 35-year-old Reform rabbi will share, however, is that she was “really determined” to answer correctly the one Jewish question that arose during the…
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Doug Liman on Action Movies and Shabbat With Dad
Doug Liman made his reputation directing “Swingers,” a film that helped establish the viability of independent film, not to mention the careers of Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau. His personal favorite is “Go,” a movie he knows “no one saw.” But certainly Liman is best known as an action director: “Bourne Identity,” “Mr. & Mrs….
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‘Fiddler’ Lyricist Sheldon Harnick Turns 90
“The sad thing is that Joe Stein and Jerry Bock can’t be part of this celebration,” mused lyricist Sheldon Harnick at his 90th birthday bash hosted on June 2 by Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a principal of Bernstein Global Management at its New York City headquarters. It was Stein who wrote the book, and Bock who wrote…
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‘Love Locks’ Fail On Paris Bridge
The Pont des Arts footbridge over the Seine in central Paris was closed for a few hours on Sunday after a metal grill laden with padlocks left by amorous couples collapsed onto the walkway. Padlocks began appearing on bridges in Paris and other European cities more than five years ago left by people seeking to…
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6 Things About ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ on 50th Anniversary
On Monday, the Folksbiene theater will celebrate the 50th anniversary “Fiddler on the Roof.” In honor of this auspicious birthday, we bring you a trove of obscure fun facts about the Jewish classic. If nothing else, you can bust it out at Shabbat dinner to one-up the family. What else is useless knowledge for? 1.Richard…
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How Shep Gordon Became a Real ‘Supermensch’
Comedian Mike Myers found the perfect vehicle to make his directorial debut: “Supermensch The Legend of Shep Gordon.” The title makes it sound like another Myers comedy, a Jewish “Wayne’s World” or “Austin Powers.” In fact, it is an extremely well-executed documentary about one of the most captivating figures in the history of rock and…
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Remembering Senator Roy Goodman
The announcement of Senator Roy Goodman’s death on June 3 at 84 threw me for a loop. I had just seen him on May 19th at the City College of New York launch of City College Center for the Arts. Held at Bonhams Madison Avenue Gallery he was surrounded by family — daughter Claire Pellegrini…
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Books When Getting Girl Means Pretending To Be Transgender
Photo: Chloe Aftel Call it a boy-meets-girl-who-thinks-boy-was-born-a-girl story. In “Adam,” the debut novel from cult graphic memoirist Ariel Schrag, an awkward California teenager named Adam Freedman parachutes into an alien landscape of subcultures and identities when he joins his lesbian sister in Brooklyn for the summer. (Full disclosure: Schrag was featured in “Graphic Details: Confessional…
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