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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Joan Rivers Gets A Face Full Of Cake
Joan Rivers may have postponed her birthday celebrations last week, but she didn’t skimp on birthday cake. When singer Fergie came on “Fashion Police” on Monday night to show off her baby bump, she brought Joan a little treat. Even though the party ended in a food fight, @fergie’s cake was DELICIOUS! All-new @e_fashionpolice tonight…
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Amanda Bynes Calls Drake ‘Ugly’
Whatever Drake did to become the subject of Amanda Bynes’ Twitter love/hate monologue, he must be kicking himself for it now. Once again, the former actress has taken to social media to comment on the Canadian Jewish rapper, delivering what could at best be termed a backhanded compliment: I only like @drake because he’s so…
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Books An Interview With My Babbi and Zayde
Earlier this week, Royal Young wrote about his parents’ reaction to his debut memoir, “Fame Shark.” His 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: My maternal grandmother fought to escape her Lower East…
The Latest
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‘Wolfenstein’ Returns
Remember “Wolfenstein”? Those of us who grew up playing computer games in the ‘90s certainly will. You know, the one where you ran around in a castle shooting Nazis. The first version, “Castle Wolfenstein,” was released in 1981, but for those of us a little bit younger, the main version was “Wolfenstein 3D,” from 1992….
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‘Old Spice Man’ Goes Israeli
Isaiah Mustafa, commonly known as “Old Spice Man,” the half naked ideal of masculinity used to sell deodorant, has gone Semitic. In a new commercial targeted to Israeli men who are, in his words, “brave, noble and magnificent,” and “eat manly foods like shawarma, matbucha and gefilte fish,” Mustafa takes machismo to a whole new…
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I.B. Singer and the Problem of Surviving
Herman Broder is a gangly loser who’s won the biggest prize of all: his life. After surviving the Nazi onslaught in Poland by hiding in a haystack, he emigrates to America — specifically, Coney Island — with the gentile Polish woman who hid him, and who is now his wife. This is the setting of…
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Tribe At The Tonys
Stars arrived in style to New York’s Radio City Musical Hall on Sunday night for the 67th annual Tony Awards. The evening, recognizing achievements in Broadway theater, brought together the best of the city’s stage society with writers, composers, and even a Hollywood celebrity or two (or three, or four). Though acclaimed musical “Kinky Boots”…
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Books My Family’s Reaction to ‘Fame Shark’
Royal Young’s debut memoir “Fame Shark” will be released June 2013 from Heliotrope Books. Young contributes to Interview Magazine, New York Post, BOMB Magazine and The Lo Down. His 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…
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Israeli Author Yoram Kaniuk Dies at 83
Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk died after a long battle with cancer yesterday at Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv. The renowned writer was 83. Kaniuk was born in Tel Aviv on May 2, 1930. The list of people associated with his early childhood reads like a who’s who of the early days of Tel Aviv’s cultural life…
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Watch Woody Allen’s ‘Blue Jasmine’ Trailer
Another year, another Woody Allen movie. Allen’s latest picture, “Blue Jasmine,” is scheduled for a July 26 release, but we can get a sense of it now thanks to a trailer that was released this weekend. With Cate Blanchett starring as a trophy wife whose husband (Alec Baldwin) turns out to be a Bernie Madoff-esque criminal,…
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Maurice Sendak Gets a Google Doodle
Children’s author Maurice Sendak, who died May 8, 2012, would have been 85 today. In his honor, Google has produced a complete animated sequence on its homepage, celebrating Sendak books such as “Where the Wild Things Are,” “In the Night Kitchen” and “Bumble-Ardy.” Head over to Google or watch the whole thing below.
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