Esther Kustanowitz: March 2009 Archives

Frustrated with the conflict in the Middle East? Wondering if the strife in the region will ever be resolved? Despondent over the fact that Muslims, Jews, and Christians can't agree on anything? Well, don't have a sacred cow, man: one of the US's top ambassadors is reportedly on his way to try his hand at uniting the region...Homer Simpson's going to the Holy Land.

According to Ha'aretz:
Multiple media sources have quoted the show's executive producer, Al Jean, as saying that America's number one animated family will head to the Holy Land next year.

"I think we're going to do one next year where they go to the Holy Land as we haven't been there yet. The premise will be that the Christians, the Jews and Muslims are united in that they all get mad at Homer. It's the only thing they can agree on," Jean said.

Finally, a peace process America can believe in.

I am a huge fan of Twitter - I adore that it brings me a slice of people's lives, both strangers and familiars, and allows me to connect with people I might have otherwise never met. Because for me Twitter is about that connection with people, I don't follow too many big celebs who twitter (Jimmy Fallon, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, etc), especially those who I suspect are just jumping on the trend in a popularity contest-- I have nothing in common with them, and am doubtful that I'll be able to make a real connection with them. Plus, some of them may be using ghost-Twitterers. I do add people I really like, like my first celebrity Twitterpal, JJ Abrams favorite ("Felicity," "Alias," and a bit part as the pilot on "Lost") now-Hero Greg Grunberg.

Greg, or "Grunny," as he's known to his fans and Twitter friends, was one of the first actors to embrace the medium and use it to connect with fans, promote both his show ("Heroes") and his band (The Band from TV, a group of TV stars who jam for charity), and advance his commitment to epilepsy education and awareness (his son is afflicted).

Oh, Harry Potter--your Quidditch games, your friendships with Hermione and Ron, your crush on Cho Chang, and who could forget "wingardium leviosa" (that's the spell that helps you float objects)! You've inspired the imagination of so many...including, apparently, Iranian TV, which aired a special about Western cinema-- and Harry Potter specifically--in December. According to the special, the "Ziono-Hollywoodists" are using Satanism and the Harry Potter movies to convince young viewers to "join us."

In the documentary, the voiceover (with translation by MEMRI-TV) notes "the creation of new stories, based on mythical themes relating to witchcraft and devil worship, has always been a tool used by contemporary Zionists [...] now, more visibly than ever, targeting innocent children and youth." The documentary explains that the theory of witchcraft originates in the kabbalah, which itself originated "from a rabbi or magicians of ancient Egypt and were passed down to the Knights Templar." (No worries, this is the closest thing to a "Da Vinci Cod"e reference in the documentary.)

"I call this a cultural crusader war..." says Ali Asghar Sa'adati, identified as an Iranian Expert on Religious Cinema. " Their military expedition is currently in Afghanistan and Iraq, while their cultural expedition consists of these films and DVDs."

Thus far, "Big Love" has gone to great lengths to distance their storyline-- a polygamous marriage in Utah-- from the Mormon faith. The central characters, the Henricksons, don't refer to themselves as Mormons, and even the throwback sect at Juniper Creek doesn't say the word Mormon. But last night's episode has some members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints riled up, not for an unrealistic or unflattering depiction of Mormons, but because the HBO show depicted a secret temple ritual that usually is not open to outsiders.

According to the Chicago Tribune, some mainstream Mormons are considering a boycott and "canceling subscriptions to companies owned by HBO's parent company Time Warner," because of the show's treatment of a rite called "the endowment ceremony." But the Church itself is not taking a boycott position.

"Certainly Church members are offended when their most sacred practices are misrepresented or presented without context or understanding," the church said in a statement. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an institution does not call for boycotts. Such a step would simply generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end would increase audiences for the series."

In the episode titled "Rough Edges" (and this might be considered a spoiler, so duck out now if you're concerned), pretty much everything is dissolving. Nikki's been kicked out while Bill thinks about her betrayal; she is living at Juniper Creek with her uber-creepy brother, and being visited by her previous husband (Zeljko Ivanek, in his third memorable role in the last year) who talks about an unnamed third person ("she's doing well, do you want to see her? She won't remember you...") who we can only assume is a daughter that the two had before she was unsealed from him. Drama, but not for LDS followers.

Every year, our family gathers for the Passover seder (actually we do two seders-- sedarim, if you want to be Hebraically accurate-- because of our status as Jews in the Diaspora, while in Israel they only have one, but that's not the point here). We have riveting discussions about the text of the Haggadah (the liturgical guide for the Passover seder), Hebrew word origins, and the nature of freedom. And of course, we eat. It's a fairly intense and often entertaining experience. But never have we screened dailies of the film we were working on that was destined to become a classic.

For those of you who aren't schooled in Hollywood-speak, "dailies" refers to raw and unedited footage shot that day. And for those of us who wondered what goes on at a Hollywood-style seder, we finally have an inside peek, courtesy of a panel at the SXSW conference held in Austin this weekend.

In their promotional junket for "I Love You Man," Jason Segel and Paul Rudd talked about buddy movies with their director, John Hamburg. Over the course of the panel (as reported by EW), Hamburg revealed that his cousin is Doug Liman, the director of Swingers.

Yahoo! News reports that Pulitzer-prize winning author Alice Walker, who wrote "The Color Purple," is traveling to Gaza with a group of female activists to deliver aid and meet with non-governmental organizations and residents. The trip was organized by U.S....

The traditional Jewish tallis (or tallit) is blue and white, a fringed prayer shawl with four corners. But if you're Scottish and Jewish and looking for a way to express your binational pride, now you can own your very own...

Twenty-five years later, and the "Spinal Tap" gang is getting the band back together. The trio at the core of Spinal Tap, a fake heavy metal band profiled in the mockumentary "This is Spinal Tap," Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and...