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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Life In Carrie’s Shoes
If you’ve ever been glued to an episode of “Sex and the City” and fantasized about how glamorous your life would be if you could just sneak into that dreamy shoe closet and squeeze your toes into one of Carrie Bradshaw’s towering pumps, then today is your lucky day. Sarah Jessica Parker has announced that…
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Jessica Hecht Talks Broadway vs. Hollywood
Jessica Hecht is best known for two television roles: the lesbian lover of David Schwimmer’s ex-wife in the long-running comedy “Friends,” and the married friend of the title character in the short running comedy “The Single Guy.” Hecht spent many of the years since playing those roles in theater, both on and off Broadway. Notably,…
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Animated Memories for Yom Hazikaron
Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror, is a somber one. Families and friends visit the graves of deceased loved ones, sad music plays all day on the radio, and special programming replaces regularly scheduled television shows. It doesn’t seem like the kind of day to be animated. But Beit…
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Books The Jewish Connection to Art
Allison Amend’s most recent novel, “A Nearly Perfect Copy,” is now available. Allison was a finalist for the 2011 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for her novel “Stations West.” 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…
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A Baby Boy For Harvey Weinstein
According to the New York Post’s Page Six, Harvey Weinstein is a daddy once again. Wife Georgina Chapman reportedly gave birth to a little boy on Thursday in New York. The film producer and studio executive has four daughters, one with Chapman, and three from a previous marriage. In December, after he announced that Chapman…
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Was Justin Bieber Right About Anne Frank?
To paraphrase internet celebrity Chris Crocker, Leave Justin Alone. Let’s start with two things we don’t know. First, we don’t really know anything about Justin Bieber. All of our opinions about him are mediated by publicists, reporters, bloggers, and lots and lots of spin. Second, we don’t know that much about Anne Frank. We do…
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‘Six Acts’ of Oversexed Israeli Teens
In a world of insecurity and competition, sometimes the only way for a teenager to raise their social status is to act out — and usually, that involves sex. So goes the uncomfortably realistic narrative of “Six Acts,” an Israeli film by director Jonathan Gurfinkel and writer Rona Segal that will screen at New York’s…
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Jewish Stars of Bollywood
A talk at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival on April 14 will recall Jewish movie greats — like Sulochana, Pramila, and Nadira. They were towering stars of Bollywood, the century-old Mumbai-centered film industry that still cranks out 800 films a year, more than double the output of the U.S. And Danny Ben-Moshe, a research fellow…
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Robert Downey Jr. Rocks Lederhosen
No one could accuse Robert Downey Jr. of being boring. The actor really, really tries to embrace local customs wherever he goes. While in South Korea promoting the third installment of the Iron Man franchise in early April, he stunned locals by busting out some Gangnam-style dance moves. Most recently, still on the Iron Man…
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Books ‘Go the F**k to Sleep’: The Movie
First there was the viral leaked PDF. Then there was the book. Then there was the audio book narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. And now there’s the movie. America can’t seem to get enough of Adam Mansbach’s “Go the F**k to Sleep,” the picture book for adults that took the country by storm when it…
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The Religious Art of M.C. Escher
Dutch artist M. C. Escher (1898-1972) is known for his impossible landscapes, like waterfalls and staircases that operate in continuous loops, and his fantastically interlocking “tessellations,” like these dovetailing blue and white birds. But as viewers ascend the grand staircase in the Escher museum in The Hague and examine the works spanning Escher’s 55-year career,…
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