Jews in the News: Amy Schumer, Judd Apatow and D.B. Weiss

 
Golden Globe Jewish Nominees: Your Scorecard for Use with Your Favorite Media Device
 
The Golden Globes awards are usually more fun to watch than the Oscars and often predict Oscar wins. They air, live, on Sunday, January 10 on NBC at 8PM EST. Info note: only the lead actress/actor categories and the best film/TV series categories are divided into awards for “best in drama” and “best in a musical or comedy”. Categories like best supporting actor, director, and screenplay have only one film or TV show award. 
 
Film nominees---Lead actress, comedy: AMY SCHUMER, 34, “Trainwreck”. This mega-hit film has turned Schumer from a relatively minor celeb into the comedy “It Girl” of 2015. Best supporting actress, drama or musical/comedy: JENNIFER JASON LEIGH, 53, “The Hateful 8”.  
 
Best director: TODD HAYNES, 54 (“Carol”); Best screenplay: JOSH SINGER, 43 (“Spotlight”, with Tom McCarthy); also AARON SORKIN, 54 (“Steve Jobs”). Singer’s highly lauded script will almost certainly get an Oscar “nom”, too.  The Globes always have a few quirky nominations and Sorkin’s screenplay, which got more pans than raves, is a Globe “quirk.” Best Original Song: “See You Again” (from “Furious 7”), co-written and co-sung by CHARLIE PUTH, 24, who is also a Grammy nominee this year. 
 
Best foreign film: “Son of Saul,” directed and written by LASZLO NEMES, 38, a Hungarian-born Jew who grew up mostly in France. It follows 48 hours in the life of a Hungarian Jew forced to remove bodies from the Treblinka gas chambers. He finds a corpse he believes is his son’s body and tries to find a way to have a proper burial, with a rabbi.
 
The best film awards go to the principal producers. However, I am listing those “best of” films with a significant Jewish connection other than just a Jewish producer(s). Best drama film: “Carol,” directed by Todd Haynes. “Carol,” like his previous hit film, “Far From Heaven,” is about a concealed gay relationship.  In 2011, Haynes, whose mother is Jewish, said: “Judaism is an important part of my identity…all my films are about resilient outsiders, whether in terms of race or sexual orientation, and I think I inherited that from [my Jewish grandfather, a social/political activist].”  Also competing in this category are “Room” and “Spotlight”.  “Room” was directed by LENNY ABRAHAMSON, 49, an Irish Jew. “Spotlight” was co-written by Josh Singer and co-stars LIEV SCHREIBER, 48, as MARTY BARON, 60, the (real life Jewish) Boston Globe editor who led the team that uncovered the Boston pedophile priest scandal.
 
Best musical or comedy film: “Joy”, directed and written by DAVID O. RUSSELL, 57. It competes with “Trainwreck,” which was directed by JUDD APATOW, 48, and was co-written by Amy Schumer, who also starred. 
 
TV Nominees---Best actor, drama: JEFFREY TAMBOR, 71 (“Transparent”, on Amazon.) He plays a Jewish man, with a Jewish ex-wife and adult children, who is transitioning to become a woman; Best actor, comedy or musical: Liev Schreiber (“Ray Donovan” on Showtime); Best actress, drama: EVA GREEN, 35 (“Penny Dreadful” on Showtime). The breathtakingly beautiful Green is a former “Bond Girl” (“Casino Royale”). She was born and raised in France and Green’s mother is a Sephardi Jew who was born in Algeria; Best actress, musical or comedy: RACHEL BLOOM, 28 (“My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” on the CW). Bloom’s series combines musical numbers with comedy-- and JAMIE LEE CURTIS, 57 (“Scream Queens” on Fox). Supporting actress, drama or musical/comedy: JUDITH LIGHT, 66 (“Transparent”). She plays Jeffrey Tambor’s ex-wife. 
 
Best musical or comedy series. Five series with big Jewish connections are nominated in this category. (1) “Casual,” on Hulu, was created by and is written by ZANDER LEHMANN, 28. His father is director MICHAEL LEHMANN, 57. His best known film is “Heathers.”; “Casual” stars MICHELA WATKINS, 44; (2) “Mozart in the Jungle” is an Amazon series co-created by JASON SCHWARTZMAN, 35.  LOLA KIRKE, 25, is a series co-star; (3), “Orange is the New Black,” on Netflix, was created by JENJI KOHAN, 46. Jewish co-stars include YAEL STONE, 30, the first Australian Jewish actress to be a regular on an American TV show (4) “Silicon Valley,” an HBO series, was co-created by JOHN ALTSCHULER, 52, and DAVE KRINSKY; 52; and (5) “Transparent”. It was created by and is written by JILL SOLOWAY, 50
 
Best Drama Series: “Empire” on Fox, which was co-created by DANNY STRONG, 41. “Empire” centers on an African American family. It co-stars JUSSIE SMOLLET, 32, the son of a (not Jewish) African-American mother and white Jewish father; and “Game of Thrones”, a HBO series co-created and co-written by D.B. WEISS, 44, and DAVID BENIOFF, 44.

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