Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Religious Zionist. Republican. Movie fanatic. Gun owner. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Eleanor Parker

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions, Passover 2018

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“Between pictures I go away. I think that is the best way to achieve happiness in Hollywood, the only way to keep one’s perspective. If you stay too close to the motion picture colony you lose your sense of values.”
— Helen Twelvetrees

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“When I am spotted somewhere, it means that my characterizations haven’t covered up Eleanor Parker the person. I prefer it the other way around.”
—Eleanor Parker

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions, Passover Edition

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Eleanor Parker (’22 – ’13) was a brilliant actress who played comedy as deftly as she played drama. Her voice was film noir husky, and she used it like a musical instrument. Raised a Protestant, she converted to Judaism. “I think we’re all Jews at heart,” she told columnist Kay Gardella. “I wanted to convert for a long time.” Her daughter spent a summer working on a kibbutz, married an Israeli, and settled in Israel permanently. Parker’s best films are: Caged (’50) Detective Story (’51) Scaramouche (’52) Interrupted Melody (’55), and The King and Four Queens (’56).
Eleanor Parker (1922–2013) was a brilliant actress who performed in comedy as deftly as she played drama. Her voice was film noir husky, and she used it like a musical instrument. Raised a Protestant, she converted to Judaism. “I think we’re all Jews at heart,” she told columnist Kay Gardella. “I wanted to convert for a long time.” Her daughter spent a summer working on a kibbutz, married an Israeli, and settled in Israel permanently. Parker’s best films are: Caged (’50) Detective Story (’51) Scaramouche (’52) Interrupted Melody (’55), and The King and Four Queens (’56).

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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Your inner life means an awful lot, too. If you’re unhappy or bitter or jealous, it shows in your face. And I’m sure it’s true, love keeps you pretty.” —Ingrid Bergman
“Your inner life means an awful lot, too. If you’re unhappy or bitter or jealous, it shows in your face. And I’m sure it’s true, love keeps you pretty.”
—Ingrid Bergman

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Friday Photos: Announcing a New Jewish Holiday Edition

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Eleanor Parker was a brilliant actress who played comedy as well as drama. Her voice was husky, and she used it like a musical instrument. Raised a Protestant, she converted to Judaism. Her daughter spent a Summer working on a kibbutz, married an Israeli, and settled in Israel.
Eleanor Parker (’22 – ’13) was a brilliant actress who played comedy as deftly as she played drama. Her voice was film noir husky, and she used it like a musical instrument. Raised a Protestant, she converted to Judaism. “I think we’re all Jews at heart,” she told columnist Kay Gardella. “I wanted to convert for a long time.” Her daughter spent a summer working on a kibbutz, married an Israeli, and settled in Israel permanently. Parker’s best films are: Caged (’50) Detective Story (’51) Scaramouche (’52) Interrupted Melody (’55), and The King and Four Queens (’56).

Jewish humor is filled with self-deprecating observations. We poke fun at our peculiar foibles, and frequently address our greatest anxieties — intermarriage, Jew-hatred, weight-gain — with a take-no-prisoners attitude.

If you want to know how Jews are really feeling about something or someone, pay attention to the jokes Jews tell each other.

A few days ago, Karen and I attended a lovely wedding in Pacific Palisades.

During the smorgasbord, a friend approached, made the obligatory l’chaim and asked:

“On which Jewish holiday did Barack Obama die?”

“Obama’s not dead.”

“The day Obama dies is going to become a Jewish holiday.”

Here’s the second punch line: the guy who told me the joke is one of the few Orthodox Jewish Democrats — most Torah Jews are Conservative Republicans — with whom I’m acquainted. But he is, in his own words, “Doing teshuvah, for helping elect a straight-up Jew-hater.”

Here’s an array of fun pictures to help us get through the weekend.

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