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February 26, 2009
Friday Footwear: The Chartres Edition
Years ago, while in pre-production, I was working with our brilliant but mercurial Wardrobe Designer, groping towards a specific and unique look for an actress.
I kept talking about blouses and skirts, fabric, cut, silhouette. I was, I admit, showing off my knowledge of Hollywood costume design history. I dropped learned references to the great designers: Adrian's (real name: Adrian Adolph Greenberg) brilliant work camouflaging Joan Crawford's linebacker shoulders with sharp padding, Travis Banton's Pygmalion transformation of Carole Lombard (real name: Jane Alice Peters) from a cheap tootsie into a sophisticated clothes horse, and Helen Rose's classically elegant and ultra-feminine chiffon creations for Elizabeth Taylor,
My Wardrobe Designer waved away my suggestions and said:
“Shoes.”
I was like: “Huh?”
She said: “For women, I build the wardrobe from the ground up. Footwear.”
My head was, I kid you not, spinning.
“The shoes a woman wears defines who she is.”
“Really?”
Wardrobe Designer gestured to an actress tipping around in fire engine nose-bleed stilettos.
“Daddy issues.”
Nodding towards a female production assistant clomping back and forth in thick-soled brogues, Wardrobe Designer said:
“Sudden attack of manhood.”
Light bulb ablaze over head. Ah, enlightenment.
Wardrobe Designer concluded: “Show me a woman's shoes and I know everything about her.”
“Everything?”
“Everything.”
Our interior designer, the exacting, but client-friendly Erin is back. So much work and so many visits to get a master bedroom into a livable, sleepable, workable space.
Looking all crisp and businesslike in dark pencil skirt inscribed with barely-there pinstripes, Erin listens as our electrician explains why he missed an appointment at Casa Avrech the other day:
“My union called me, out of the nowhere, said I had to take an unscheduled drug test. It's like this thing the union does with the membership.”
Erin chuckles, makes excellent small talk, putting the electrician at ease, then shoots across the room and examines an outlet. She talks placement, junction boxes, annoying wall studs. The electrician is putty in her hands. Erin is simultaneously boss-lady and girl-buddy. She's got that elegant Norma Shearer vibe cross referenced with tough girl Ida Lupino.
Her shoes—on sale at Saks—definitely carry the message.
Ruby Keeler's dancing shoes in the 1933 classic 42nd Street.
Yes, that's what these Chanel pumps reference.
But the design builds on Keeler's single strap shoes. Chanel adds two more straps—good things come in three's—and with the needle high heel we're getting a sultry hint of the combustible Brigitte Bardot in Viva Maria.
As we've said in previous posts, great footwear:
1. Inspires awe.
2. Intimidates with tiny shivers of fear.
And now we add a third commandment: Great footwear has:
3. Architectural presence.
The three straps echo the great flying buttresses of the Chartres Cathedral.
And the three pale shoe buttons recall the Napoleonic march of ivory buttons on leather opera gloves—a great romantic gesture—think Jeanette MacDonald in, oh, any of her light opera movies.
How to describe the color of the shoes?
Frankly, yours truly is stumped. It's an existential moment. Where to turn, what to do?
I consult with my friend Florence Azria, AKA The Shoe Goddess, a woman who has an almost Kabbalistic relationship with shoes.
Florence kvells over Erin's shoes and absolutely nails the color:
“Blush.”
Slip me on, whisper the shoes, and I will transform you into a terrifyingly capable woman, a woman who can easily kibitz with rough hewn electricians, go on to design and build great spaces—and yet remain special forces feminine.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:12 PM | Comments (24)
10,000 Violent Women and One Screenwriter, Part VI
EXT. PRISON YARD - DAY
The Screenwriter and the Corrections Officer are chatting about the list of prison movies Robert has promised to compile. Screenwriter and C.O. share a companionable relationship that is occasionally rattled by Cindy’s insatiable curiosity about her visitor’s private life.
Cindy: “You a Jew?”
INTERTITLE: Oy-vey!
Robert: “Why do you ask?”
Cindy: “Y’know, Hollywood… Jews.”
I would so love to continue this conversation, explore Cindy’s mind-set, but:
Robert: “What do you think?”
Cindy: “I think, yeah.”
Robert: “And if I am Jewish?”
Cindy gives an exaggerated shrug of the shoulders.
To read the complete story, please go to Big Hollywood.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:48 AM | Comments (14)
February 25, 2009
Stimulus Package for Hamas
Obama has pledged 900 million dollars to Gaza. That's almost a billion dollars. But who's counting? The money, ostensibly, is to rebuild infrastructure.
As if Hamas have ever been interested in building a functional society. In fact, the Hamas charter explicitly states that they have no interest in building a state, only in destroying Israel and establishing a Muslim caliphite.
No, the money will be used to rebuild the shattered Hamas military, purchase weapons, build bunkers, and of course, kill Jews.
Meanwhile, Obama's delegation at the Durban II have succeeded in legitimizing Jew-hatred by participating in a conference where Iran, Libya, and Cuba chair the human rights commission.
Seriously, you can't make this stuff up—actually, George Orwell predicted such moral insanity in his novel, “1984.”
Last night, President Obama conveniently side-stepped facts for fantasy.
And his foreign policy is also built on fantasy—the fantasy/fetish of engagement.
Obama's defenders claim that we have to try and talk with our enemies, we'll see what happens next.
Here's the problem with that line of thought: continuously engaging totalitarian regimes gives them the status and credibility they crave. Thus, Holocaust denial becomes just another point of view to be explored, and radical Islam's yearning for genocide against Jews is rendered as daily chatter, on par with the latest drama on American Idol—um, go Danny!
In the end, our allies feel abandoned, and our enemies emerge dominant.
It's a recipe for appeasement and the triumph of radical Islam over Judeo/Christian civilization.
Before the presidential elections, Seraphic Secret warned that a man who, for over 20-years, was a proud member of an America and Jew-hating church cannot be a reliable ally to Israel or an advocate for American power.
America and American Jews chose to ignore President's Obama's actions and instead swooned for his, ahem, elegance, and populist rhetoric.
Our mainstream media are no longer free. They no longer function as watchdog to big government. The mainstream media are but reliable extensions of Obama's administration, hence big government's reach has gone Soviet.
Worse, creatures like the New York Time's Roger Cohen and Nicholas Kristof shill for genocidal yearning regimes.
I am afraid.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:17 AM | Comments (26)
February 24, 2009
Israeli Princes Were Cut Down
On March 2,2008—a year ago in the Hebrew calendar, eight young students were murdered as they sat in Yeshiva Mercaz Harav learning Torah.
The life of every man, woman and child is a universe; here's a glimpse into the complex universe of one of the murdered children: Avraham David Moses, May His Blood Be Avenged.
Now living with her sons in Efrat as Rivkah Moses, she was picking up the pieces of her life, post-divorce. She had gone through a grueling [conversion] process in which she had to satisfy a beit din that her commitment to Judaism was unwavering.
"The judges kept asking me if I intended to continue the observant Jewish lifestyle." The custody of her two boys hung in the balance. "They never asked my husband that question. They just didn't trust that my conversion was for real." She finally managed to convince the court of the sincerity of her conversion, and the couple was awarded joint custody of their two children.
Just before her move to a smaller apartment, the local Palestinian used clothing collector came by for his regular pick up. She knew Abdul to be a kind and well-intentioned fellow from the nearby Arab village.
"Where is your husband?" He asked as he looked around, "Who is helping you move?"
"I have no husband" she replied. "I am divorced."
"Let me help you move" was Abdul's reply, "and I want to introduce you to a nice man. I can't believe that such a wonderful woman has no husband!"
The Palestinian used clothing collector had just become the matchmaker for two Orthodox Jews.
For the complete story by Brenda Sassoon-Rosmarin, please click here.
And don't forget B'lev Echad.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:45 AM | Comments (1)
February 23, 2009
Obama Gets Cozy with Jew-haters
In Gaza Jesus, Arafat and Obama are, um, G-ds. Theology gone wild.
Obama's move to participate in Durban 2 is in line with a sharp repositioning of American policy. Where Israel has been treated as the ally it is, now Obama will treat it as an equal to Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc. and it will defer American policy to anti-Israel organizations like the United Nations.
Friends and supporters of Israel should not deceive themselves into thinking that the Obama Administration is friendly toward Israel. Changing America's position on Durban 2 is a very troubling and hostile act.
Full story here.
This is shocking, just shocking.
I mean, who would have expected this kind of supine foreign policy from a man who spent over 20-years as a member of a Jew-hating church?
In fact, Obama has stacked his Mideast team with a solidly anti-Israeli group.
I think it's safe to assert that American Jews, who voted overwhelmingly for Obama, were and are in denial. Or they are idiots. Personally, I believe most American Jews suffer from cognitive dissonance. They have been born and bred as “good liberals” and the overwhelming evidence that liberalism is now a comfortable home for Jew haters and Israel haters is rejected or ignored. I used to be a lever-pulling Democrat, but my eyes were opened during the disastrous Carter administration. I switched to the Republican party and have never looked back. Carter has proven, time and again, to be a Jew-hater, an enabler of terrorism and a supporter of practically every totalitarian regime on planet earth. Obama is proving to be Carter II.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:22 AM | Comments (4)
February 22, 2009
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #205 Plus The Oscars
Joan Blondell looks for the Jewish Blogosphere.
Sarah From Down Under brings us: Haveil Havalim #205 Goodon, Sarah!
And what about The Oscars?
I'll be live-blogging—Karen will be at my side reminding me not to get too snarky—the event at Big Hollywood.
Here's Editor-in-Chief John Nolte's invitation.
This evening, February 22nd, starting around 4:30pm PST/ 7:30ET — please join Andrew Breitbart, Gary Graham, Iowahawk, Stage Right, Andrew Leigh, Robert J. Avrech, John Romano, Ernie Mannix and more… when The Big Hollywood Gang live-blogs the 81st annual Academy Awards. And you are encouraged to live-blog right along with us in both the comments and a special open thread that will be set up just for this occasion.
Our original plan was to include a drinking game where we would all down a shot every time a celebrity gushed over President Obama, but fear of blindness [and a massive migraine for yours truly] quashed that. So while we come up with something else, we hope you’ll make plans to be here.
My predictions?
The best gowns will be by Chanel, and Louboutin footwear will take all honors.
Oh, and Slumdog Millionaire will win Best Pic.
Good luck trying to see the other nominated films in your local movie theater.
Kate Winslet will win Best Actress for her sympathetic portrayal of a Jew-killing Nazi pedophile in The Reader, perhaps the most morally confused film ever produced in Hollywood—quite an accomplishment.
Poor girl couldn't read the sign that said: “Don't Burn The Jews.”
Illiteracy: the new excuse for genocide.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:57 AM | Comments (13)
February 20, 2009
The Frum Feminist Steps Out
“What's taking her so long?”
On the set of one of my films a few years ago, our leading lady, a star, a diva, an incredibly beautiful woman, was holding up the shoot. In answer to my question, our director threw up his hands in despair. He and Leading Lady had stopped speaking to one another on the first day of production.
Yeah, things were that bad.
As writer slash producer, I stepped in. Time is money and we were two hours behind schedule.
Which translates to approximately one-hundred large.
The hair stylist was working on Leading Lady. Into the trailer I stepped and politely but firmly said:
“We have five more set ups today, we need you on set.”
Leading Lady stared at my reflection in her mirror and sighed: “Do you know how hard it is to look casually glamorous?”
“You mean that casual look you do isn't really casual?”
Leading Lady smiled sweetly, but with a perfect hint of malice said: “Men.”
Be aware: movie stars don't get irony.
This is all to introduce Frum (Yiddish: Orthodox Jew) Feminist, who shows up at Casa Avrech looking casually windswept, but perfectly put together.
She's got that Odile Gilbert hair that women in N.Y. and L.A. pay for through the nose. It's Demure School Marm meets Rita Hayworth in Gilda—lustrous hair tightly bound in front but exploding—a grenade of tresses—at the back.
I like Frum Feminist's blog. I like her individuality, her romantic nature rubbing against a few conventions of the Orthodox Jewish community.
Frum Feminist tells me she likes Seraphic Secret.
Dragging toe through dirt: “Aw, shucks. Is it my sharp take on politics, my muscular military analysis, my inside tales of Hollywood decadence?”
“I like Friday Footwear.”
Sigh.
Head in hands.
“Shoes,” says Frum Feminist with a knowing smile, “are important to women.”
No kidding.
A Colt Peacemaker. Yes, a single action six-shooter.
That's the image that pops into my head. I'm talking the perfect accessory for Frum Fem's boots.
Last week Seraphic Secret inscribed this commandment: “The best footwear inspires awe.”
True.
But there is more.
Just as there are layers in souls, there are layers in, er, soles.
Commandment #2: The best footwear also intimidates, the best footwear—we're talking cyoot, niiice, o-sum, fab-u-lus, choose your adj.—inspires a shiver of fear.
These sleek boots effortlessly fuse the classical western cowboy style—sharp toe, raised heel, pronounced stitching—with the aerodynamic modern stiletto. It's Dolly Parton meets Danica Patrick by way of Barbara Stanwyck in Forty Guns. Notice the distressed metal disc, a clever wink at the old burnished steel of spurs and elaborate Mexican saddles.
Frum Fem is a proud member of the NRA, but she suspects that too many young men in our community will shy away from such a forthright frum lady:
“Oy-vey,” wail the boys in Beth Midrash, “a frum fatale!”
But somewhere in the teeming Jewish universe a Yeshivish Gary Cooper is on a parallel journey. He squints in the sunlight, sees the kick of light off Frum Fem's adorably dangerous boots, and striding down main street with sharp, percussive beats over the soundtrack, he says:
“Howdy, I'm your Bashert.”
Karen and I wish all our friends—that means you, our readers—and relatives a lovely and restful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:23 AM | Comments (19)
February 19, 2009
10,000 Violent Women and One Screenwriter, Part V
Virginia Lee Corbin as a wild young flapper in “Lilies of the Streets,” 1925.
EXT. PRISON - DAY
The Screenwriter, alternately known to the inmates as Mr. Hollywood, Mr. Screenplay Writer and Mr. Clueless, sits with Eden, an attractive prisoner who is: mother to three children, an admirer of Jane Austen, and a fine dog trainer. She also committed murder and has agreed to talk about it. One long take. Think Gregg Toland deep focus photography meets Anthony Mann’s elegant choreography within frame.
“The thing y’gotta know is I’m not the same person I was back when I did what I did. But I still take full responsibility for, uh, what happened.”
In prison I keep hearing three tedious words:
It. Just. Happened.
To read the entire story, please head on over to Big Hollywood.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:54 AM | Comments (11)
February 18, 2009
Welcome to the Palestinian State
Warning: Graphic Arab Muslim violence.
As if there's un-graphic Arab Muslim violence.
Memo to PETA: Relax. No animals were injured or killed in the making of the video.
Hamas terrorists beat a suspected “Israeli collaborator.” As the club swings, shatters bone and flesh, the terrorists and the crowd scream: “Allahhu Akhbar.” G-d is great.
This kind of atrocity occurs every single day in Gaza. Muslim on Muslim violence is the only Islamaphobia that exists.
The label “Israeli collaborator” covers a lot of territory; the most popular are:
1. A member of a rival clan.
2. A hated relative.
3. A rival in a love affair.
4. A Gazan who refuses to pay the Hamas “protection tax.”
5. Some poor shlub who just happens to get on the wrong side of a Hamas thug.
To those who argue the necessity of a Palestinian state, please note that Gaza is the Palestinian state.
My friend Carl of the superb Israel Matzav has coined the perfect description: The Palestinian Reichlet.
Welcome to hell.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:30 AM | Comments (13)
February 17, 2009
They Are Here
Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband — an influential member of the local Muslim community — reported her death to police Thursday.
Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Detectives have charged her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder.
"He came to the police station at 6:20 p.m. [Thursday] and told us that she was dead," Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said late this morning.
Muzzammil Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body.
Muzzammil Hassan is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004, amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light.
A job well done.
Full story here.
A few quick observations:
1. This atrocity is not being covered by the mainstream media.
2. The reason is obvious: The more the public learns about those who practice Islam the more repugnant it becomes. Those who believe in multiculturalism cannot bear the intellectual whiplash of a delusional belief that clashes with reality. Phyllis Chesler analyzes honor killings, here.
3. Do you remember when Islamic beheadings first burst into the news? You were shocked, right. No more. Just as homicide bombings have become oh-so-ordinary, beheadings will turn into tediously everyday events. This is how Islamic terror weaves its way into the body politic. ShrinkWrapped brilliantly psychoanalyzes the Islamist war over the female body.
4. When you excuse and justify terror against Jews in Israel you invariably end up excusing Islamic terror against women, i.e. the abuse excuse: it's all Israel's fault, thus it's all the woman's fault.
5. Punch line: CAIR handed the beheader an award for his fine community work. That's a stunner.
6. Beheadings have arrived in America.
They are here.
And oh yeah, Happy Valentine's Day from an Egyptian cleric:
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:17 PM | Comments (16)
Hamas: What You See is What You See
As the great American abstract painter Frank Stella once observed regarding art: “What you see is what you see.”
I see that we are living in 1938.
Terrorist Islam threatens Western civilization. And once again the chattering classes—ascendant in the Obama administration—urge appeasement and deny the Jew-hatred that motivates this grotesque ideology.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:22 AM | Comments (7)
February 16, 2009
Masterpiece Jew Haters
Timothy Spall as Fagin: “Never trust
the goyim.” Gotta check the Cliff notes.
I must have missed a few subtle literary points in college when I was taking a Charles Dickens seminar.
I missed the spot where Fagin, in Oliver Twist, is wearing a gigoondo yarmulke.
Also, blasting right by yours truly—alas, never the best of students—is the part where Fagin abstains from eating pork chops because they're not kosher.
Who knew that Fagin was an observant Jew?
And I must have skipped the part where Fagin—going all bi-polar—talks to himself in fractured Hebrew and intones: “Never trust the goyim.”
Last night I was flipping through my 150 channels—you can get obese watching all the cooking shows—when I stumbled on this new adaptation of Oliver Twist.
I had no idea I had access to Al Jazeera. It was kind of scary, I mean I know the Arab world with its state controlled TV and film industries is a sewer of Jew-hatred, but this Fagin is pretty darn close to the image of the evil Jew pushed by the Nazi propaganda machine.
He's not just the Jew, he's the devil.
This Fagin is such a leering, salivating monster that I wouldn't be surprised if, in next week's exciting installment, he molests a few doe-eyed kids then slaughters them so he can use their blood to bake matzo. Believe me, the Blood Libel is alive and well in the Arab world, and fast making headway in oh-so-civilized Europe.
Imagine my surprise when the station ID popped up and I learned that this was not Al Jazeera, but PBS.
Okay, I really wasn't surprised.
And I wasn't surprised that this grotesquely anti-Semitic Oliver Twist is a British production. Most sane people recognize that Britain, in about 25 years, will be ruled by Sharia and cheerily Judenrein.
Say hello to the happy-go-lucky 7th century.
European Jew-hatred is so common, so darn fashionable that Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist is now part of the arsenal to make Jew-hatred acceptable.
Director Coky Giedroyc and writer Sarah Phelps are the chief criminals in this repulsive exercise in sophisticated Jew-hatred. They will, no doubt, argue that they are restoring a fresh perspective to Fagin's Jewishness. This is the corrupt academic language of deconstruction, where “texts” have no real meaning, where all interpretations are equally valid.
Naturally, it's a one-way deconstructionist street.
You can bet your bottom dollar that no Muslim would ever appear in such a dark light in a BBC production. Because the Islamists would issue a fatwa and Giedroyc and Phelps would be living under 24/7 protection.
No doubt, this dynamic Jew-hating duo would hunker down with The Koran and deconstruct it in order to prove that beheading is not terribly sporting.
But it's open season on Jews because, well, what are we going to do but protest in print, be dismissed as right wing nut jobs, or y'know, pushy Jooz.
Question: why does PBS exist?
Oh right, desperately needed government support for people—and by people I mean losers—who can't make a living in the business like yours truly.
Your tax dollars at work.
Crossposted and expanded on Big Hollywood.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:29 AM | Comments (34)
February 15, 2009
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere
“Citizen Gish has been reading The Best of the Jewish Blogosphere—off with her head!”
Here in HP presents Haveil Havalim: The Lots to Read Edition.
Lots and lots to read, and gee, there is no better way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Great job HP!
Also:
From Soccer Dad: Shiny Happy Dhimmi # Bar Mitzvah
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:56 AM | Comments (2)
February 13, 2009
Friday Footwear: The Not Cute Edition
Karen says: “Those are nice shoes.”
Huh? I'm like totally confused.
Is the earth being devoured by a White Dwarf?
What happened to “cute?” Everyone knows that the accepted compliment on ladies footwear is: “Your shoes are really cute.”
Or:
“Fab-u-lous shoes, soooo cute.”
Cute is—really kids, this is basic as gravity—the gold standard of footwear compliments.
But Karen, as I've known since third grade, is a woman who chooses her words carefully. Karen's precise. Karen's a woman of many layers.
Erin smiles, says thank you and arches her ankle so Karen can get a good look.
“Are they Chanel?”
Erin, a talented and client-friendly designer—no hissy fits, no battles over Damask costing the earth—has a great look. Whenever in Casa Avrech she's wearing excellent outfits and always, perfect footwear. The lady has that oh-I put-this-together-at-the-last-minute-look resulting in awesomely chic ensembles that are a huge and much needed corrective here in L.A. where women on Rodeo Drive proudly sport furry vests—like overgrown Tribbles—paired with crotch-skimming jeans that cost a grand, and for footwear: ugh, Uggs.
There are no words.
“No, they're Via Roma 15. I got them at Fred Segal. They're just like a pair of Prada's I have, you know, cap toe, low heel, with the little string bow.”
Karen nods, serious as Madame Curie.
And once again: “Nice.”
Imagine: A simple strand of pearls, a buttery cashmere sweater, an airy silk blouse, a perfect flannel pencil skirt—and the cap toe flats. Rejoice, the look is urging your inner Grace Kelly to bloom in exquisite Technicolor. These flats take you into the Brentwood Country Club, an afternoon matinee at The Grove, evening cocktails. They are tailor made for zipping around town shopping for picky, picky clients:
“No, no,” cries Erin, “I do not do tchotchkes. With the aid of my zen-perfect footwear I define and create space that nourishes the human body—and soul.”
Karen sees beyond the laws of nature . She knows that the best footwear inspires awe. Erin's cap toe flats are timeless, classic.
Be aware, perfection is happening.
At last, I begin to comprehend.
Nice is above cute.
Nice identifies footwear that is necessary.
The White Dwarf retreats to the outer edges of the universe.
Earth, my home, is safe.
Karen and I wish all or friends and relatives a miracle in Shabbos.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:57 AM | Comments (18)
February 12, 2009
True Hollywood Confession: I am a Dope Fiend But Not a Jewess
Alma Rubens, Early Studio Portrait
Rubens starred in Humoresque (1920) according to silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, the “first [Hollywood] Jewish classic,” produced and financed by William Randolph Hurst's Cosmopolitan Pictures. The movie was directed by the twenty-seven year old Frank Borzage, an Italian-American from Salt Lake City. Borzage, one of Hollywood's finest directors, was a former Shakespearean actor who toiled for a while as an extra at Universal, and was then signed by producer Thomas Ince as a leading man. Gradually, Borzage found his way to the director's chair. The script for Humoresque was based on a Fannie Hurst novel, and penned by the great screenwriter Francis Marion.
Adolph Zukor, the head of Paramount, hated the film and could not understand why anybody would want to see a movie about, what he perceived, as lower-class Jews. As Brownlow reports in Behind the Mask of Innocence, Zukor wrote to screenwriter Francis Marion:
“If you want to show Jews, show Rothchilds, banks and beautiful things. It hurts us Jews—we don't all live in poor houses.”
Humoresque was almost shelved, but when finally released, it was a popular sensation, a big money-maker, and Rubens was catapulted to the deadly Hollywood stratosphere.
To read my complete article, please head on over to Big Hollywood.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2009
Hamas TV: Mothers Urged to Kill Their Children
This clip from Hamas TV brings into sharp focus the death cult that is Palestinian society. In normal societies, mothers love, nurture and protect their children. The Palestinian death cult redefines motherhood: love means raising your child to die in the act of cold-blooded murder.
Imagine if such a woman was your next door neighbor and she had a beef with you.
There is no negotiations or accommodation with such a pathological world view.
Chunks of Europe—England, France, Holland—are gradually ceding their culture to radical Islam. This is the natural outcome of states where individual liberty and initiative is crushed by Socialism.
Obama, a Socialist and an appeaser, is leading America towards the failed European model, where the state grows and gobbles the citizenry into a unworkable welfare grip.
As Margaret Thatcher said: “The problem with Socialism is that at some point you run out of other people's money.”
The Iranians, who can smell weakness across oceans, are already eating Obama alive.
Obama, and those like him, are not match for the Islamic barbarians.
Look closely at this monster in the guise of a woman, listen to what she says, and you better believe that she is not an aberration.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:06 AM | Comments (28)
February 10, 2009
Israeli Elections 2009
As you can see, Israeli ballots are incredibly high-tech.
A few notes about the elections in Israel. And I'm going to keep it simple.
1. Contrary to what you've heard in the MSM, Livni's Kadima party has not won. All the ballots have not been counted. The military vote is not yet in. Sound familiar? And those ballots will not be counted until Wednesday and Thursday. You can expect the military to go, duh, right. Most soldiers are too rooted in basic reality to dive left, an ideology built on the quicksand of theory.
2. The left wing parties, Labor and Meretz were kicked to the curb. Hard. The Israeli public completely rejected the appeasement policies of the delusional left. Seraphic Secret says, “Mazal Tov!”
3. Even if Kadima wins a few more seats, Likud has a larger bloc, thanks to Avigdor Lieberman's new right wing party, Yisrael Beiteinu, Israel is Our Home, with 14 seats. Thus Livni cannot form a coalition. We believe Benjamin Netanyahu will almost certainly be asked by President Peres to form the next government.
4. This is very good news as Israel will need a strong PM to counter Obama's obvious naivete in dealing with Iran and the larger aggressive and hostile Islamic world. Really, watching Obama bow and scrape to regimes who yearn to commit genocide is not unexpected, but deeply disheartening.
5. Good riddance to Ehud Olmert, the most vile Jewish leader since King Ahab. And as the Talmud informs us, Ahab and his wife Jezebel were wicked murderers but at least they kept a kosher kitchen.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:36 PM | Comments (13)
10,000 Violent Women and One Screenwriter, Part IV
Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Hold Your Man, 1933.
“They seem to do a good job,” I say to Cindy.
“Yeah,” Cindy allows, “what else they got to do with their time.”
“They could be plotting a riot.”
“Cute.”
“Take over the prison system, make you their slave.”
“You've seen too many movies, Robert.”
Sad but true. C.O. Cindy is an excellent judge of character.
“Can any inmate get into the program?”
“No way. Inmates who abused or murdered children, inmates who tortured animals, they are barred, no exceptions.”
“Good policy. Gotta maintain standards.”
“Hey, we ain't so dumb.”
“But straight-up murderers?”
Listen to me, I'm doing dialog like from an old Warner Brothers movie.
“Killers are our best trainers. In for the full ride, they got nothing but time.”
Hey, C.O Cindy is in the exact same movie. This is fab-u-lous, we're kibitzing, in cute-tough prison-speak, like Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in the deeply flawed but fascinating Hold Your Man.
And then it happens.
A genuine meltdown:
To read the complete story of my research for the cable movie Within These Walls, head on over to Big Hollywood.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:36 AM | Comments (5)
February 09, 2009
Hollywood, Pallywood: The Moral Landscape
Movies are a moral landscape.
From the optimistic and impossibly glamorous Astaire & Rogers, affirming love and the American dream during the depths of the depression, to the evil, moral inversion of the Oscar nominated The Reader—the sympathetic pedophile Nazi played by Kate Winslet can't read the sign that says: “Do Not Burn The Jews”—all movies inhabit a moral universe that have the ability to influence history.
I work in Hollywood. I help manufacture dreams. I am acutely aware of the power that movies wield.
But there is another film industry at work, Pallywood, and it has been grinding out lies and propaganda since 1948.
Until Pallywood and their leftist enablers are understood, exposed, and shredded, we are all in danger of being swallowed by transnational Islamic terrorism.
French filmmaker Pierre Rehov helps lead the charge against the false narrative of the Arab world:
Hat Tip: Israel Matzav
And here's an absolute stunner: The American Communist Party has endorsed Obama's, ahem, stimulus package. “We now have not simply a friend, but a people's advocate in the White House,” says Communist Party USA leader Sam Webb. Now, repeat after me: The Manchurian Candidate.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:28 AM | Comments (16)
February 08, 2009
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #204
Janet Gaynor begs Charles Farrell to keep up with the Jewish blogosphere.
Esser Agaroth presents Haveil Havalim #204. Superb edition.
And from Soccer Dad, comes Shiny Happy Dhimmi #12. Do not miss it.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:53 AM | Comments (2)
February 06, 2009
Friday Footwear: The Lubavitch Edition
The girls are spitting mad.
“How dare she say that about Lubavitch women.”
“Did you hear what she said about her daughter marrying a Republican?”
“We happen to dress beautifully.”
Karen and I are having Friday night Shabbos dinner with close friends, a Lubavitch family from our Los Angeles neighborhood. There are three daughters, stunning young women who dress modestly but at the height of fashion.
They have all seen or read Susie Essman's hateful comments from The View and are properly indignant.
The girls have not seen Loving Leah, they do not watch TV—smart, the more TV you watch the dumber you become—but Susie Essman's bigotry and Jew hatred, yes, this is classic Jew hatred, typical of so-called enlightened secular Jews towards the Orthodox, has spread to the entire Orthodox Jewish community.
Let's hear from Susie, proud liberal, fashion and beauty expert:
“I learned that they're [Lubavitch Hasidic women] not very good dressers.”
“Have you seen what these women look like?”
Sigh.
Head in hands.
Susie, have you seen what you look like?
Susie, Susie, Susie, you asked for this, you really did.
1. Your hair is about as fashionable as a mullet. Rethink the wig option.
2. For women of a certain age, short hemlines are just plain sad.
3. The pattern on your outfit is hid-e-ous. Have you stepped into a puddle?
4. Too much cleavage. Trust us, you do not want to draw attention.
5. You have slit-eyes—buck up, so did Jean Harlow—next time make them pop instead of receding into your skull like Paleolithic woman. For an excellent beauty primer we recommend Bobbi Brown's book.
6. Footwear: your boots are too tight, hence your legs look like sausages. A longer hemline would have fixed this train wreck. That's Fashion 101.
And Susie, I'm going easy on you.
Oh yeah, the only woman on The View who knows how to dress is Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the lone Republican.
Anyhoo.
Sarah, not her real name, is wearing a beautiful and modest outfit with a jaunty silk scarf around her throat—she's got that Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man thing going on with thick, lustrous hair and a milk maid, porcelain complexion.
Helping her mother and sisters serve the delicious Shabbos meal, Sarah heads into the kitchen.
“Cute shoes,” exclaims Karen.
Oh my gosh: killer bootlets.
I'm like: “Hey, Sarah, how about posing for Friday Footwear, let's show the world how a young Lubavitch lady wears fashionable footwear.”
“Absolutely! The chutzpah of that woman!”
Calling Jean Paul Gaultier. These bootlets have a great sleek line, the fabric is taut, like the skin of black panther, and the peek-a-boo toe is all flirty and very Irene Dunne. But the laces in the back seal the deal. That's why we think of bad boy Gaultier, the languid ribbons and the corset-like eyelets are uber-sophisticated, dangerously adorable, and the entire look cries out: “We are cute, fashionable and we are Lubavitch women!”
Karen and wish all our friends and relatives a miracle in Shabbos.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:59 AM | Comments (19)
February 05, 2009
“They Let Us Out.” But Michelle, Presumably You Are the They
Anita Page, Joan Crawford, Dorothy Sebastian,
Our Dancing Daughters, 1928.
“I feel like crying,” says Karen as she reads the story to me. "He's acting like a kid being let outside for recess. Who is the 'they?' He is the 'they.' He is the President, the ultimate authority in this country, not a kid rebelling. He's not a child of the 60's anymore. Doesn't he understand that?”
I'm watching Our Dancing Daughters, a great Joan Crawford silent film, and really I'm so ill with Obama fatigue that I just want to concentrate on the very young Joan—hey, have you ever noticed that she never blinks—Anita Page, who died a few months ago, the troubled Southern belle Dorothy Sebastian, the stunning art deco sets, and talk about a killer wardrobe, the leading ladies flounce around in slinky, light as air gowns that cry out for a Lagerfeld revival.
“These people are children, Robert.”
I hit the pause button. This is new. Usually I'm the one ranting and raving while Karen sits working at her desk and muttering: “Uh-huh, uh-huh, whatever you say...”
Karen is a psychologist. A good psychologist. She has insights about people and stuff that go right past yours truly. Often, she warns me away from various Hollywood people and deals because she knows they are going to end badly.
Karen says. “When Michelle Obama says, 'We got out. They let us out,' she is using the language of a child.”
“His defenders will argue that he and Michelle were just joking.”
Karen shakes her head from side to side:
“No, it's little details like this that reveal so much about character. This man is not a statesman. We want a President who has some dignity, who's not playing house, who's not playing at being President of the United States. And she's looking to ingratiate herself with children instead of acting like an adult and setting a proper example.”
Of course, Karen is right, the President and the First Lady reveal an adolescent mind-set, an unwillingness to let go of a tedious anti-establishment pose.
My head throbs.
I don't hate President Obama or The First Lady. I'm not a Republican version of the sociopath Bush-Cheney haters.
I'm worried about closing Gitmo. I'm worried about extending habeas corpus to non-citizen Islamic barbarians. I'm worried about Obama's naive rhetoric about Iran unclenching their fist. I'm worried that he will throw Israel under the Islamic bus. I'm worried that this so-called stimulus package is all pork and a cover for Socialism. I'm worried that the Dems are more concerned about so-called global warming than global Islamic terror. I'm worried that the media watchdogs have been plowed under the Obama juggernaut. And last but not least, I'm worried that Obama and Co. are going to get us killed. I'm worried. I'm really worried.
I hit the play button and return to 1928, when flappers were the great danger to the American grain.
On the rockiest day of his young administration, President Barack Obama did what surely made him happy for a while.
He left.
With little notice, the president and first lady Michelle Obama bolted the gated compound of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in their tank of a limousine on Tuesday. They ended up at a Washington public school, greeted by children who could not care less about the collapse of a Cabinet secretary nomination.
"We were just tired of being in the White House," the president candidly told the gleeful second-graders at Capital City Public Charter School.
"We got out! They let us out!" Mrs. Obama said as the kids and their teachers laughed.
To read the complete story, please click here.
And stay tuned, tomorrow, our most popular feature, a very special Friday Footwear: The Lubavitch Edition.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:11 AM | Comments (23)
February 04, 2009
UNRWA: Lords of Misery, Plus Radical Belgium
It's about time for the U.N. to declare itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Islamic terror.
And take a look at what's going on in Belgium:
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:34 AM | Comments (6)
10,000 Violent Women and One Screenwriter, Part III
When I tell my wife, Karen, about the project, Within These Walls, she hits me with a level gaze—eyes like chips of coal:
“Not a good idea, Robert. Remember all the time in Sing-Sing doing research for that other script—it was not a healthy experience.”
Your faithful screenwriter shrugs, utterly clueless:
“This is a woman’s prison, how bad can it be? Besides, I am not going to turn down the chance to work with Ellen Burstyn.”
Karen looks at me and half-smiles, tolerantly but with—I sincerely hope—affection.
Evil exists; and face to face, it is a shock to the soul.
The love of my life can foresee the psychological black cloud that is fated to haunt me after conducting my prison research.
There is a reason I’ve been in love with my wife since we were nine-years old. She’s much smarter and level-headed than yours truly.
To read the complete story, head on over to Big Hollywood.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:28 AM | Comments (2)
February 03, 2009
Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil
Daniel Pearl Z'L
An important article from The Wall Street Journal.
By JUDEA PEARL
This week marks the seventh anniversary of the murder of our son, former Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. My wife Ruth and I wonder: Would Danny have believed that today's world emerged after his tragedy?
The answer does not come easily. Danny was an optimist, a true believer in the goodness of mankind. Yet he was also a realist, and would not let idealism bend the harshness of facts.
Neither he, nor the millions who were shocked by his murder, could have possibly predicted that seven years later his abductor, Omar Saeed Sheikh, according to several South Asian reports, would be planning terror acts from the safety of a Pakistani jail. Or that his murderer, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, now in Guantanamo, would proudly boast of his murder in a military tribunal in March 2007 to the cheers of sympathetic jihadi supporters. Or that this ideology of barbarism would be celebrated in European and American universities, fueling rally after rally for Hamas, Hezbollah and other heroes of "the resistance." Or that another kidnapped young man, Israeli Gilad Shalit, would spend his 950th day of captivity with no Red Cross visitation while world leaders seriously debate whether his kidnappers deserve international recognition.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:08 AM | Comments (10)
February 02, 2009
What They Don't Teach You in Film School
Linda Darnell
Scheduled for release through United Artists, Summer Storm was directed by Douglas Sirk. Filming began in the spring of 1944, with The Wicked and the Weak as a working title. Linda got on well with Sirk, although things didn’t always progress smoothly. One particularly bad day, the director had shot sixteen takes of an important scene in a greenhouse. Linda grew tired, embarrassed, and was almost in tears.
Finally, Sirk ordered, “Everybody take a breather.”
Putting his arm around Linda’s shoulder, he said, “Now I want you to relax.”
Suddenly he yanked her across his knee and spanked her hard.
“Now you go out there and do that scene right!” he snapped.
To read my entire story in Big Hollywood, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:10 PM | Comments (4)
Jewish Orphans Sing!
Because the Jewish film A Light for Greytowers was produced for a female audience, Karen sat down and screened the DVD, while Robert was safely tucked away in his office.
The movie evokes the Broadway musicals “Oliver” and “Annie” with admirable professionalism while injecting just enough Yiddishkeit to establish it as a pioneering work in Jewish musical theater. The musical numbers are energetic and beautifully sung. The matron of the orphanage carries the show, but even with her powerful performance the orphans hold their own, and find their marks with precision and confidence. I would have liked more musical numbers since they are the most enjoyable part of the movie. I look forward to more work from these artists!
—Karen Avrech
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:25 AM | Comments (2)
February 01, 2009
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere
“Beware, you will turn into a Golem if you don't read
the Jewish Blogosphere!”
Ima on and off the Bima presents Haveil Havalim #203. The Did You Love Leah Edition.
Soccer Dad weighs in with Shiny, Happy Dhimmi #11.
West Bank Mama presents thoughts about the Gaza war from new Olim.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:45 AM | Comments (6)