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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Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘Perfect’ $90 T-Shirt
The Shmooze knows how tough it can be to find a decent white tee—but luckily we’ve got Gwyneth Paltrow and her fashion team at GOOP to help. For $90 you can buy “the perfect t-shirt,” which, in the GOOPy language of Paltrow’s “lifestyle community” website, is “inspired by tuxedo tailoring,” with “grosgrain piping” added, “modernizing…
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Books Five Comix About Israel Worth Reading
JT Waldman co-authored and illustrated the new graphic novel “Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me” with writer and frequent David Letterman guest Harvey Pekar. Read more about their relationship here and Harvey Pekar’s legacy here. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s…
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Jury’s Out on Adam Levine’s Mustache
Move over, Freddy Mercury: there’s a new mustachioed frontman in town. Adam Levine, Maroon 5’s bringer of Jagger-like moves and one of the musical masterminds judging “The Voice,” was spotted looking handsomely hirsute in New York this Sunday, where he was filming his first flick, “Can A Song Save Your Life?” Having sprouted a ’stache…
The Latest
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Jews Get Musical With Ecstatic Summer
Judd Greenstein is as much an impresario as he is a composer, and sometimes the line between those roles can blur. On Saturday, June 30, on an outdoor stage in the World Financial Center Plaza in Manhattan, he performed his own music in a free concert to kick off Ecstatic Summer, produced by the arts…
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‘Liberty’ Tells Human Story of Immigrants
There’s a lot more to the Statue of Liberty than stone, copper and a great view of New York Harbor. As the new musical “Liberty” points out, it was living, breathing people – many of them Jewish – helped turn Lady Liberty into an iconic symbol of freedom. Written by brother-and-sister team Jon and Dana…
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Jesse Eisenberg to Premiere Holocaust Play
A play written by Jesse Eisenberg about a young writer visiting a Holocaust survivor cousin in Poland will be one of five world premieres mounted in the 2012-13 season of the New-York based Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the New York Times reported. “The Revisionist” will be the second Rattlestick production for the actor/writer, whose drama “Asuncion”…
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Chris Brown Disses Drake’s Eyebrows
Usually it’s the other way around: First rap artists hurl insults at their opponents, and then they throw punches. But after the fracas at a SoHo club in early June and the subsequent police investigation, rumor mill churning, and various attempts to capitalize on the biggest Billboard star fist fight of the summer, Chris Brown…
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Top-Notch Music Festival Comes to Leo Baeck
When I found out that an ambitious new music festival in New York, the Chelsea Music Festival, was honoring the 150th birthday of Claude Debussy, I was intrigued to learn that the celebration would feature a performance at the Leo Baeck Institute at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan. Debussy — his high-strung, artistic,…
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Paula Abdul Still a Party Girl at 50
How time flies when you’re dancing, judging TV shows and dating hot younger men! Comeback queen Paula Abdul turned 50 this June, and Page Six reports that the Laker Girl-turned- pop icon celebrated in Las Vegas with boyfriend John Caprio, 40. After Abdul and friends ate sushi platters at Tao, they headed to the VIP…
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Books Author Blog: The Legacy of Harvey Pekar
JT Waldman co-authored and illustrated the new graphic novel “Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me” with writer and frequent David Letterman guest Harvey Pekar. Read more about their relationship here. 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…
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Streisand and Kramer Bicker Over ‘Normal Heart’
Larry Kramer — gay-rights pioneer, AIDS agitator, and all-around provocateur — might be the only person with the chutzpah to challenge Barbra Streisand. But as he just learned, La Streisand knows how to hit back. The Los Angeles Times reports that a decades-old spat between Streisand and Kramer over failed attempts to film his 1985…
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