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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Natalie Portman To Direct Amos Oz Film
Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman will direct her first feature film based on “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” a memoir by Israeli novelist Amos Oz, the author said on Wednesday. The Israeli-American actress, who won a best actress Oscar in 2011 for her role in ballet drama “Black Swan,” will also play Oz’s mother, who…
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From Awkward Fat Kid to Confident Gay Activist
A plump, cherubic bar-mitzvah boy beams from the cover the new memoir “Oy Vey! I’m Glad I’m Gay!” (Intracoastal Media). That’s Barry Losinsky, the book’s author, a retired Maryland school psychologist and one of many unsung pioneers in a generation of gay men who came out when it still felt dangerous. Born to Russian-immigrant parents,…
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Author Blog: Visiting the Soviet Union
Yesterday, Peri Devaney wrote about working on the postscript for her anthology, “A Jewish Professor’s Political Punditry: Fifty-Plus Years of Published Commentary by Ron Rubin” (Syracuse University Press). Today we hear from Ron Rubin, the prolific professor she anthologized. Their blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and…
The Latest
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Amanda Bynes Forced To Undergo Psych Test
Amanda Bynes is taking her act on the road. The troubled star was forced to undergo a mental health evaluation on Monday night after she caused a disturbance in a California residential neighborhood, the New York Daily News reported. Police officials were called to Thousand Oaks, in Ventura Counry, Calif., to take the 27-year-old into…
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Jewish Novel Included on Man Booker Longlist
Life in London’s Jewish community and Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, billionaires in China and hard times in Ireland all feature in the novels vying for this year’s Man Booker Prize. The longlist for the prize, one of the English language’s top fiction awards, names 13 writers from seven countries. “This is surely the most diverse longlist…
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Zombies, Mutants and Bob Fingerman
“My early career was like stages of grieving,“ award-winning comic and graphic novel creator Bob Fingerman told the crowd at the July 10 launch of his exhibit at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Gallery at the Society of Illustrators. “It was denial, bitterness, pornography…teenage mutant Ninja Turtles [which] as I drew them, turned…
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How To Be an Egotistical Writer From South Africa
Things I Don’t Want to Know: A Response to George Orwell’s Why I Write By Deborah Levy Notting Hill Editions In his 1946 essay “Why I Write,” George Orwell identified four great motives for writing, including aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse and political purpose. The other, he observed, was that writers are “vain and self-centred,” motivated…
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Happy Tu B’Av: Aliyah Dating Site Launches
Meeting that special someone is hard enough without him or her living halfway across the planet. But Jewish singles planning to make the move to the Holy Land this Tu B’Av can rejoice — the Israel dating scene just got a whole lot closer. Jewish dating site SawYouAtSinai.com has partnered with Nefesh B’Nefesh to create…
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Author Blog: Putting Myself on the Line
Peri Devaney’s new book, “A Jewish Professor’s Political Punditry: Fifty-Plus Years of Published Commentary by Ron Rubin” (Syracuse University Press), is now available. Her blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For more information on the series, please visit: As a…
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Farrah Abraham Rakes In $100K Royalties From Sex Tape
Being a porn star — excuse me, sex tape featuree — pays the big bucks. According to TMZ, “Teen Mom” star Farrah Abraham, who sold the rights to her sex tape with Jewish porn star James Deen to Vivid Entertainment for a six-figure fee in May, has raked in more than $100,000 in royalties. $119,576.39…
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Mazel Tov: Jewish Stars Talk Royal Baby
Royal baby frenzy is in full swing as the British — and for some reason, everyone else on the planet — await the birth of the future heir to the throne. If you manage to pry your eyes away from the live baby cam that The Telegraph has pointed at the doors of Saint Mary’s…
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