The prevalence of transgender issues in pop culture seems to have reached a pinnacle this year. Caitlyn – nee Bruce – Jenner appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair. The movie “Tangerine,” which stars transgender actors, took film critics by storm. Director Tom Hooper’s “The Danish Girl,” currently in theaters, tells the story of one…
There are more than a few songs that pay homage to the Ashkenazi Jewish mother. They’re schmaltzy, but if you’ve half a brain and any measure of experience, you can taste the irony like the tang in Canter’s coleslaw. Two of my favorites: “A Yiddishe mame, is there anything better in the world […] Oy…
When we last left “Transparent’”s Pfefferman clan, they were scavenging the leftovers – chopped liver, coleslaw and maybe some whitefish salad– after a shiva. Now, at the start of the show’s second season — the first episode of which aired early on Amazon this week — we rejoin them at a wedding. The two events,…
(JTA) — Writer and director Jill Soloway grew up in what she calls a “somewhat normalish, upper middle class Jewish household” in Chicago. Her mom was a public relations consultant (she worked for Mayor Jane Byrne) and her dad a psychiatrist. But she always sensed that “something was a little off,” she tells JTA in a…
Hanukkah is coming early for us “Transparent” fans! Jill Soloway, the creator of the show, tweeted out today that first episode of “Transparent“‘s second season will be available for streaming this very night for Amazon Prime members. Episode one of season two sneakin’ out at you tonight! #transparenttv https://t.co/E7N4Fr75rA — Jill Soloway (@jillsoloway) November 30,…
Jeffrey Tambor has called his lugubrious philosophy an integral part of his Jewish identity. Answering a fan’s question about happiness, he once quipped: “I’m Russian Hungarian, I know nothing about happiness. That wasn’t on the menu at our house.” Long known for playing supporting characters (Hank Kingsley on “The Larry Sanders Show” and George Bluth…
Jill Soloway, 50, is no new- comer to the entertainment industry. From 2002 to 2005 the Chicago-born director and screenwriter wrote and later co-executive produced the acclaimed HBO series “Six Feet Under.” She wrote and directed the 2013 movie “Afternoon Delight,” about an unhappy mother who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a 19-year-old sex…
Jeffrey Tambor used to be that actor you saw everywhere but couldn’t place. No longer. In January, he won a Golden Globe in the Best Actor in a TV Series category, for his performance as Maura Pfefferman, a Jewish father of three who comes out as transgender, in Amazon’s “Transparent.” In September he took home…
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