At the Movies

“We Are Your Friends,” which opens on August 29, stars Zac Efron (whose paternal grandfather was Jewish) as a struggling young DJ in the electronic dance music scene who dreams of becoming a big-time record producer. Things get complicated when he falls for Sophie, the girlfriend of an older DJ who is his mentor. The film marks the feature directorial debut of MAX JOSEPH, 33, who also co-wrote the film. He and NEV SCHULMAN, 30, are the guys behind the “Catfish” movie and MTV TV series (if you’ve seen either, you know they appear on camera, too). Joseph told the “Vulture” website in 2013: “Nev and I both grew up in New York City, and we were both upper-middle-class Jewish kids… and we’ve been both been in therapy since we were in middle school.”

 Sophie is played by EMILY RATAJKOWSKI, 24, who is trying to build an acting career after years of success as a fashion model, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, and music video “eye candy”. A dark-haired beauty with a pretty face, Emily has been blessed with an amazing, but "wholly natural" figure . But looks only get one so far and her new film may be a career crossroads: Can she act as well as look good? . Her only other acting role, playing Ben Affleck’s mistress in “Gone Girl,” merely required her to appear in a brief semi-nude sex scene and act competently (which she did) in a very few other scenes.

Ratajkowski’s mother, who is Jewish, teaches at a San Diego Jewish school and, in one interview, the actress seemed to say that she identified as Jewish.   Ratajkowski is articulate in interviews and is certainly doesn’t fit the fashion model “ditz” stereotype—and, on the pure gossip front—she just told “The Today Show” that things are going great with her boyfriend of a year (Jeff Magid, a musician who I think is Jewish).

Cute and Musical

Reports say that singers MADISON BEER, 16, and JACK GILINSKY, 18, are a romantic item and they may be the youngest Jewish celeb couple, ever. Very short bios: Beer is a protégé of Justin Bieber who saw her sing “At Last” on Youtube and he tweeted her performance out to his 25 million twitter followers. She is now managed by SCOOTER BRAUN, 34, who discovered Bieber on Youtube. Beer now has one million twitter followers of her own. Gilinsky is one half of the rap/pop duo “Jack & Jack.” They are best known for their 2014 song, “Wild Life,” which hit #2 on ITunes.

Mad Mel, or the Passion of a Jerk

Last year, Mel Gibson told the “Hollywood Reporter” that his 2006 anti-Semitic tirade, issued when pulled over for drunk driving by a Jewish police officer, should be behind him. He said: “All the necessary mea culpas have been made copious times, so for this question to keep coming up ... I'm sorry they feel that way, but I've done what I need to do, it's an eight-year-old story. It keeps coming up like a rerun, but I've dealt with it and I've dealt with it responsibly and I've worked on myself for anything I am culpable for.”

Things haven’t gone well for Mel. He is only now directing his first film since 2006 (It appears that an announced Gibson film about the Maccabees, seen as an olive branch to Jews, will never be made). On top of this, the films he acted in since 2006 flopped and he got more bad publicity in 2010 when tapes of his phone conversations with his former girlfriend, laced with racist and misogynist language, were release d.

Gibson is now in Australia directing a film about the true story of an American conscientious objector who served as a medic during WWII and got the Medal of Honor. Maybe as a mini-olive branch, Mel cast ANDREW GARFIELD, 32 (“Spider-Man”) in the lead role.   But Mel can’t stay out of trouble: on August 22, he showed up outside a theater hosting an Israeli film festival in Sydney.   Reports say that he probably was in the area to attend a non-Israeli film in a neighboring theater—but a throng of Aussie Jews were there to hear him be rude to a polite female print reporter and be obscenely rude to a woman photographer from another publication. His 24-year-old girlfriend apologized to both--- “I’m sorry,” she said, “He’s a bit sick at the moment.” (I’d like to say to her, “When does that sick moment ever end?”)