Comments (0)Noah “Puck” Puckerman
Puckish Grin
November 18, 2009Finally, a cool Jewish guy character can be found on TV!
After decades of the stereotypical nebbishy, nerdy, overwrought Jewish fellas on the small screen, a hip, tough, neurosis-free character emerges on the quirky Fox musical comedy “Glee” in the form of Noah “Puck” Puckerman, played by Mark Salling.
Puck is the hunky, homophobic, mohawked, cougar-lovin’ high school football player who joins the glee gang after getting his best pal’s girlfriend (played by Dianna Agron) knocked up. (Nice guy!)
Mr. Salling, 27, said he wanted the character to be “more than two-dimensional,” striking “the balance between arrogance and cocky and sensible and likeable.”
In one episode, Puck unexpectedly dates the character of theater geek Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) after his mom urges him to find a nice Jewish girlfriend. In another episode, he sang a memorable cover version of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”
Farewell Joel Fleischman, Alex Rieger, Ross Geller and Gabe Kotter! You’ve gotten your marching orders—Puck is in the house now!
Larry David
Having Reservations
November 18, 2009Larry David’s not 100 percent Jewish? What are you gonna tell us next, that his alter ego George Costanza and his family (played brilliantly by Jerry Stiller and Estelle Harris) aren’t members of the tribe either?
On a recent airing of TBS’s “Lopez Tonight,” brand-new talk show host George Lopez informed Mr. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” that he conducted a human genome inquiry about Mr. David and came up with some surprising DNA results.
Turns out the 62-year-old “Seinfeld” co-creator is a member of another tribe.
“Why did I do the DNA test?” the Brooklyn-born Mr. David asked Mr. Lopez moments before the big announcement. “I know I’m a Jew but where did I come from? Maybe I’m not. Maybe I’ve got some Indian or Mexican in me. Who the hell knows? Maybe I’ll be surprised by this.”
Mr. Lopez told him, “You are 63 percent European … Larry David, you are 37 percent Native American!”
A clearly stunned Mr. David replied, “What do you mean. I’m a Comanche? I’m in the Iroquois Tribe. What are you saying?” Mr. Lopez informed him, “Listen, you’re a member of two tribes. You’re Jewish and you’re Native American.”
Mr. David countered, “What! This can’t be true,” to which Mr. Lopez replied, “It’s true, it’s absolutely true.”
Guess Larry’s feeling a bit regretful now about that “Seinfeld” episode with the cigar store Indian, eh?
William Alan Shatner
Beat It, Bill
November 13, 2009William Alan Shatner — what would we ever do without that crazy, 78-year-old Canadian Jew?
The man better known as Capt. James Tiberius Kirk recently turned up on “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien,” delighting viewers and verse lovers everywhere with his masterful performance of reading Sarah Palin’s resignation speech from July as well as her father-of-her-grandson-turned-nemesis Levi Johnston’s tweets into absolute beat poetry worthy of Kerouac and Ferlinghetti.
A bass, bongo and Bill ñ doesn’t get better than that. The man is a national treasure.
Scott Wolf
Way Out There
November 13, 2009
Scott Wolf might forever be known for his portrayal of Bailey Salinger on “Party Of Five.” But there’s no denying that he’s jazzed about his character of ambitious journalist Chad Decker on the new sci-fi “V.”
“I originally auditioned for a different character,” Mr. Wolf, 41, recently told Entertainment Weekly.” “They were seeing lots of folks. I couldn’t put the script down when I read it, it had this intensity and suspense and momentum, and I can be pretty distractable. But I read this from start to finish. And I picked up the phone right away.
“So when I heard their interest was me for the role of Chad Decker, I was really excited. It was the first role to jump out at me. It seemed like fun, but it also seemed to be tapping into some personality stuff that I hadn’t explored yet.”
Growing up in West Orange, N.J., Mr. Wolf loved sci-fi shows. “The most seminal moments in my childhood were based on the ‘Star Wars’ movies coming out, and I was a huge ‘Star Trek’ fan growing up,” he said. “I always loved how inventive the storytelling was — stories that sweep you out of your everyday life.”
And how soon until there’s more alien visitors on “V”? “[In the pilot] we saw a couple of cracks in the veneer. We already have reason to believe there might be something else going on,” Mr. Wolf said. “The first chapter of our story is being told in November, so by the end of November there’s a clearer picture of what the visitors intend to do here.”
Playing a journalist, as it turns out, comes naturally to Mr. Wolf. “I studied broadcast journalism for a year in school, so I’ve always loved it,” he said. “In high school, I did some “point-counterpoints” on our high school news show. I was always intrigued by it, so in a way I feel like I’m having the career I never got.
“One of the interesting challenges for me is that when I’m doing Chad’s news broadcasts, I can’t use a teleprompter to read the news. I’m having to memorize. Memorizing lines isn’t particularly difficult for me, but sometimes there are two pages of intricate verbiage. Still, it’s really been fun, and I also like the hair — the newsguy hair.”
Most importantly, does Mr. Wolf himself believe that aliens exist?
“I believe they could. I don’t not believe,” he said. “I think we keep telling and listening to this story because we’re really curious. Because in some ways it’s more far-fetched to believe that nothing else lives anywhere.”
Paul Stanley
KISS Is Bliss
November 13, 2009So they’re nice boys after all.
The rockers from KISS, sans make-up, recently traveled to Augusta, Ga., to the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center to “shout it out loud” for wounded soldiers there.
“He’s my hero right here,” said lead singer Paul Stanley (born Stanley Harvey Eisen), putting his arm around a wounded warrior. “These are the guys, these are the guys, these are the heroes right here. … The greatest American heroes are sometimes the most neglected, and here in Augusta you’ve got the most comprehensive rehab center.”
Many of the soldiers attended KISS’s recent concert in Atlanta. Said one soldier, whose name (believe it or not!) is Kinga Kiss: “I can’t imagine they took the time out of their day just to come and visit with us. I had my ticket signed. I’m so excited.”
The band members posed for pictures and signed autographs for the soldiers. Mr. Stanley, 57, shrugged off any praise the band.
“The people not only talk the talk but they walk the walk,” he said, “they’ve gone the mile, and for us to take just a little bit of time to come over here and acknowledge them is minuscule compared to what these people do for us.”
Chelsea Handler
Thin Skinned
November 13, 2009
Oh, that Jay Leno. He’s always got something up his sleeve.
Last week, in an awkward series of events, the lantern-jawed Leno surprised talk show host/comedian/author Chelsea Handler by unveiling a giant-sized reproduction of his nubile guest’s forthcoming “Playboy” cover, in which she’s attired in nothing but a tiny gold bikini and a come-hither smile.
When Leno brought up Hugh Hefner and posing for Playboy, Chelsea, 34, seemed a bit annoyed and said, “Why are you bringing that up?”
About the cover, which is for the December issue, Handler joked, “We need the guy that airbrushed me to come back.” She admitted that she “trained” hard for the shoot and quit drinking “for like a day and a half.”
As far as seeing Chelsea in the buff, don’t get your hopes up, fellas. The inside photos merely show her covered up by an apron and a mini-dress while preparing a vodka-soaked Christmas meal with her sidekick, Chuy.