Who Knew? Natalie Portman raps Bibi, hearts Alan Dershowitz by Julie Wiener
( JTA)—Hollywood Reporter’s new cover story interview with actress Natalie Portman may be one of the most heavily Jewish-themed articles the magazine has ever published. In it, the Israel-born Portman, who was preparing for the May 18 debut of her film adaptation of Israeli author Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness, which was shot in Jerusalem, talks about everything from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (she’s not a fan) to anti-Semitism in Paris, where she now lives, to reading Bible stories with her 3½-year-old son, Aleph. Here’s some highlights from the interview with the 33-year-old star, director and screenplay writer: On Netanyahu: “I’m very much against
Netanyahu. Against. I am very, very upset and disappointed that he was re-elected. I find his racist comments horrific. However, I don’t—what I want to make sure is, I don’t want to use my platform [the wrong way]. I feel like there’s some people who become prominent, and then it’s out in the foreign press. You know, shit on Israel. I do not. I don’t want to do that.” On whether she’s nervous about being Jewish in Paris (she moved there because hubby Benjamin Millepied is French) after the Hyper Cacher attack: “Yes, but I’d feel nervous being a black man in this country. I’d feel nervous being a Muslim in many places.” On why she decided to option Oz’s memoir and film it in Hebrew: “The language was really what [drew me], his obsession with words and the way words are connected in Hebrew, which has this incredible poetry and magic. It’s obviously almost impossible to translate, but there’s just incredible beauty to that. [Jews are]
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a people built of words, people built of books, and it’s quite beautiful to see that, which is a strange thing to start for a movie.” On why she doesn’t display her Oscar (for Best Actress in Black Swan): “I was reading the story of Abraham to my child and talking about, like, not worshipping false idols. And this is literally like gold men. This is literally worshipping gold idols—if you worship it. That’s why it’s not displayed on the wall. It’s a false idol.” On Harvard Law professor and Israel advocate Alan Dershowitz, for whom she worked while an undergrad at the Ivy League school: “He has quite different politics than I do, but I really, really like him. He’s a very good friend. We just have different opinions.”
The Jewish songwriters behind the Elvis Presley hit machine by Zachary Solomon
(Jewniverse via JTA)—Like Rodgers and Hammerstein before them, Leiber and Stoller were a songwriting duo to the stars. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, both born in 1933 to Jewish families in Baltimore and on Long Island, respectively, met in Los Angeles as teenagers and bonded over a mutual love of blues and R&B. With Stoller’s compositional acumen and Leiber’s talent as a wordsmith, they quickly found between them a sparkling collaborative energy. The partners were unstoppable in the 1950s and ’60s, pumping out hits like Jailhouse Rock, Loving You, Stand By Me and Love Potion No. 9—all of which would become beloved radio earworms—for artists such as Ben E. King, The Clovers and, of course, Elvis Presley. In 1955, Stoller and his wife traveled to France to meet “La Mome Piaf,” the great Edith Piaf, who had sung a translated version of a tune he and Leiber penned. During their return, their ship, the SS Andrea Doria, was hit; Stoller and his wife were rescued and made it back safely to the States. Leiber met his friend at the
docks with some good news: Hound Dog had become a hit for Elvis Presley. Stoller’s response: “Elvis who?” —Zachary Solomon is a Brooklyn-based writer and current Fiction MFA candidate at Brooklyn College. You can find him at zacharycsolomon.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @z_solomon.)
Hilary Swank to play Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt in film Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank will star as Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt in a film adaptation of her book about her legal battle with a Holocaust denier. The movie will be a courtroom drama based on History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier, which was published in 2005. Tom Wilkinson, a two-time Oscar nominee, will portray David Irving, a British revisionist historian who sued Lipstadt for libel after she called him a Holocaust denier in her 1993 book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth & Memory. Lipstadt won the case in 2000. British playwright David Hare adapted the book for the film. (JTA)
Natalie Portman to star as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in new movie Natalie Portman will star as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a new film. On the Basis of Sex will follow Ginsburg’s obstacles-filled career on the road to becoming the second female justice and the first Jewish female justice on the high court, Deadline Hollywood reported. President Bill Clinton appointed Ginsburg to the Supreme Court in 1993. The producers are hoping to start filming by the end of the year. Portman, who is Jewish and a native of Israel, is making her directorial debut with A Tale Of Love And Darkness. The film is based on the memoir by Israeli author Amos Oz and is largely in Hebrew.