IN

L

\, E

Hollywood's

Night

Shining a light on Oscar's

Jewish nominees.

screen time as co-star Heath
Soon after, Heart's oldest son,
Ledger, who is up for Best Actor.
River, began acting, providing
the family with a secure financial But Oscar politics are always
strange.
78th
Annual
he
footing. A great young actor,
Jake's
Academy Awards
River died in Joaquin's arms
mother,
airs 8 p.m. Sunday,
from a drug overdose in 1993.
screen-
March 5, on ABC. The pro-
The other Phoenix siblings fol-
writer
gram will be hosted by
lowed River into acting, and
Naomi
Jewish comedian Jon
Joaquin had some success as a
Foner
Stewart and helmed by
child actor before quitting the
Gyllenhaal,
Jewish director Gil Cates.
field in 1989. (He also quit school
is Jewish.
Here are sketches of the
in the 9th grade.) His adult
(Her first
Jewish Oscar nominees.
return to acting was jump-start-
husband
More information on the
ed by a 2000 Best Supporting
Gyllenhaal
was well-
Academy Awards can be
Actor Oscar nomination for The
known
Jewish
historian
Erie
found at www.oscar.com .
Gladiator.
Foner). Jake's father, director
Joaquin's casting as Johnny
Stephen Gyllenhaal, is not Jewish.
Cash was a bit of a surprise, but
Naomi, who wrote the 2005
he worked hard to master the
film Bee Season, about a religious
guitar and to learn to sing like
JOAQUIN
Jewish family, spoke to the media
Cash. (By the way, Johnny Cash
PHOENIX
last year about her own Jewish
and
invited
Gladiator
really liked
Phoenix,
background.
Joaquin home for dinner with
31, is nom- the Cash family.)
She said she grew up in an
inated for
essentially secular family, where
Both Joaquin and his mother
Best Actor
social liberalism substituted for
say they currently don't follow
for his riv-
religion, and that's the way she
any faith, and Joaquin has never
eting per-
raised Jake and his sister, actress
publicly spoken about his Jewish
formance
Maggie Gyllenhaal.
background. His sister Summer,
as country
Still, Jake seems more Jewish
who
has
played
Jewish
film
roles
Phoenix
music leg-
(Suzie Gold, Esther Kahn), did tell than anything else — talking
end Johnny Cash in Walk the an interviewer that she had . no
about his "secular" bar mitzvah
Line.
at 13, which included a "few
Jewish religious background
Joaquin's mother, Heart,
prayers with my mother" and
growing up, and that her first
was born Arlyn Dunetz to
spending the day helping at a
real exposure to Judaism came
non-observant Jewish par-
when she researched these parts. homeless shelter with some
ents in the Bronx. Heart left
friends.
New York when she was a
Jake did a little work as a child
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
young woman and met
(City Slickers), but his
actor
Gyllenhaal, 25, is nominated for
Joaquin's non-Jewish father.
breakthrough
role came as a high
Best Supporting Actor for play-
They joined a Christian cult
school
student
in October Sky
ing one of two gay cowboys in
group. After leaving the cult,
(1999).
His
movies
since have
the surprise big hit Brokeback
the couple and their five
been
hit-and-miss,
with The
Mountain. Some film critics say
children lived a vagabond
The
Day
After
and
Good
Girl
Gyllenhall should have received a
existence until Heart went to
standing
out
as suc-
Tomorrow
Best Actor nomination (or noth-
Hollywood and got a clerical
ing) since he has almost as much
Hollywood's on page 42
job with NBC.

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish
News

T

The Actors

iN

March 2 s 2006

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