Let him sing!
We didn’t learn until just before the Oscars that Uruguayan Jorge Drexler, the Oscar winner for best song, is the son of a German Jewish refugee to Uruguay and a non-Jewish mother. Drexler, who was raised Jewish, won for his song “Al Otro Lado del Rio,” which he sings in “The Motorcycle Diaries.” Drexler, 40, is also a medical doctor who has lived in Israel. A few of his songs are on Jewish-related themes.
Spanish-language papers covered the firestorm created when the Oscar show producers wouldn’t allow Drexler to perform his song, giving the spot to the more famous Antonio Banderas. The director of “Motorcycle Diaries” called the decision ethically and aesthetically “unacceptable.” Drexler responded by limiting his acceptance speech to singing a few verses of the song (without being kitschy), something Banderas was unable to do.
Bebe’s back
Bebe Neuwirth (“Cheers”) returned to TV recently in the new NBC series “Law and Order: Trial by Jury.” Neuwirth plays a tough Manhattan prosecutor. Her co-star for the first two episodes is the late Jerry Orbach. The show is filmed in New York.
The actress says that her last memory of Orbach was bittersweet. Orbach picked up a cane that happened to be on the set of “Trial” and performed a bit of Broadway magic — kicking it in the air so the cane spun like a pinwheel. Like Orbach, Neuwirth’s love is the musical theater, and it seemed to me when I spoke to her last summer that she probably wouldn’t do another TV series unless it was made in New York.
Where they are now
The most memorable character in the hit ’80s teen sitcom “Saved by the Bell” was Screech, a guy who looked and acted goofy, as played by San Jose native Dustin Diamond.
Diamond is now doing standup, playing clubs and colleges. Recently, Diamond, 28, spoke to the Detroit Jewish News following a Hillel-sponsored appearance at an area college. He told the Detroit paper that a career as a child model led to his casting in “Saved” when he was 11.
Seth Green (“Austin Powers”) directs a new show on the Cartoon Network. Titled “Robot Chicken,” this lampoon of popular culture debuted Feb. 20 in the network’s “adult swim” bloc of cartoons.
Green recently told National Public Radio that he appeared in his first film at age 8 and that his steady, if not stellar, career as a child actor made his life harder in high school. He said the other kids thought his fame made him weird and there was no way he could fit in. The only place he could be himself, he said, was in his “pretty cool” synagogue youth group.
Columnist Nate Bloom is the Oakland-based editor of www.jewhoo.com.