Arts & Entertainment
From The Clash To Coldplay
In new film, young-at-heart seniors rock a chorus director's world.
Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News
same level."
Cilman and the chorus have built
an audience abroad with 16 trips to
hatever urge Bob
Europe and Australia in the past 10
Cilman has to teach
years. They're about to expand their fan
the world to sing in
base in the U.S. with the entertaining,
perfect harmony has been satis-
poignant documentary Young@Heart,
fied for the past 25 years by a
which records several weeks of rehears-
group of New England seniors.
als leading up to a concert. The film is
Cilman, who was raised Jewish
scheduled to open Friday, April 25, at
in Rochester, N.Y., has been the
the Maple Art Theatre in Bloomfield
director of the Young@Heart
Township.
chorus practically since its incep
Gilman, who was born in 1953, grew
tion. A kindly autocrat, he's the
up surrounded by other Jews. His father
one who selects and teaches the
ran a kosher meat market, and he went
rock 'n roll repertoire that distin-
to Hebrew School, spent his summers at
Photo by Brandy Eve Allen/Fox Searchlight
guishes the unique Northampton, Director of the Young®Heart Chorus Bob Cilman: "Between [my cantor]
Camp Ramah and was a bar mitzvah.
and the Beatles, I had
Mass., vocal group.
"My cantor was kind of brilliant," he
a real appreciation for music."
"It's Jewish kind of work, isn't
recalls. "He was a real singer, and I think
it?" he muses during a recent
between him and the Beatles, I had a
interview. "Integrating all kinds of people
— they're a real American melting pot,
tions pretty close to the bone. Blacks went
real appreciation for music."
to make something artistic. Jews, blacks,
this group. It's a good thing to see, people
out with blacks; Jews went out with Jews.
Cilman's other key influence was a
Polish people, Irish people, French people
in that generation, which drew distinc-
There wasn't a lot of integrating at the
great-aunt who was part of the labor
W
ews
16m
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
XI Ask The Rabbi
By now, you've probably heard that
actor Rob Lowe, 44, and his wife,
former makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff,
47, are suing two women whom they
formerly employed as nannies in their
household. They also are suing their
former chef. All three are accused
of saying malicious and false things
about Lowe and Berkoff.
Most seriously, one former nanny,
represented by
"celebrity" lawyer
Gloria Allred in
a countersuit, is
accused of falsely
claiming that Lowe
sexually harassed
her over a period of
years. Lowe alleges
Rob Lowe and
that this nanny was
Sheryl Berkoff
trying to blackmail
him into paying $1.5
million in hush money, or she would
make her allegations public.
A couple of weeks ago, in an inter-
411
B22
April 24 • 2008
view about his lawsuit, Lowe said:
"My two boys are Jewish, by way of
my wife. The other day I asked their
rabbi for advice. She [the rabbi] said:
'People see threats for what they are,
just as they see truth for what it is.'
I hope that's true. I don't want to live
in a world of glass."
Berkoff and Lowe, an Episcopalian,
met in 1983 and married in 1991. They
have two sons, ages 13 and 14.
Unjustly Accused
The screenwriting duo of Hayden
Schlossberg, 29, and Jon Hurwitz,
30, scored a surprise hit in 2004
with Harold and Kumar Go to White
Castle. Schlossberg and Hurwitz
went to high school together in New
Jersey and are graduates of top
colleges. They were about to begin
careers in law and investment bank-
ing, respectively, when they sold their
Harold and Kumar script.
Harold and Kumar was sharper and
much funnier than most films about
college guys who like to get stoned
and chase girls. Also, the film's lead
characters were hardly ordinary. The
writing duo decided, they said, to
"be subversive and make the most
marginalized minorities" their film
leads. The four
main characters in
White Castle were
an Indian-American
college student,
Kumar (Kal Penn);
a Korean-American
college student,
Harold (John Cho);
Eddie Kaye
and
their two Jewish
Thomas
college-dorm bud-
dies, played by
David Krumholtz
and Eddie Kaye
Thomas.
Harold and Kumar
were good students,
despite getting
stoned
a lot. But
David
the
Jewish
guys,
Krumholtz
defying stereotypes,
were the biggest slackers-stoners in
their dorm – smoking pot out of their
"shofar bong."
All four characters return in Harold
and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo
Bay, opening Friday, April 25. This
time Schlossberg and Hurwitz not
only wrote the script, they also co-
directed the film.
In the sequel, Harold and Kumar
are arrested for attempted terror-
ism and imprisoned at Guantanamo
Bay when Harold attempts to use a
"smokeless bong" on a plane flight
(it's mistaken for a bomb). They even-
tually escape from Gitmo. The federal
agent who is chasing the duo down
is a racist and anti-Semitic bigot who
drips with hatred of Jews as he inter-
rogates the parents of the characters
played by Krumholtz and Thomas. As
in the original flick, there is a lot of
raunchy "frat boy" humor – this isn't
a family movie.
Woody In Israel
Woody Allen, 73, is scheduled to
make his first-ever trip to Israel next
month as the guest of the Red Sea
International Film Festival in Eilat.
Allen will be promoting his latest film,
Cassandra's Dream, which opened
earlier this year in America to lack-
luster reviews. ❑