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Wednesday November 21, 2007

Celebrities

by nate bloom

Star Trekery

Winona Ryder, 36, has been cast as Mr. Spock’s human mother in the upcoming “Star Trek” film about the adventures of the young Spock and the young Captain Kirk. As Trek fans know, Mr. Spock is the product of a mixed marriage — his father is Vulcan and his mother is human. Ryder, who grew up in Petaluma, also comes from a mixed background — her father is Jewish and her mother, now a Buddhist, was not born Jewish. Ryder has referred to herself as Jewish a couple of times and talked about relatives lost in the Holocaust, but she wasn’t raised in a particular faith.

The new “Trek” film, directed by J.J. Abrams of “Lost” fame, is set to open in late 2008. It was recently announced that William Shatner will not appear as the old Kirk. Leonard Nimoy will appear as the old Spock and Anton Yelchin, 18, will play Chekov, the role created by actor Walter Koenig.

Adrienne Shelly tribute

Filmmaker and actress Adrienne Shelly, 40, was murdered in November 2006. A few months later, her indie film, “Waitress,” opened to good reviews and strong ticket sales. (It comes out on DVD on Nov. 27).

Shelly’s husband, Andy Ostroy, founded the Adrienne Shelly Foundation after her death to award film school scholarships and grants to women filmmakers. The first gala benefit for the foundation was held Nov. 12 in New York. Attendees included Rosanna Arquette, Gina Gershon and Keri Russell, who had the lead role in “Waitress.”

Russell, 31, co-stars in “August Rush,” a film about a young musical prodigy and his search to find the parents he never knew. (It opened Nov. 21.) Russell’s background is the subject of confusing press reports. While I am pretty sure she was not raised Jewish, J.J. Abrams, who cast her as the star of the hit TV show “Felicity,” referred to Russell as “partly Jewish” in a recent interview.

Putting on the hits

The musical version of Mel Brooks’ hit 1974 film, “Young Frankenstein,” opened on Broadway Nov. 8. Reviews were so-so, but the show was doing great at the box office. (It features new songs by Brooks). Sales are being helped because the theater where “Young Frankenstein” is playing is covered by a separate union agreement and has been unaffected by the stagehands strike, which has shut down most Broadway theaters.

A new biography of Brooks, “It’s Good to Be the King,” by James Robert Parish, sheds some light on the origin of “Young Frankenstein.” When Brooks was a teenager in Brooklyn in the 1930s, he would entertain his pals by singing Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” in a Boris Karloff accent (Karloff played Frankenstein in the original movie). The Ritz number is in the new musical, and reviewers said it is a major highlight.

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