The Big “O”
Director Sidney Lumet, 80, will receive a lifetime achievement Oscar on Feb. 27. While Lumet is most famous for huge hits like “Dog Day Afternoon,” he also made “The Pawnbroker,” still one of the most gripping Holocaust films and “Bye, Bye, Braverman,” a comedic gem about Jewish intellectuals. Lumet will discuss “The Pawnbroker” in the AMC cable documentary, “Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust,” premiering April 5.
The humanitarian award this year goes to Roger Mayer, the president of Turner Entertainment. As well as being active in film charities, he’s a major donor to the United Jewish Welfare Fund.
Competing for the best short documentary award is “Sister Rose’s Passion,” a riveting film about an elderly New Jersey nun who has battled anti-Semitism for decades. The Oscar-nominated director is Oren Jacoby (his filmmaker father is Jewish and was nominated 46 years ago in the same category). Meanwhile, in the best long documentary category is “Born into Brothels,” about the children of Calcutta prostitutes. “Born” recently opened in the Bay Area to raves. The director is Zana Briski, whose Iraqi Jewish mother now lives in Israel. Briski’s co-nominee is Ross Kaufman, the film’s co-producer and co-photographer.
Briski didn’t just film her subjects — she taught the children photography and tried to get them into boarding schools.
Comings and Goings
Feb. 20 saw the second season premiere of the sexually frank Showtime series “The L Word.” Mia Kirshner (as the Jewish character Jenny Schecter) and Erin Daniels (as a pro tennis player) co-star. The show has been a smash — including the DVD sales of the first season. This year, Sandra Bernhard appears in a recurring role as an English professor. She says, ‘They asked if I wanted to do a role. I said yes, if it was someone who didn’t kiss anybody and wasn’t naked. I didn’t want to be one of the chicks in and out of other chicks’ beds. I thought that would be inappropriate at this point in my life. But I think it’s going to be an outstanding role, one I knew would stretch my acting ability.”
“NYPD Blue” ends it’s 12-year run March 1, to be replaced on March 8 by another ABC series by “Blue” co-creator Steve Bochco. It’s called “Blind Justice,” and it’s about a police detective who tries to keep on working after being blinded by a gunshot. The beautiful Rena Sofer co-stars as the detective’s wife. Let’s hope that Sofer, the daughter of a rabbi, ends her jinx of being in short-lived series.
Briefly Quoted:
“Growing up in Kansas, I had a Jewish mother who would keep saying, ‘Eat, eat, eat!'” (New Motion Picture Association head and former Rep. Dan Glickman explaining what qualified him to be Clinton’s Secretary of Agriculture). …”Friends, countrymen, self-loathing Jews, lend me your ears.” (Comedian Jon Lovitz at a recent tribute to Steve Martin). … “Don’t give me the guilt” (Billy Crystal to the Israeli consul who stopped backstage of Crystal’s Broadway show, “700 Sundays,” and asked him why he hadn’t visited Israel for 22 years. Crystal, by the way, recently gave away 55 tickets to the members of a Jewish seniors club who were left ticketless after their ticket broker went bankrupt.)
Columnist Nate Bloom is the Oakland-based editor of www.jewhoo.com.