NEW YORK (6NoBacon) — Sunday night’s big game may have not featured anything especially Jewish (unless you count the third quarter blackout as homage to the plague of darkness), but there was a pretty respectable presence of Jews and Israelis in Super Bowl advertisements.
Those who chose the bathroom over commercial breaks missed Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli giving a Jewish nerdy guy named Jesse Heiman a long, sensual and nausea-inducing kiss in a GoDaddy ad. Heiman has since become an Internet sensation and is claiming to have received messages from women who wished they were Refaeli.
The ad for the midnight-munchy mothership Taco Bell featured an elderly man named Bernie Goldblatt sneaking out of his retirement home with his elderly friends, male and female, to tear up the town. Their wild night ends with a “Goldblatt” tattoo writ large on his upper back and mucho tacos in his belly.
Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen reenacted their bro-banter scene from the “40 Year old Virgin” for Samsung, only with fewer “You know how I know you’re gay” jokes.
The Israeli beverage machine maker SodaStream was at the center of controversy with an ad that featured a Coca-Cola trucker and a Pepsi trucker fighting as their bottles exploded. CBS reportedly chose not to run the ad since both Coke and Pepsi are major sponsors, instead running an older ad.
Oh, and the Ravens won the Super Bowl, which was held up by a blackout for about a half-hour.
Rabbi on the ‘Shark Tank’
Moshe Weiss, a Minnestoa rabbi, dropped by ABC’s reality show “Shark Tank” over the weekend to make a pitch for his business venture, replete with plenty of “oy veys” and the playing of “Hava Nagila.”
Weiss, a father of three from St. Paul, described his job as requiring a lot of faith — a virtue he likes to apply to his business. Weiss is the inventor of the Sound Bender, a magnetic, power-free amplifier that attaches magnetically to the iPad to enhance its sound.
The playing of “Hava Nagila” was to show the panel the Sound Bender’s capabilities. The sharks mostly laughed at Weiss, noting that he had “chutzpah,” but also voicing skepticism about the product.
Still, FuBu CEO Daymond John granted the $54,000 requested by the rabbi in exchange for 40 percent of his company’s shares.
Greenfield’s ‘SNL’ bar mitzvah
Max Greenfield, the stud who plays Schmidt on FOX’s “The New Girl,” sat down with Jimmy Fallon to talk about his Emmy nomination and his bar mitzvah, which had a “Saturday Night Live” theme.
Greenfield said his first call after being nominated for a Golden Globe was to his mom. After hearing Green was up against Mandy Patinkin of “Homeland,” she responded, “You’re up against Saul?” with apparent disbelief.
He also showed the audience some photos from the bar mitzvah. Greenfield was an adorable 13-year-old in his braces, yarmulke and tallit.
Babs is back playing the Oscars
Barbra Streisand will perform at this year’s Academy Awards — the first time in nearly four decades she will grace the Oscars stage — show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced.
“In an evening that celebrates the artistry of movies and music, how could the telecast be complete without Barbra Streisand?” the producers said in a statement. “We are honored that she has agreed to do a very special performance on this year’s Oscars, her first time singing on the show in 36 years.”
In that 1977 Oscars offering, she sang “Evergreen.”
The lineup of performers this year also features Adele, who is slated to perform “Skyfall,” the song from the recent James Bond movie. Norah Jones will sing “Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from “Ted,” which is nominated for Best Original Song.
Hoffman rips Hollywood on gun use
Dustin Hoffmanjoined the gun-control debate, telling NPR radio last week that he disapproves of gun usage in films and that Hollywood discriminates against actors who don’t want to use guns in their films.
“I have always felt passionate about the fact that the audience is identifying [with movie violence] in a very fraudulent way,” Hoffman said. “I don’t find anything interesting about a gun. A gun is there to threaten or kill.”
Hoffman’s feelings about guns in the entertainment industry date back to the 1960s, when a “guy who was part of a theater company on the producing end … came out and pointed this gun” over a work-related issue.
“I don’t think people understand what it’s like to have a gun pointed at you,” Hoffman said. “When it happened to me, [it was] after Kennedy had just been assassinated. I was in Boston. I remember thinking, ‘I’m going to take a hit’ and every second you are feeling the bullet go straight through you,” the actor said.
He added, “You’re in immediate shock. I’ve never forgotten that feeling.”
The 75-year-old Jewish actor said he attempted to stay away from using guns in his films throughout his career, although he did use one in the 1970 film “Little Big Man” and the following year in “Straw Dogs,” and again in “Hook” in 1991. Hoffman said that directors often would use guns and violence in their films to boost the plot’s excitement since “the script is lacking,” and hinted that his career might have suffered because of his feelings.
“If you are not holding a gun, and that is something I have always refused to do, then suddenly this person who was always offered leading roles suddenly gets offered supporting parts. Then you … start getting offered cameos,” he said.
Sarah Silverman will Skype with you
Want Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman as a digital pen pal? Of course you do.
Just donate $5,000 to the Jerusalem-based solar energy company Energiya Global, which is run by her brother-in-law, Yossi “Kaptain Sunshine” Abramowitz. An active supporter of green energy, Abramowitz has initiated projects all around the world. His latest involves turning a landfill on San Cristobal Island into a 300-kilowatt, 1,200-panel solar field, since the Galapagos Islands currently gets power from diesel fuel that results in pollution.
Abramowitz is looking for $250,000 in donations, and is not ashamed to use his famed sister-in-law to help him get there, Green Prophet reports. Silverman has pledged to send signed autographs to the first 50 people who send $75 in donations. A lucky donor will get to Skype with Silverman for a $5,000 pledge.
Berlin Holocaust memorial for fashion photos?
Fashion blogger Pelayo Dia, the face and voice of the blog KateLovesMe.net, was ridiculed on the Internet this week after he used Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe as a backdrop for a photo shoot.
The blogger said the visit to the memorial was “definitely worth the wait” and found the “concrete blocks trying to reach the sky” so moving, he had to snap some fashionable photos of himself with his Celine bag and Balenciaga shoes.
New York Magazine and Jezebel both remarked on how tasteless it was, noting that EasyJet had to pull 300,000 copies of its flight magazine in 2009 after it ran an eight-page article titled ”A Quick Guide to the Chic Side of Berlin” in which models posed between the pillars of the Holocaust memorial.
Porn king Ron Jeremy recovering
Ron Jeremy, who appeared in more than 2,000 adult films during some 30 years in the porn industry, is recovering in a Los Angeles hospital after suffering an aneurysm near his heart. After feeling a heaviness in his chest, the 59-year-old drove himself to the hospital, where he was diagnosed and placed in intensive care.
His management team took to Twitter to update fans on his status, tweeting, “Please keep Ron in your thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery. – (Management) #PrayForRon.” Jeremy will remain in the hospital for the next two weeks to be monitored.
Although he is officially retired, Jeremy, who was an actor and director, still appears occasionally in films.
Lena Dunham is writing another HBO show
HBO can’t get enough of Lena Dunham. The actress and writer of the cable network’s “Girls” is penning a new comedy, according to Deadline, with “Girls” executive producer Jenni Konner.
The show will be based on the memoir “All Dressed Up and Everywhere to Go,” about the life of Betty Halbreich, a personal shopper who works at Bergdorf Goodman. HBO has already bought the rights to the book, which picks apart the lives of rich and glamorous Manhattanites.
Halbreich, 85, still works at Bergdorf and has famously dressed celebs such as Meryl Streep, Katie Couric and Sarah Jessica Parker. HBO has yet to officially confirm the show, but did confirm Dunham’s involvement in another network show.
The New Yorker profiled Halbreich last November, featuring the veteran Jewish fashion therapist as an important part of fashion history.
Koch doc opens shortly after his passing
This seems to be creepy karma, but Ed Koch wouldn’t have it any other way. Hours after the former mayor of New York City died of congestive heart failure, former Wall Street Journal reporter Neil Barksy’s documentary on Koch opened in city theaters.
“Former Mayor Ed Koch is the quintessential New Yorker. Still ferocious, charismatic and hilariously blunt, the now 88-year-old Koch ruled New York from 1978 to 1989 — a down-and-dirty decade of grit, graffiti, near-bankruptcy and rampant crime,” a news release about the film says.
The documentary tells Koch’s life story — his 1977 mayoral election, the 1980 transit strike, the AIDS epidemic and a municipal corruption scandal.
Koch also died on the anniversary of the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded in Pakistan in 2002. Koch’s tombstone quotes Pearl’s last words: ”My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I’m a Jew.” Koch’s tombstone also has a Star of David as well as the Shema prayer.
Apatow eyeing a ‘Knocked Up’ trilogy
Judd Apatow is preparing for total Hollywood domination. Following his recent film “This is 40,” which was a sequel to his 2007 comedy “Knocked Up,” Apatow hinted that he might make a third film and turn the series into a trilogy.
In an interview with Getty, the Jewish filmmaker said the next film would be a good opportunity for his daughter, Maude, when she hits college, even though she’s only 14 and has a ways to go before college.
“When we first met Maude’s character, Sadie, she was 8 years old, she didn’t understand where babies come from and now we see her five years later and she’s just cursing and screaming and having teenager problems, so I’m thinking that maybe in the next one she’s in college,” Apatow said.
He added, “or maybe I’m just lazy and this is a great way to make home movies.”
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