Since I already have the tribe on my mind today, it seems only natural that this unbeknownst to me news should hit especially powerfully. On Monday I posted at Gothamist about the "Evening with Woody Allen" at Lincoln Center during which Allen would apparently sit for a Q&A and audience members (for between $30-100 a pop) could see an advance screening of his latest film Match Point. Not know what I was watching the first time I saw the trailer, I was shocked by the trailer because this film certainly looks little like much (if anything) we've seen previously from Woody.
Well, I didn't get to the Lincoln Center event, but Gawker did, and while I found their reportage on the event interesting, it's the "Update" that really struck a chord:
It would seem that Scarlett Johansson’s mother is Jewish, which of course makes her Jewish, which means that there is a Jew in the cast. Who knew.
Not I, for sure. In fact I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that Scarlett Johannson is Jewish?!? But can I ask the other male heterosexual members of my faith (Ashkenazi or Sephardic?), does hearing that a certain incredibly attractive and sexy woman -- and, notable acting talent aside, Ms. Scarlett somehow becomes a wee bit hotter in every film -- is Jewish somehow make her even more attractive? Is it this family inbred thing about marrying Jewish that does it? Or am I all alone here. I mean sure, I didn't know that Rachel Weisz was Jewish when I first fell in love upon "meeting" her while she was sunbathing nude in the Tuscan countryside in Stealing Beauty, but ah how she rose higher through my ranks upon discovering her heritage.
Or the two big crushes of my late teens, through college and even on to today? Crazy Winona Ryder who had my heart thanks to the triumvirate of Beetlejuice, 1969 and especially Heathers.
Or my all time great unrequited Hollywood crush, Brooklyn-dweller Jennifer Connelly. The vastly underrated Some Girls had me hooked. Her own nude sunbathing scenes in The Hot Spot saved that crapfest in my then-18-year-old eyes. And as John Hughes was discovering he no longer had it in him to make a good teen comedy, the image of her enticing Dermot Mulroney while riding that mechanical hobby horse always made Career Opportunities almost worthwhile. Then came what was supposed to be her starmaking turn in The Rocketeer, and as the main film writer for the UCLA Daily Bruin, I somehow found myself waiting in a suite room at the Bel Age Hotel for my one-on-one interview with none other than the only J.C. this Jewish 19 year old from San Francisco cared about. Oh no ... there's no good story here. I never had any misconceptions of wowing or wooing the stunning Hollywood starlet (who at the time was rumored to be secretly engaged to Rocketeer co-star Bill Campbell). But was I nervous? Sure. Did we have a pleasant enough conversation? Yeah. In fact, I remember her seeming incredibly down-to-earth and very nice. Have I ever wished I was now Paul Bettany? Damn straight. Oh yeah ... and all that time, I never even knew that she, too, was fucking Jewish!
Oh, and by the way ... just while I'm being all sexed-up male and everything, as sexy as Jewess Johannson looks in Match Point, lets not ignore her gentile counterpart Emily Mortimer who is deceptively stunning as hell. If you've seen Young Adam, you'll know what I mean, as she reveals herself in two scenes with co-star Ewan McGregor (neither of the two particularly pretty story-wise). If you haven't seen it and are curious ... uhm ... I'm actually not a fan of recommending lechery but ....
OK ... I apologize. I think I need a shower!
Comments