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Thursday August 30, 2007

Celebrity Jews

by Nate Bloom

Larry’s wife — dating the gardener?

In July, it was announced that comedian Larry David, 60, co-creator of “Seinfeld” and star of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and his wife of 14 years, environmental activist Laurie David, 49, were divorcing. Now comes news from the fashionable summer island resort of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., that Laurie David is dating Bart Thorpe, a hunk who used to work as Larry and Laurie’s gardener.

Laurie and Bart are staying at the Vineyard estate Laurie formerly shared with Larry. So poor Larry is now exiled from his summer home, which he called “Camp David.” Currently he is staying at the Vineyard home of his friends Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen.

According to the Boston Herald, Larry is dating other people, too, and trying to keep his spirits up. Meanwhile, catty reporters are getting on Laurie’s case — claiming that the “greener-than-thou” Laurie usually travels to and from the Vineyard on a private jet.

Farm Aid in the Big Apple

The annual Farm Aid concerts were started by Willie Nelson in 1985 to help family farmers. This year’s focus is on buying local, with the aim of helping small farmers near urban areas. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City has been a supporter of local farmers and farmers markets, so it’s fitting that the 2007 Farm Aid Concert is being held in New York for the first time, on Sunday, Sept. 9.

The musical line-up includes Nelson, Dave Matthews, Neil Young, Matisyahu (the now-famous Chasidic reggae singer), Adam Duritz (lead singer of the band Counting Crows) and Guster, a popular rock band whose three members are Jewish (Adam Gardner, Brian Miller and Ryan Rosenworcel).

Duritz, who was raised in Berkeley, just started touring with the Crows after a long hiatus. The band’s first studio CD in five years will be released in November. If you are an XM radio suscriber, you can listen to the concert live. (It may be shown on TV at a later date.)

If you read the review of the new Billy Joel biography in last week’s j., you learned that the singer is certainly not a perfect person. But one thing is sure — nobody is going to have to do a benefit for him in the near future. On Aug. 17, people paid a staggering $3,000 a head to hear Joel, and the singer reportedly picked up a staggering $2 million for his night of work.

Spears, commandos and more

The attorney representing Kevin Federline, the ex-husband of “troubled” singer Britney Spears, hired a former Israeli commando, Aaron Cohen, to “hunt down” and serve legal papers to three of Spears’ associates. Federline is seeking sole physical custody of the couple’s two very young children and he wants these associates to testify about Spears’ problems. (I presume Aaron Cohen is not related to Isaac Cohen, a male model Spears dated briefly before her notorious head-shaving incident last February.)

Quite a few former Israeli military personnel can be found in various Hollywood-related security jobs. Almost all are trained in the Israeli martial art, Krav Maga, and some teach the technique to celebrity clients. The hosts of the History Channel program “Human Weapon” recently traveled to Israel to learn the history and techniques of Krav Maga — which they call the “deadliest and most effective hand-to-hand combat system to disarm and destroy assailants.” The Krav Maga episode airs Friday, Aug. 31, at 10 p.m.

Columnist Nate Bloom, an Oaklander, can be reached at middleoftheroad1@aol.com.

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