A musical ‘Mother’
Rachel Bilson, 28, guest stars on the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” in the episode airing Monday, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. The series’ lead character, Ted (Josh Radnor), is now a college professor. Bilson plays a student of his who turns into his love interest. Meanwhile, Ted’s buddy Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) has also found a new love. Monday’s episode is the series’ 100th and its being done in the form of a musical comedy. There are “clues” that Bilson’s character may be the woman who ultimately becomes the mother of Ted’s children.
May the Force be with Orszag
On Dec. 28, the New York Times politics blog had a charming account of the engagement of White House Budget Director Peter R. Orszag, 41, to ABC News business and financial news correspondent Bianna Golodryga, 31. The couple met last May at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Orzsag, a very organized workaholic, told the Times the source of his attraction: “She’s a Russian Jew who gets up even earlier than I do.” (I suspect that Ms. Golodryga’s stunning looks and smarts didn’t hurt either.)
Orszag told the Times that he “got clearance [to propose] this month from his two young children by his first marriage when the three of them vacationed in Florida.”
Orszag was an economics lecturer at U.C. Berkeley in 1999. His first wife, Cameron Hamill, a Palo Alto native, is a brainy beauty who used to work for the Treasury Department. (A rabbi presided over Orszag’s first marriage.)
Cameron’s mother, Robin Wiseman Kennedy, a Palo Alto attorney, is a member of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation Capital Planning Committee and is the former president of the board of directors of Hillel at Stanford. She is currently married to Dr. Donald Kennedy, the former Stanford president. Her ex-husband — Cameron’s father — Dr. William Hamill, is the brother of Oakland-raised actor Mark Hamill, 58, best known for playing Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars.”
So Luke Skywalker is the great-uncle of Orszag’s kids and, I guess, “the Force” is with them — and maybe even a little with Peter Orszag. Lord knows anyone trying to fix the country’s economy needs all the help he can get.
Mayer’s tweets
Singer-songwriter John Mayer, 32, made it big in late 2002 as his first album, “Room for Squares,” climbed the charts. He has maintained his popularity since and has also been in the headlines for dating celebs, such as Jennifer Aniston.
“Mayer” is often a Jewish surname, so for quite some time I checked reliable sources on the singer. But he never would talk to the media about his religious background. However, on Dec. 5, Mayer posted two Jewish-related tweets on his official Web site. He described himself as “half-Jewish” without providing any more meaningful details.
Jews around the Globes
The Golden Globes, for excellence in film and TV, air on NBC on Jan. 17 at 8 p.m. Competing for the best actor in a musical or comedy film category are Michael Stuhlbarg (“A Serious Man”) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“(500) Days of Summer”). But they are likely to be beaten out by either Daniel Day-Lewis (“Nine”) or Robert Downey Jr. (“Sherlock Holmes”). The latter two actors have some Jewish ties: Day-Lewis’ mother is Jewish, but he was baptized Anglican. Downey, whose paternal grandfather was Jewish, has referred to himself as “Jewish” or “half-Jewish” since he married film producer Susan Levin in a Jewish ceremony in 2005. Downey credits Levin as being the key to his recovery from drug addiction.