Jews

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

New Flicks

Disney Channel superstar
Vanessa Hudgens (High School
Musical) heads up a teen cast
as the star of the musical film
Bandslam. Hudgens plays a
member of a teen rock band
that hopes to win a big battle-
of-the-bands contest. Along
the way, Hudgens finds
romance with Will Burton
(Gaelan Connell), the cute new
boy in town. Burton manages
Hudgens' band. The film opens
Friday, August 14.

Lisa Kudrow,

46, who is
best known
for playing
Phoebe on TV's
Friends, por-
trays Burton's
mother, just
about the only
Lisa Kudrow
adult with a big
part in the movie. She says,
"Bandslam is a cut above what
you might expect from this kind
of film. It is so smooth, and
easy, and so well written." She
added that there are realistic
scenes in the movie in which
her character talks to her son
about his emotions. The scenes
reminded her of the difficult
time she, or any parent, has in
talking frankly with their kids.
In real life, Kudrow has one
child, Julian Stern, 11.

Jeremy Piven,

44, finally has
emerged as
something other
than a sup-
porting player
with his eat-
up-the-scenery
starring role as
Jeremy Piven
hard-charging
talent agent Ari Gold on HBO's
Entourage. Now, he stars as the
Ari Gold-esgue character Don
Ready in the film comedy The

Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,

also opening on Aug. 14. Don
Ready is a super-salesman who
is asked to bring in his team
and clear out the inventory of
an ailing car dealership over a
July 4 weekend. Jordana Spiro,
32, the star of the TBS series
My Boys, has a large support-
ing role.

Cool Convention

The annual Comic-Con
Convention in San Diego has
grown exponentially since it
began in 1970. Originally it
showcased comic books and sci-
ence fiction and fantasy-related
books, films and TV shows.
Now, the convention, which
attracts more than 100,000
people, covers almost all of pop
culture. Just about any TV show
or movie with any relationship
at all to sci-fi, horror or fantasy
sends its stars and producers
to promote their project at a
public/press panel. It's the cool
place to be and be seen.
The FOX police/sci-fi TV
series Fringe hosted a panel
that included most of the
people con-
nected to the
show. Series
co-producer

Celebrating
61 years

Back Menu starting August lst!!!*

Jeff Pinkner

announced that

Leonard Nimoy

would co-star
in the Fringe
Jeff Pinkner
season-two
opener, and this bit of news got
a huge round of applause from
the thousands of people who
crowded the hall where the
panel was held. Nimoy guested
on Fringe last season as a mys-
terious corporate executive.
A notable no-show at Comic-
Con was J.J. Abrams, the main
producer of Fringe. Pinkner
explained that Abrams was
attending the bar mitzvah of the
son of actor Greg Grunberq, 43.
Pinker added, tongue-in-cheek,
that "on rare occasions, being
Jewish takes precedence over
being cool."
Abrams (Lost,
Star Trek) is a
lifelong friend
of Grunberg.
He gave his
buddy a plum
role as police
Greg Grunberg
officer Matt
Parkman on
his NBC series Heroes. Abrams
was attending the bar mitzvah
of Grunberg's oldest son, Jake.
Greg and his wife, Elizabeth
Wershow, have two other sons,
Ben,10, and Sam, 6. ❑

Contact Nate Bloom at

middleoftheroadl©aol.com .

• . -

Selected Pasta dishes
induding Manicotti
$14.92

Monday & Wednesday
Veal Piccante,
Shrimp Bordelaise, $19.48
Chicken Cacciatore

Tuesdays & Thursdays
Filet Mignon,
$19.48
Veal Marsala,
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Every Tuesday
Whole Maine Lobster

$12.95

Served with red skin potato's and corn
on the cob

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313-832-1616

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(At Maple)
Troy, MI
248 588 6000

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* All "roll back" specials require a minimum purchase of one beverage per person
No other discounts, coupons or offers on the "roll back"

August 13

fl

2009

39

