The News Shticker: Lindsay Lohan converting?

Actress Lindsay Lohan with girlfriend Samantha Ronson

Pop-tart Lindsay Lohan is apparently contemplating conversion to Judaism in order to be closer to her girlfriend, DJ Samantha Ronson. According to the BANG Showbiz news service,

“Sam’s family is Jewish. Lindsay has learned a lot about Judaism from Sam and admires its beliefs.”

However, friends of the ‘Mean Girls’ actress have doubts about her intention to fully convert to the religion and think she is just doing it for attention.

The source added to Life and Style Weekly magazine: “Two years ago it was Kabbalah. Last year it was Alcoholics Anonymous. She was into ‘peace’ for a while. Whatever is of the moment, that’s Lindsay. But the one thing it does show is her commitment to Sam. She could be any religion and Lindsay would be open to it.”

More shtick:

• Jon Stewart and author Ron Suskind, who recently revealed that the Bush administration falsified evidence to retroactively justify invading Iraq, discuss an Iraqi general’s penchant for Yiddish on Monday night’s Daily Show.
• Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle davened minchah at the Great Wailing Wall of China.
• The Onion adds its two cents to the Agriprocessors scandal.
• Jezebel asks Dr. Ruth about her feelings on sex during niddah, the period when a woman menstruates. Warning: Not for the faint of heart. And not halachically permissible (i.e., acceptable under Jewish law) by any stretch of the imagination. (Hat tip to EV.)
• A Roman pagan temple was unearthed in Israel’s Galilee region.
• Social Research: An International Quarterly of Social Sciences has devoted the entirety of its summer issue to the concept of martyrdom, giving special attention to Islam, and Palestinian society in particular, where “violent acts [are considered] cultural expression and [are] critically linked to collective imagination and memory.”
• “Rhinestone Cowboy” singer and former TV personality Glen Campbell divulged to Reuters his identity as a Baptist cum Messianic Jew (a.k.a. Jew for Jesus).
• Gothamist reports on the outrage sparked by the sale of Flatbush’s Kosher Gym to non-Jewish owners.
• The AP reports on Los Angeles Jewish organizations’ efforts to bridge the Jewish-Latino gap by reaching out to Pentecostals.
• Likewise, Mehnaz Afridi writes in the Khaleej Times on bridging the Muslim-Jewish divide.
• AlterNet writes on the rise of arranged marriages in America, chiefly among Orthodox Jews.
• The Sydney Morning Herald profiles author Naomi Ragen.
• The Detroit Free Press profiles Naomi Zaslow, a recent art school grad and ex-Orthodox lesbian, who uses her photography to “deconstruct her identity.”
• A guest blogger named Sam at the popular feminist blog Feministe just capped off two weeks’ worth of contributions on Jewish subjects. You can peruse the archive of her contributions here.