44 September 5 • 2019
jn

MOVIE NEWS
THE SPY
The Spy, a six-episode Netflix original 
series, premieres Friday, 
Sept. 6. It is about Eli Cohen 
(1924-1965), a real-life 
Israeli spy. If you are unfa-
miliar with Cohen’
s life, you 
could, of course, read an 
online biography. However, 
you may want to discover 
most of his life history via 
the Netflix series, so I won’
t 
disclose his most important 
espionage assignment. 
 Just a little background: 
Cohen was born and raised 
in Egypt. His father was 
a Syrian Jew who moved 
to Egypt in 1914. Eli was, 
of course, fluent in Arabic 
as virtually all Egyptian 
Jews were. His family was 
strongly Zionist and Cohen 
secretly aided Israel while 
still in Egypt. He long barely 
escaped arrest and when his 
position became untenable, 
he escaped to Israel in 1956. 
 The Spy was created, 
written and directed by 
Gideon Raff, 47, an Israeli 
producer and writer who is 
most famous for creating 
the Israeli series Prisoners 
of War, which was remade 
(with some changes) as 
the hit American series 
Homeland.
 British actor/comedian 
Sasha Baron-Cohen, 47, 
plays Eli Cohen. The actor’
s 
mother is an Israeli, and he 
is fluent in Hebrew, which 
probably helped him give a 
more authentic performance. 
American actor Noah 
Emmerich, 54, co-stars as 
Dan Peleg. Netflix’
s website 
describes Peleg this way: 
“Dan is a charming, rumpled 
and brilliant Mossad trainer. 
He is wise, wary and stub-
born, and has a tendency to 
blur the boundaries between the person-
al and professional. He has conflicted 
feelings about Eli and is tormented by 

a mistake he made in the past.” You 
probably will recognize Emmerich. 
He co-starred in the FX series The 
Americans, as FBI agent Stan Beeman. 
I always remember him as Jim Carrey’
s 
faux best friend in The Truman Show 
(1998).

STREAMING CATCH-UP
The Righteous Gemstones 
is an original HBO series 
that began Aug. 18, with 
a two-episode premiere 
(the first season is eight 
episodes). The series is 
described as a comedy, but 
it is really a drama with 
some comedy. HBO says 
about the show: “[It’
s about] 
the world-famous Gemstone 
televangelist family, which 
has a long tradition of devi-
ance, greed and charitable 
work, all in the name of the 
Lord Jesus Christ.”
 John Goodman stars 
as Dr. Eli Gemstone, the 
family’
s head. Skyler 
Gisondo, 24, plays Gideon, 
the youngest of Eli’
s three 
children. Without spoiling 
things, the Gideon character 
has a big moment and “hid-
den agenda reveal” in the 
second episode. 
 On Becoming a God 
in Central Florida is a 
Showtime dark comedy that 
 
premiered Aug. 25. The 
first season is 10 episodes, 
and new episodes air on 
Sunday. Set in the early 
’
80s, the series stars Kirsten 
Dunst as a young woman 
in Orlando who schemes 
her way up the corporate 
ladder of a cultish, pyramid 
scheme company that, in 
years past, financially ruined 
her family. Ted Levine, 62, 
co-stars as Obie, an import-
ant and creepy member 
of the family that runs the 
company. Reviews say he’
s 
excellent and that’
s not a 
surprise — Levine was 
amazingly creepy in The 
Silence of the Lambs as 
serial killer “Buffalo Bill” (the guy who 
says to his captive: “It rubs the lotion on 
its skin.”). ■

NATE BLOOM

COLUMNIST

Sasha Baron-Cohen

Noah Emmerich

Skyler Gisondo

Ted Levine

celebrity jews
arts&life

JOELLA MARANO, WIKIPEDIA
GEORGES BIARD, WIKIPEDIA
IMDB
IMDB

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