Forward.com

Jeffrey Goldberg and Michael Chabon on Sandler’s ‘Zohan’: ‘The Worst Movie’ But Quite Enjoyable

Not to be too self-referential (as if there’s any such thing), but I’d just like to point out that in my recent paean to Adam Sandler’s (goyish) wit and (Jewish) wisdom, I rendered the following verdict: “‘You Don’t Mess With the Zohan’ is a stupid movie; I couldn’t stop laughing.”

Now, I’m happy to report, actual famous people with actual accomplishments to their names are actually expressing similar sentiments. New Yorker writer turned Atlantic uber-Jew Jeffrey Goldberg reports on his incessantly Jew-y blog:

You Don’t Mess With the Zohan is the worst movie I’ve ever seen, though it was better than Munich.

Okay, I liked it. So what? Who doesn’t like a hummus joke? Or 37 hummus jokes? It turns out that Michael Chabon also thought it was the worst movie he’s ever seen, and he enjoyed it very much as well….

You can enjoy Chabon and Goldberg’s silly e-mail exchange on the topic here.

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan

Casting Call: Coen Bros. ISO Bar Mitzvah Boy, Nose-Job Seeker, Wise Rabbi

Minneapolis’s Star-Tribune reports that native sons made good (filmmakers), the Coen brothers, are holding a casting call at the JCC in their hometown of St. Louis Park:

Their new film “A Serious Man,” about a Midwestern Jewish family in the late 1960s, will hold an open casting call to fill those roles with performers from the community. No acting experience is required.

The roles are Danny Gopnik (a boy preparing for his bar mitzvah), Sarah Gopnik (a typical teenager obssessed with getting a nose job) and Rabbi Marshak (the wise emeritus rabbi at the synagogue).

The paper has the details.

Woody Allen in Eilat?

Israeli news site Y-Net reports that Woody Allen is expected to go to to the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat for its film festival. The thought of the consummate New York nebbish in Eilat brings to mind that scene in “”Annie Hall” of a very uncomfortable Woody Allen in sunny Southern California.

I wonder if Woody will go scuba diving? Maybe Israel’s uber-aggressive paparazzi will manage to get some pictures of him in the scuba gear. I only hope that American Apparel has learned its lesson and doesn’t even think of plastering any such pictures on billboards.

American Apparel to Woody: We’re Sorry (and We’re Parodists)

American Apparel is apologizing to Woody Allen after he filed a $10 million lawsuit against the trendy T-shirt monger for its unauthorized use of an image of him dressed in Hasidic garb on a pair of billboards.

“We deeply admire Woody Allen as a filmmaker and an inspiring social and political satirist,” the company said in a press release. “We sincerely regret offending him in any way.”

But, given that words are cheap and lawsuits are expensive, American Apparel also tried to cover its tuchus from legal standpoint, claiming that the billboards featuring the image of Allen (filched from his film “Annie Hall”) were not, in fact, intended to sell underwear, but were rather “meant strictly as a social parody.”

The question, of course, is what aspect of society, exactly, were the underwear-purveying parodists parodying?

Could it be, given that an American Apparel rep had originally told the Forward, “Woody Allen is our spiritual leader,” the billboards were an ever-so-ironic commentary on the company’s own social and spiritual shortcomings? But that would be more satire than parody.

Woody Allen v. American Apparel

The holy rebbe is pissed.

Last spring, trendy underwear maker American Apparel, known for its sexually charged advertising, put up a pair of billboard ads that were unusually tame.

The billboards, in Los Angeles and New York, featured an image of Woody Allen dressed as a Hasidic Jew from his masterpiece Annie Hall, alongside Yiddish script that read “der heyliker rebe” (“the holy rebbe”). At the time, an American Apparel spokeswoman explained to the Forward, “Woody Allen is our spiritual leader.”

Only one problem: It seems American Apparel didn’t get Woody Allen’s permission first — and so the ads came down as quickly as they went up.

Now, the Associated Press reports, the nebbish-y movie-maker is getting even: He’s filed a $10 million lawsuit in federal court against the edgy shmatte maker.

We’ll have to see how the folks at American Apparel feel about their spiritual leader now.

Hat tip: Brad Greenberg’s God Blog.