Now comes news that Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore  is considering converting to Judaism (hat tip: Brian of London).

"ET..phone home. Failing that, please send an SMS. You know I tend to worry when I don't hear back from you, maidele"

If the Web buzz is to be believed, Drew Barrymore, the pigtailed ET princess turned Hollywood bad girl turned heavyweight producer and megawatt star, is set to take on a new role: that of a Jew.

According to several gossip sites, including PerezHilton.com and Zap2it.com, Barrymore was planning to convert to Judaism in order to marry her fiance, art consultant Will Kopelman. Her hubby-to-be is the son of former Chanel CEO Arie Kopelman.

Web blogger Perez Hilton, AKA Mario Lavanderia, reported Thursday that Barrymore has even reached out to a very famous Jewish face for some guidance — “Hannukah Song” funny-man Adam Sandler.

“He’s even helping her with the process of converting to Judaism. Those two absolutely adore each other, so it only made sense to Drew that he will be right by her side playing an important role at her wedding,” a source quoted on Hilton’s blog said.

Barrymore’s ring finger has seen its share of diamonds; her engagement to Kopelman marks the fifth time she has said “yes.” She was first engaged, and then married, to Leland Hayward at the age of 16. After that relationship dissolved a few months later, she married bartender Jeremy Thomas, divorcing him after only two months.

In 2001, she married comedian Tom Green, but that relationship also ended in divorce within a matter of months. From 2002-2007, Barrymore was hot and heavy with The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti, and after they split, she was in a highly-public pairing with Justin Long, which was on and off for a period of two years.

Barrymore began dating Kopelman about a year ago, and they announced their engagement earlier this month.

Barrymore already has one Jewish relative to turn to for support throughout her conversion process: her godfather, Steven Spielberg.

Who knows? Perhaps in over 13 years, the below scene will play out for real.

Liam Neeson has considered becoming a Muslim after the religion got “into [his] spirit”.

The actor revealed the faith resonated with him while filming in Turkish city Istanbul. Liam finds the Islamic religion very “beautiful”.

“The Call to Prayer happens five times a day and for the first week it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit and it’s the most beautiful, beautiful thing,” he gushed in an interview with British newspaper The Sun.

“There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim.”

I just hope if he does become a Muslim, it’ll be because it got “into [his] spirit”, and not because his former mother-in-law did.

Now it has emerged that West Wing actor Joshua Malina has been sent the first page of Mel’s screenplay.

Imagine my shock when a friend who works at Warner Bros. secretly e-mailed me the first page of Mel’s screenplay for his film. I had misjudged! If the movie’s opening is any indication, Gibson’s approach is balanced, historically accurate and celebratory of Jewish bravery during trying times.

Heh.

And by “Zionist regime” they clearly mean Jews.

Organizers of the 30th Fajr International Film Festival will be holding the second conference on “Hollywoodism and Cinema” to review the influence of the Zionist regime on Hollywood.

Over 40 foreign experts and cinema critics are invited to attend the second edition of the conference running from February 2 to 4, Culture Ministry official Gholamreza Montazemi said in a press conference held here on Monday. The names of the guests will be announced later.

The Foreign guests invited to the conference, which is being held on the sidelines of Fajr festival, are due to discuss the impact of Hollywood in the world of cinema and how to resist this impact, Montazemi added.

Cinema of Hollywood is trying to promote the idea of conciliation between Satan and man, this is while Iranian cinema is the cinema of awakening, he said at the conference.

“This conference is trying to tell Iranian cineastes and cinematic experts that cinema is related to the events happening around us and what we are actually living with.

“Western experts are criticizing the influence of the Zionists on Hollywood. Iran has been acting as the source of this inspiration and has shown resistance against this system, and we can see this among the American and European experts as well,” Montazemi added.

Iranian experts are asked to attend this conference to exchange views with the foreign participants, he said.

He continued that several topics are to be discussed at the conference including the world awakening, the influence of Hollywood on public opinion, the destruction of family and humane values, and how to fight against this influence.

Here are some examples of Iranian cinema as a “cinema of awakening.”

Funny, because I wouldn’t have thought “awakening” was the correct A-word.

Update: Look who’s on the speakers’ list:

A seminar on Islamic Awakening is also to be held on the sideline, in which experts are to discuss the issue of Islamic Awakening.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s sister-in-law Lauren Booth, who has converted into Islam, is expected to attend the Islamic Awakening seminar.

A former co-star of Sean Penn has told how she had a stand up row with the activist actor and ended up calling him a ‘communist a**hole’.

Maria Conchita Alonso said she confronted Penn during a chance meeting at LAX airport to talk to him about his support for Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
While she branded him a communist she claimed he humiliated her in front of other passengers by calling her a ‘pig’.

The actress, who represented her native Venezuela in the Miss World Pageant and finished runner up, said she walked up to Penn to say she was ‘appalled’ by his support for Chavez.
The pair had starred together in the 1988 film ‘Colors’ about gang violence in Los Angeles and Alonso said she had written an open letter to the actor to express her anger at his support for the Chavez regime.

Alonso said:’I said, ‘I would like to talk to you.’

He said, “I have nothing to say to you . . . You have been saying a lot of things about me in the press.” I said, “How can you defend Chavez?”‘

Alonso said she told Penn: ‘I said, “You are a communist, Sean Penn”.’

He said, ‘You are a pig!’ So I said, ‘And you are a communist [bleep]hole! Is it great to live the way you do as a communist?’

‘I went back to my mother, and he started yelling at us.

‘I yelled back, ‘Communist [bleep]hole!’ Nearly 60 people were watching, shocked.

‘My mother wanted to clap, but she couldn’t because she was in a wheelchair and she had a small dog in her lap.’

Penn, who was travelling from Haiti where he is heavily involved in charity work, admitted her had a row with Alonso while in the lost luggage area.

He told the New York Post: ‘I only knew that a hostile woman was nonsensically berating me. I didn’t realize it was that actress.

‘I think I worked with her once. But she looks really different. She was uninformed and impolite to all the other passengers.’

Penn and Alonso played lovers on different sides of the gang turf wars in ‘Colors,’ which also starred Robert Duvall.

Alonso, who is a Grammy nominated singer, later told a Washington Radio station she regretted calling Penn a rude name – but not a communist.

Sean Penn has visited Venezuela and publicly supported Hugo Chavez. Chavez has called Penn ‘well-informed’ and a good actor

‘I do apologize for calling Sean Penn a [bleep]hole. He is an intelligent man . . . But if someone calls me a pig, I am not going to turn the other cheek. But I don’t regret calling him a communist.’

You go girlfriend.

Update: You won’t be surprised to know that Alonso is on the side of Good.

Actors Andrea Bowen, Rob Morrow, and Harry Hamlin at the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv, November 16, 2011. Photo: Hadar Cohen

Last week, Israel played host to 21 Hollywood personalities, who came through the Jewish Federation’s Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnership, The Creative Coalition and the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation.

Judging by the next comments, Israel really left an impression on them. 

“A lot of us are very intensely overwhelmed by this beautiful country and the tenacious, focused spirit of its people.”

“I have never before seen people [in Sderot] able to live in that kind of strange and difficult situation and call it normal, to move forward and teach their children how to love and not hate, and to remain hopeful there will be peace in this land”

“If the world went awry, I would probably want to be in Israel. Here I could look at the vibrant side of life no matter what’s going on outside of me.”

- Actor-producer-director Giancarlo Esposito

“To the outside world, the ‘two-state issue’ makes you think that in the streets of Israel there would be conflict. I assumed people would spit on each other and yet on the ground level I’m amazed at how respectful everyone is. I didn’t expect that.”

- High School Musical actress KayCee Stroh  

“Everywhere we go here, I see there’s a mission that’s clearly related to the absolute necessity for security and survival that we forget about in the rest of the world. I’m grateful to witness it firsthand and bring those stories back to America.”

- West Wing actor Richard Schiff

“In many ways, in the United States, Israel is defined by its pain, but now what is defining Israel for me is its life and light.”

- Actor Steven Weber

“Here in Israel, if immigration doesn’t rise year by year, something’s wrong. … I had no idea Israel does everything it can to bring people in.”

- Actor Richard Kind

“I commend all of you for living here, and I get it. I understand why you want to live here.”

 - Actor Rob Morrow

“This has been a remarkable learning experience. Before coming to Israel, I talked with friends and peers and there’s a lack of knowledge about what it is really like over here. What I’ve been hearing most of all is people discussing hope. My responsibility is to go back and inform young Americans what it’s like here. I’m trying to be a sponge for information. I don’t want to leave.”

- Actress Andrea Bowen

“What a stunning success this project of Israel has been so far. After just a few days, for all of us it’s important that this fragile yet extraordinary project be maintained.”

- Actor Harry Hamlin  

More on their visit here.

Methinks I have a few new additions for my comprehensive Pro-Israel Celebrities post.

“Peace is like [making] love. You can’t enjoy either without closing your eyes a little bit;”

- Israeli President and serial kisser Shimon Peres, conjuring up some pretty disturbing images

It looks like life is imitating art (hat tip: Shy Guy)

AP/Charles Sykes

Vanessa Redgrave was hailed at a Hollywood film academy tribute Sunday, praised as an actress and an activist by A-list friends including Ralph Fiennes, Meryl Streep and James Earl Jones.

More than 30 years after she shocked the Oscars ceremony with a fiercely political acceptance speech, Redgrave was the subject of an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences retrospective – its first to an actor in Europe.

“I love this woman. My wife understands,” said Jones, who is currently starring alongside Redgrave in “Driving Miss Daisy” on the London stage.

“I stand in profound admiration of her courage, both on and off the stage,” said Jones, who received an honorary Academy Award on Saturday – presented to him in front of a surprised matinee audience at Wyndham’s Theatre.

Here is some of that off-stage courage  Darth Jones loves and admires so much.

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Answer: Jonathan Lipnicki from Jerry Maguire.

Big transformation, but we’ve seen bigger.

And yes, there’s definite proof in the recent photo that he’s Jewish.

British Vogue

A flick through the November issue of the British edition of Vogue revealed one accessory I did not expect to see. After pages of faux fur, sequinned clutches and designer feathered capes, I happened upon something rather more surprising: a full-page shot of actress Tilda Swinton sporting a knitted scarf emblazoned not with a designer logo but with the word “Palestine.”

What does it mean when an Oscar-winning actress appears in British Vogue wearing a Palestine scarf, particularly amidst a media and film industry which generally demonizes the people of the Middle East? Either it was an intentional message of solidarity, or simply a deliberately-controversial fashion statement on the part of a celebrity known for her unusual style choices.

The image has caused quite a buzz in social media, with many agreeing that this was the brave stance of a free-thinking and intelligent woman. Does this mean that supporting Palestine has become a status symbol, or is it a positive sign of acceptance of the Palestine issue into mainstream media?

The image is certainly compelling. Swinton stands defiantly, hands on hips, staring coolly into the camera as if daring the viewer to challenge her views. The red, green, black and white scarf, made by eccentric British fashion designer Bella Freud (the anti-Israel great granddaughter of Sigmund Freud – Aussie Dave) features a Palestinian flag and the word “Palestine” along with an image depicting a key, the symbol of Palestinian refugees.

Many may be familiar with Tilda Swinton in her role as ice queen Jadis in the Chronicles of Narnia series. A highly-acclaimed actress, she has starred in numerous arthouse pictures as well as more mainstream films, such as The Beach, alongside Leonardo di Caprio, and Michael Clayton, for which she won an Academy Award. Swinton’s latest outing is as tortured mother Eva in the screen adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s prize-winning book We Need to Talk About Kevin.

But Swinton has become well-known in the fashion circuit as much for her unconventional style statements and striking appearance as she is for any on-screen success. She embraces the looks which most celebrities fear to touch. Whether the shaved undercut in her current Pringle of Scotland ad campaign, her strikingly androgynous looks and masculine tailoring, or her continually avant-garde red carpet ensembles, Swinton is renowned for being unafraid to take style risks. While Swinton is no doubt paid handsomely to endorse certain designers and campaigns, there seems to be a consistency in her willingness to push the boundaries of fashion.

For some this usually lands her on post-Oscar “worst-dressed” lists, while for others it only enhances her status as a modern style icon, all of which begs the question: was this appearance in British Vogue wearing a Palestinian symbol another stylist’s attempt to split the opinion of the fashion world? Perhaps, alternatively, it sent a message of solidarity to an audience which may otherwise never have considered the Israel-Palestine conflict at all.

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In a brief interview with Tilda Swinton for The Electronic Intifada, I asked her about her unconventional choice of accessory. “The scarf I wore in Vogue is mine,” she said.

When asked if the scarf was a message of solidarity for the Palestinian cause, she added that it was “designed by my pal Bella Freud for the Hoping Foundation, set up in the name of hope and optimism for Palestinians of the next generation, of which I am a friend.”

So, not a deliberate attempt to be controversial, then?

“[It’s] just my favorite scarf,” she replied.

The Hoping Foundation funds grassroots projects for Palestinian children throughout the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and works closely with UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, to support those living in refugee camps.

“We want to show young Palestinians that their struggle to transform their lives is encouraged and supported by the people in Britain and throughout the rest of the world … The projects we are asked to support give these children the opportunity to play, to learn, and to express themselves through art, photography, film, music, theatre, dance and sport,” says the Hoping mission statement (“The Hoping Foundation website).

Over the years, Freud has hosted several high-profile events to raise money and awareness for Palestinian refugee children, attended by the likes of supermodel Kate Moss, actor Hugh Grant and Pakistani politician Imran Khan. And, of course, Tilda Swinton, who once auctioned off the reading of a story to a child in order to raise money for Hoping.

So the choice to wear the scarf seems to be the genuine choice by a friend of the Hoping Foundation and the Palestinian cause.

I don’t even understand the doubt in the mind of the author since wearing anything that shows support for the palestinians is not controversial. Being anti-Israel is the fashionable thing, especially amongst the Hollywood set. Wearing something in solidarity with Israel – now that would raise eyebrows.