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Tuesday February 17, 2004

celebrity jews

by nate bloom

Grammy finis

Michael Tilson Thomas, music director of the San Francisco Symphony, was honored Sunday, Feb. 8 with the Grammy for best classical album (Mahler No. 3). For a complete listing of all the winners, visit www.Grammys.com.

Dave Samuels, a great vibes player, is the leader of the Caribbean Jazz Project, which was nominated for best Latin Jazz album for “Birds of a Feather.” Samuels told an interviewer that he became fluent in Hebrew when he spent a year in Israel just after high school. He called it the most exhilarating experience of his life and that he developed a “fervor for the Jewish people.”

Also in Latin music is Andres Levin. A Venezuela native, Levin came to the States in 1989. He’s the frontman and producer of Yerba Buena, a group that melds many influences. Levin plays guitar, bass and keyboards. The band’s CD “President Alien” scored a nomination for best Latin rock/alternative album. Levin has produced many leading acts, Latin and otherwise. Yerba Buena picked up the Grammy in this category in 2002.

I should add that a friend just gave me some info from a senior member of the Jamaican Jewish community about Sean Paul, a Jamaican musician who won the Grammy for best reggae, with his CD “Dutty Rock.” While Paul was described as Sephardi on his father’s side in Vanity Fair, our Jamaican landsman tells us that Paul’s immediate family hasn’t been connected to the organized Jamaican Jewish community since Paul’s great-grandfather’s time. While Paul has some Jewish ancestry, our source wasn’t sure “how Jewish” he really is.

Oscars I

The Oscars were moved to an early date this year — Feb. 29. This leaves me with just enough time to cover the Jewish nominees before the awards ceremony. No, it isn’t a banner year in terms of Jewish Oscar nominees. However, it isn’t quite as thin as some might imagine.

The good news is that Billy Crystal is back hosting the show after a three-year hiatus. Crystal just told the Toronto Star that he missed a great comic moment the year “Schindler’s List” won and he wasn’t hosting. Incredibly, a woman named Eva Braun won the first Oscar presented — for set design. “I sat there and went, ‘Oh, no.’ This can’t be possible. … I had a million lines flying through my head. You know, show the designs of Berchtesgaden ... she works only in brown.’“ (Actually, the Oscar winner spells her name Ewa.)

For me, 2004 will always be remembered as the year in which the (non-Jewish) Clint Eastwood gave forth with the most surprising Oscar-related Jewish remark since the (non-Jewish) Bob Hope said, “Oscar time, or — as it is known in my house — Passover.”

Eastwood, who directed the hit “Mystic River,” was interviewed in the Jan. 23 issue of USA Weekend, just before the Oscar nominations were announced. He was asked about the possibility of nominations for his flick. He responded, “Kineahora! Kineahora!” The reporter retorted, “Pardon?” Eastwood said, “That’s a Jewish expression meaning ‘Don’t talk about it. It’s bad luck.’” Clint then laughed. (“Kineahora” is the way USA Weekend spelled it. This newspaper uses kin ahora for the Yiddish term, which means “May you be spared from the evil eye.”)

Well, the evil eye kept away from “Mystic River” — it got six Oscar nominations, including best picture, best director, and best actor — Sean Penn. Penn, 43, is the son of the late Leo Penn, a Jewish actor and director who died in 1998. Leo Penn’s film acting career was cut off in the late ‘40s when he was blacklisted. He kept busy as a stage actor and turned to directing in the late ‘50s. He established himself as a top TV director in the late ‘60s.

Sean’s mother, actress Eileen Ryan, was born a Catholic. According to Michael Penn, Sean’s brother and a well-known musician, the Penn kids were “raised secular.”

Sean Penn, who lives in Ross in Marin County, is a controversial figure — from his fights with nosy reporters in the ‘80s to his current vocal opposition to the Iraq war. However, there is no question but that he is a great actor now at the top of his game. He could have easily snared another Oscar nomination for “21 Grams,” and he’s already won the Golden Globe for “Mystic River.”

Incidentally, Sean’s daughter in “Mystic River” was played by Emmy Rossum, a 17-year-old Jewish actress we profiled last year. (More Oscars next week.)

Nate Bloom is the Oakland-based editor of www.Jewhoo.com.

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