Here is a corollary to Marx’s great insight that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce, itself a clarification of Hegel’s sense that people and events recur: Scandal, too, will repeat itself; first as laboriously documented news, then as thinly veiled fiction. Consider the case of Bernard “Bernie” Madoff: Even the name seems…
Genesis prize aside, it seems the most Jewish thing about outgoing NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg is his taste in movies. Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” and “The Producers” and Woody Allen’s “Bananas” and “Sleeper,” all feature in Hizzoner’s top ten list, according to Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith. For a complete list of “the classics,” as told…
Kevin Spacey needs no business cards. He has “House of Cards.” In an interview with GQ for their “Men of the Year” issue, Spacey explained why he recently gave Woody Allen the gift of a Netflix subscription (and just in time for Hannukah!): “I believe this: If an actor wants a role or wants to…
If you’ve read my previous columns, you know I believe in the centrality of Israel in Jewish civilization, that in the past few decades, Israel has transformed from being a project of world Jewry into becoming its beating heart, and that the future of Jewish creativity, confidence and influence are going to happen primarily in…
Ronan Farrow, the 25-year-old son of actress Mia Farrow, will host a one-hour weekday show starting early next year on MSNBC, the U.S. television channel said on Wednesday. The writer and human rights lawyer, who has been in talks with MSNBC about the show for months, will also contribute to the channel’s website and NBC…
His most recent films may be based in just about every (almost) Western European capital, but Woody Allen says he’s not a big tourist. But in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 on the eve of “Blue Jasmine“‘s European release, everyone’s favorite neurotic admitted to considering bending the rules for a trip to the Holy…
Stanley Kauffmann, the American Jewish film critic who died on October 9 at age 97 was termed “one of the oldest working critics in history” in obits, but he was more than just a Methuselah among the thumbs-up-or-down crowd. Kauffmann’s long life gave him time to gain useful artistic experience and erudition by trying to…
This could only happen in a Woody Allen movie. When asked by Vanity Fair if Ronan Farrow was actually fathered by Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow’s first husband and so-called “love of her life,” the actress had a surprising answer: “Possibly.” “We never really split up,” Farrow added. The two were married from 1966-1968, and continued…
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