Israellycool

See below for the incontrovertible proof.

William Shatner is going where no man Charlton Heston has gone before.

Less than a month after the death of Charlton Heston, another of Hollywood’s great over-actors is taking center stage in the retelling of the Passover story.

This week the Jewish Music Group is releasing “Exodus: An Oratorio In Three Parts,” a dramatic biblical reading by William Shatner accompanied by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.The album is taken from recordings of back-to-back evening performances in April 2005 at the Robinson Center Music Hall in Little Rock.

In an exclusive interview Monday with JTA, Shatner credited David Itkin, the orchestra’s conductor, with writing the music and bringing together passages from the Bible and the Haggadah to produce the final text.

“It’s his creation,” Shatner said, adding that he thought so highly of the production that he made arrangements to have the two performances recorded.

“On the Saturday night that most of this record is taken from, my thrill was connecting with the audience the way we did,” the star of “StarTrek” and “Boston Legal” recalled.

“The actor, along with 350 voices in the choral group and 75 people in the orchestra, all combined to reach out to this audience of several thousand people. The magic of the CD is that you can hear the connection, especially at the end, between the audience and the actor.”

At first glance, the “Exodus” production sounds more like a project for Shatner’s best-known “Star Trek” co-star, Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy has long been known for mining his Jewish heritage, from basing Spock’s split-fingered Vulcan greeting on the ancient Israelite priestly blessing to drawing inspiration from Kabbalah for a book of semi-nude photographs.

But now, at the very end of the performance, it’s Shatner reciting the priestly blessing — to an enthusiastic ovation.

So does the “Exodus” reading, along with a film in the works titled “The Shiva Club,” point to some sort of later-in-life artistic engagement with his Jewish roots?

No, Shatner says, just a coincidence.

“My being Jewish does not inform the things I do, necessarily,” Shatner explained, speaking by phone during a lunch break from shooting an episode of “Boston Legal.”

” ‘Exodus’ is a wonderful piece, no matter what religion you are. ‘The Shiva Club,’ which is a movie I am attempting to make sometime soon, is about crashing a shiva, if you will. A couple of comics crash a shiva. I could have, I suppose, made it an Irish wake, but the shiva I was more familiar with.”

Just as Shatner says his religious background does not inform his art, he also insists that his turn as the narrator of “Exodus” has not led to any sort of personal transformation or alter his connection to the Passover holiday.

“I come from a Conservative Jewish home in Canada, which is pretty much like an Orthodox home here in the States. And we celebrated Passover every year and held a long seder,” Shatner said, adding that he continues to mark the holiday.

“My daughter makes a seder, but it’s a little more modern” — plenty of English, he explained — “and a little less time than the old-fashioned ones.”

A dramatic biblical reading by William Shatner accompanied by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra? Oh, this is going to be good.

I wonder if it will be anything like his other forays into narrating with musical accompaniment?

Yeah, you know what’s coming folks..

Comes via CNN:

Supermodel sorry for disappearance

Isn’t disappearing their job?

Beware the nerd wrath:

Moby was a hate-target for Star Wars “nerds” when he dated Natalie Portman. The We Are All Made of Stars musician briefly romanced the stunning actress - who played Queen Padme Amidala, Luke Skywalker’s mother, in three of the sci-fi movies - in 2000, but admits the relationship angered some hardcore Star Wars fans.

He told Spin: “I guess in some people’s eyes, nerds might be mildly sexy - and, as a nerd, I’m certainly happy to enjoy some of the effects of that. But as far as the very brief affair that I had with Natalie, it’s made me a target of a lot of nerd wrath. You don’t date Luke Skywalker’s mom and not have the fans hate your guts.”

Here is one man reportedly infuriated by the union.

In other news, Moby dated Natalie Portman.

Updated: Leaving his goofy looks aside (because we all know there is more to a person than their appearance), I couldn’t quite understand how Natalie Portman could hook up with someone like Moby, especially considering she seems to have common sense and a decent moral compass.

Then I found this story about the follicly challenged one:

Moby is outraged at the continuing loss of innocent people over politics and land. Over the weekend there were three terror attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers on Israeli citizens. A total of 25 people were killed in three different violent acts.

Moby wrote in his online journal, “Damn f–k. Three Palestinian suicide bombings in 24 hours? F–k them. They are killing innocent people. I don’t care about the politics involved. I don’t care about issues of autonomy and statism. I don’t care about avenging historical wrongs. Lots of innocent people are dead, and I don’t see how anyone can defend or justify that. What sane Muslim in the world really thinks that Allah is pleased by the deaths of innocent people? Religious fanaticism is getting more and more offensive every day. If you want to be a fanatic, fine, just keep your fanaticism to yourself and stop killing innocent people.”

Say what you want about Moby (and I have..and will), at least he has come out unequivocally against terrorism.

Even against Jews.

Which is something many others have trouble doing.

Can you guess who said this?

“The Israeli people have been the sacrificial lamb of history.”

And this:

“It’s about f****ing time [said as Fox News reported on Israel's attempt to push Hezbollah out of Southern Lebanon]. ..[The Jews] have been getting killed for 5,000 years. Enough is enough. The rest of the world does not give a shit, except America, because the Israelis have no oil. Everyone sticks with those Arabs—because they have the oil.”

And this:

“We should f****ing get alternative energy and tell all the Arabs and the rest of the world to stick it up their ass. F*** them and the oil!”

And this:

“They are talking about Ahmadinejad coming to New York. I hate the bastard. He sponsors terrorists! The shitface …”

And the answer is..

Fabio (!)

You know, the long-haired romance novel model, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! spokesperson, and sworn enemy of George Clooney and birds everywhere.

The quotes come from this Radar Online article. If you read the whole thing, you’ll discover that Fabio is not the vacuous punchline that many people associate with his name.

Just don’t get him to talk about apples.

(hat tip: Hot Air, who came up with the great post title I can’t believe it’s…Fabio getting all hard core on the war. That’s 1-1, Bryan)

..that is the question, regarding those quotes attributed to her over the past few weeks.

Israeli model Bar Rafaeli, who is the girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio, is suing the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper for libel after it published an interview with her last week under the headline “Bar Rafaeli against the State of Israel.”

Rafaeli’s lawyers sent a letter to the newspaper’s editorial office demanding it apologize for the headline and compensate her for personal damages at a sum of half a million shekels.

In the interview, Rafaeli was quoted as saying, “Why is it good to die for our country? Isn’t it better to live in New York?” She was also quoted as saying, “What does it does matter, Uganda or Israel,” as well as, “I am not sorry for not serving in the army, because I profited in a big way,” and “I’ll never bring a celebrity to Israel because they have chutzpah here like nowhere else in the world.”

Her comments were published in newspapers in Israel and around the world. A few days later Yedioth published an article claiming “Now Bar is slandering Israel abroad,” in reference to an interview Rafaeli gave to the fashion magazine Tattler.

Rafaeli’s lawyer Dror Arad Alon sent a letter to Yedioth claiming that the newspaper published “false, tendentious and malicious quotes which lack connection to Rafaeli’s comments.”

Arad-Alon went on to say in the letter that Rafaeli’s comments were disseminated throughout the media “representing Rafaeli in a ludicrous and poisonous way, essentially abandoning her to public fury for no reason.” He added that the Yedioth article “initiated and encouraged a media and public lynch of Bar Rafaeli after she was wickedly manipulated by the newspaper’s reporter and editors.”

I don’t quite understand the charge here. Did she actually make the comments attributed to her, and she is upset about the Yedioth Ahronoth headline? Or is she claiming that the quotes themselves were false?

Don’t ask.

And still on the subject of modelling and Jews.

In interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli model Bar Refaeli slams Israel, announces move to Los Angeles, says has no regrets regarding dodging army service.

It all started a while back, when top model Bar Refaeli said she had no intention of bringing more of her famous friends to Israel, and announced she was entertaining the idea of relocating to Los Angeles.

Well, now it’s final. In an interview for a special holiday magazine in Yedioth Ahronoth, Refaeli declared that she was moving to the city of angels.

“It’s easier with the paparazzi in Los Angeles, because they give you more space and don’t push you or touch you. I believe I will never only live in Israel, so Los Angeles will be home at least for the next few years,” Refaeli said.

In her interview, the Israeli model said she was not against army service, even though she never enlisted, having married an acquaintance to evade the draft. The couple was soon divorced.

“I really wanted to serve in the IDF, but I don’t regret not enlisting, because it paid off big time,” she said. “That’s just the way it is, celebrities have other needs. I hope my case has influenced the army.

“Israel or Uganda, what difference does it make? It makes no difference to me. Why is it good to die for our country? What, isn’t it better to live in New York? Why should 18-year-old kids have to die? It’s dumb that people have to die so that I can live in Israel,” Refaeli added.

Yep, she’s all model and no role. I think I would prefer even Boy George representing Israel.

 Al-Qaeda has reportedly set their sights on some famous infidels.

David Beckham and Justin Timberlake are the targets of an alleged Al-Qaeda murder plot.

An internet video, which has been posted on YouTube, brands Becks, 32, and JT, 26, as criminal influences on young Muslims.

Fellow footballers Wayne Rooney and Thierry Henry, as well as rapper P Diddy are also mentioned.

The warning footage was posted by a Glasgow-based website named after Al-Qaeda that encourages attacks on Westerners.

In the clip, an image of David is shown under the caption: ‘What made u among the losers?’ reports the News Of The World.

A caption across the screen threatens: ‘Every soul shall taste death.’

And just as Bobby Brown was beginning to feel special.

What I want to know is whether this is really a murder plot, or just a way for Al Qaeda to garner more support from Westerners.

Imagine you spent 5 years in one of the IDF’s most elite units. As a Navy Commando you stood above the rest of your peers, having been taught ever manner of exotic warcraft, from advanced scuba diving, to special weapons and tactics, you name it, you’re an expert. A bad ass in every sense but not a psycho, having been imbued more than most with the IDF’s notion of purity of arms.

Once you leave the army you will be presented with a wealth of career opportunities as befits Israel’s best. And like many of your peers you may want to cast your gaze over to Babylon and see the riches that await one such as yourself. You may choose to become… the bailiff to the stars! Read on:

KEVIN Federline’s lawyer is going for the jugular in the custody battle for his two sons with Britney Spears — and has drafted an ex-Israeli commando to help… Mark Vincent Kaplan sent security expert Aaron Cohen to subpoena Spears’ assistant and cousin, Alli Sims, and music producer Jonathan (JR) Rotem, to face questions on Spears’ alleged erratic, sometimes dangerous, parenting… Cohen caught the pair at a Hollywood Hills bash at 2.30am, local time. Inside was Spears, said to be furious.

Good one Aaron Cohen, whoever you are. Your parents are probably very proud of you and I for one am thrilled, thrilled, to see how well you have put your training to use. Chances are pretty slim that Aaron was a commando though. You’re not supposed to talk about it and if you talk about it, chances are you’re full of sh*t.

Cross posted from Jewlicious.com

Hugh Grant has been arrested and questioned by police after a photographer accused the British actor of attacking him with a tub of baked beans.

 

Photographer Ian Whittaker told the Daily Star tabloid that he and Grant, 46, clashed near the home of the “Four Weddings and a Funeral” star.

 

Whittaker said Grant abused and kicked him on Tuesday before lobbing the beans. The paper printed photos of Grant with a plastic tub of food raised over his head.

 

Grant’s lawyers Schillings said an incident had taken place and was now under investigation.

Next up we have Alec Baldwin, who’s telephone message to his daughter - in which he called her a “rude, thoughtless little pig” - was recently leaked to the media. Yesterday, Baldwin had this to say:

“If I never acted again I couldn’t care less.”

And last, but not least, we have Richard Gere, who offended millions of Indians over a week ago when he swept a popular Bollywood actress into his arms and kissed her several times. Now an Indian court has ordered his arrest for the act, saying it was an obscene act committed in public. In response, Gere’s furry little friend has given itself up to Indian police.*

A while ago I posted what is, in my opinion, the worst cartoon theme song ever.

Well, today I found myself singing what I consider to be the best.

You be the judge.

Leave your favorites in the comments.

Forget humus, falafel or shwarma. Apparently, Israelis really go for pancakes.

A short film about making pancakes by an Aberdeen student has become a worldwide hit after he put it on the internet.

James Provan, 23, shot the video in his flat as a tribute to his favourite snack and placed it on the YouTube website.

It has received more then 700,000 hits and been shown to about six million viewers on American television.

The short video is accompanied by a song he composed on his keyboard.

—-

Mr Provan made the film, which shows him getting out of bed in the morning and cooking the pancakes, using a home video camera on a tripod.

He said: “I make pancakes a lot and some days I eat up to 30 of them, so I figured I would take the world into my home and show them pancakes.

“It took me a week to make, and then I put it on YouTube.

“Almost immediately I got an email from ABC’s Good Morning America asking for permission to feature it on their programme.

“My family are quite proud of me and most of my friends can’t believe it.”

As an added bonus, the song, which he also sings, is currently sitting at number three in the Israeli radio charts.

“The fact the song is in the charts is the most random thing I have ever heard.”

Crazy. What next…mobile phone ringtones?

Huh?