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Friday January 11, 2008

Celebrities

by nate bloom

Golden Globes do not glitter

The Golden Globe awards ceremony was canceled this year due to the Writers Guild of America strike. The winners will be announced in a press conference format that NBC will televise this Sunday, Jan. 13. A special award for Steven Spielberg will be deferred until 2009.

The Jewish nominees in the acting categories include Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer”) and Patricia Arquette (“Medium”), who go head-to-head for best actress in a TV drama. Debra Messing (“The Starter Wife”) is nominated for best actress in an original TV movie, while our English landsman Jason Isaacs (“The State Within”) is up for best actor in an original TV movie.

David Duchovny, whose late father was Jewish, vies for a Globe for best actor in a comedy TV series (“Californication”). William Shatner (“Boston Legal”) and Jeremy Piven (“Entourage”) compete for the Globe for best supporting actor in a comedy series.

Fox is a mensch

Actor Michael J. Fox, 47, is the co-winner of the Union of Reform Judaism’s Maurice N. Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award. With his body shaking from Parkinson’s disease, Fox accepted the award Dec. 14 at the URJ’s biennial in San Diego.

The former star of TV’s “Family Ties” and “Spin City” has been tireless in his work for Parkinson’s disease research and has been a strong advocate for stem cell research. The Michael J. Fox Foundation has raised and spent over $50 million for Parkinson’s research. Fox’s work was praised by Union President Rabbi Eric Yoffie as “in keeping with the highest ideals of Judaism.”

So far as I know, Fox, who was not born Jewish, has not converted to Judaism (although that is possible). He belongs to a Manhattan Reform synagogue that he attends with his Jewish wife, actress Tracy Pollan, and their four children. The oldest one has been bar mitzvahed. Fox told the convention about helping his daughters with their Hebrew school homework.

TV and movie notes

As the writers’ strike drags on, the number of “all new” episodes of scripted TV shows has dwindled down to very few or none. However, the TBS comedy series “10 Items or Less” filmed its second season of eight shows before the strike began. It premieres Tuesday, Jan. 15. John Lehr, 42, stars as the manager of a family-owned supermarket. (11 p.m. with reruns during the week.)

Woody Allen’s new film “Cassandra’s Dream” is a sort of black comedy about two working-class English brothers, played by Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell. (Opens Jan. 18.)

McGregor, 36, is a handsome Scotsman who was born into a Protestant family. He became internationally famous playing the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the “Star Wars” prequel films.

Last September, McGregor told a Scottish paper that he and his wife, French Jewish film designer Eve Mavrakis, are raising their three young daughters in their mother’s Jewish faith. McGregor told the same paper that he has been to Israel several times: “My family is Jewish and we went there because of that.”

Meanwhile, Allen told the New York Daily News that he is proud of Ronan Farrow, 20, his son with Mia Farrow, who was admitted to Yale Law School at 19 and is doing human rights work. Although father and son are totally estranged, Allen chooses to look on the bright side: “I could be reading that he was caught in a stickup at the liquor store.”

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

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