Jews give Jews some Jewish awards

You’ve heard of the Oscars. But have you heard of the Almas? The website Alma, geared to young and feminist Jews, has for the third time awarded “best in Jewish pop culture in 5781” status to a whole bunch of talented Jews in show business and the arts. Among them actor-rapper Dave “Lil Dicky” Burd, actress Hannah Einbinder, Olympian Linoy Ashram and the multitalented Bay Area native Daveed Diggs.

 

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Put a ring on it … or not

Actor Tiffany Haddish has made it clear that if her boyfriend, the rapper Common, proposes to her, she wants something a bit bigger than a diamond. “If he decides he wants to marry me, cool. I don’t want a ring, I want an apartment building,” she said in an interview. “Come at me with a deed, baby, don’t come at me with a ring. Because if you’re trying to buy my life and change my last name to your last name, a ring ain’t gonna do it. We can get the ring after you can get the building.”

Bergman, but make it Jewish

Israeli director Hagai Levi (of critically acclaimed TV shows “In Treatment” and “The Affair”) has done a remake of Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 Swedish TV series “Scenes From a Marriage” as a series for HBO. There’s a bit of a Jewish twist, though. Oscar Isaac plays an ex-Orthodox Jew while Jessica Chastain has an off-screen Israeli lover. Levi said bringing Jewishness to it gave him a way into the story, adding that his own upbringing influenced the characters. “When you grow up as a religious person, you have a lot of inhibitions, and you can over-intellectualize, and this damages their marriage,” he told Vanity Fair.

Jake can’t stop with the lox

In an interview ostensibly to promote his new campaign as the face of Prada perfume, Jake Gyllenhaal waxed poetic about New York City deli Russ & Daughters. He’s collaborated with the deli before, modeling a shirt. Does that get him any freebies? “You would think it would be free lox, but they don’t pull any punches. You’ve got to pay for that no matter what,” the actor told Vanity Fair. His faves from the shop? Thinly sliced nova and chocolate babka.

Hitmaker weds actress

Mazel tov to Mark Ronson — hitmaker behind songs like “Uptown Funk” and Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” — and actress Grace Gummer (daughter of Meryl Streep). Ronson shared a wedding picture on Instagram in which he’s wearing a kippah and walking away from the chuppah, hand in hand with Gummer. Ronson, who once said, “I do feel better when I’m in the synagogue than when I’m not,” married Gummer on his 46th birthday.

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Salsa great dies

Salsa titan Larry Harlow has died at the age of 82. Credited with popularizing the genre in the U.S., he was proud of his own roots while devoting his life to the culture of another place. “Harlow never tried to pretend he was not who he was,” the New York Times wrote in its obituary. “Even after achieving insider status in the Santería community, he was often photographed wearing a Star of David around his neck.”