IVAN, SETH ROGEN 
AND HUNTERS

The new film The One and 
Only Ivan begins streaming on 
Disney+ on Aug. 21. It is based 
on a best-selling children’
s novel 
of the same name. Ivan is a goril-
la who lives in a very run-down 
mall. Also living in the mall is 
Stella, an aging elephant. Ruby, 
an abused baby elephant, shows 
up one day. Ivan, Stella and Julia, 
the mall janitor’
s daughter, take 
care of Ruby and try to find a way 
to turn the mall around. 
Most of the characters are 
animated and are voiced by top 
notch actors (including Angelina 
Jolie and Helen Mirren). The 
“live” actors include Bryan 
Cranston as the kindly owner of 
the mall and Ariana Greenblatt 
as Julia. Greenblatt, 12, has been 
acting since she was 6. From 
2016 to 2018, she played the 
youngest daughter on the Disney 
series Stuck in the Middle. 
 Greenblatt, who has 1 mil-
lion social media followers, will 
appear in several upcoming big 
films (including In the Heights, 
the film production of Lin-Manuel 
Miranda’
s hit Broadway musi-
cal). The young actress is the 
daughter of a Jewish father and a 
Puerto Rican mother. As is com-
mon with child actors, it is hard 
to find out, now, how she identi-
fies in a religious sense. 
 I could write a full column on 
the blow-back following Seth 
Rogen’
s podcast interview (July 
27) with Marc Maron. Rogen, 

38, seemed to imply that Israel 
shouldn’
t exist, only to quickly 
deny that was his position in 
follow-up statements. On Aug. 5, 
Rogen gave a 35-minute inter-
view to Ha’
aretz, the Israeli paper. 
Ha’
aretz posted the full audio 
for free listening on its website 
(much of Ha’
aretz content is 
behind a pay wall). 
I recommend you listen to 
the interview for a full, clarified 
picture of Rogen’
s view of Israel 
and just about everything Jewish 
in his personal and professional 
life (including his Jewish wife’
s 
criticism of some podcast com-
ments). Google “Haaretz The 
Interview Seth Rogen Sets the 
Record Straight.”
I was surprised when it was 
recently announced that the 
Amazon Prime Video series 
Hunters had been renewed for 
a second season. Before the 
series premiered, I was looking 
forward to a show that starred Al 
Pacino and Logan Lerman, 28, 
as Nazi hunters in the 1970s. 
But Hunters was a mess, despite 
some good performances 
(Lerman, especially). The plotting 
was clunky and the scripts were 
often second rate. Also, there 
was a very real problem with the 
writers inventing Holocaust hor-
ror stories. Doing this just feeds 
the junk that Holocaust deniers 
write. Besides, there are so 
many real Holocaust atrocity sto-
ries, nobody has to invent them 
for dramatic effect. Almost all 
respected critics gave the show 
a thumbs-down. Maybe the sec-
ond season will be better. 

42 | AUGUST 20 • 2020 

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

Arts&Life

celebrity jews

DISNEY MEDIA

Lincoln Shopping Center

GREENFIELD and 10½ MILE

Advance America

ALDI 

Bling Bling • Book Beat 

Conservative Cuts

Dollar Castle 

DTLR • Dr. Lazar 

J Anthony

Lee Beauty Supply 

Metro PCS 

Metropolitan Dry Cleaners

Mookey’s Beans & Greens 

Original Bread Basket

Paper Goods Warehouse 

Rainbow

Street Corner Music 

Step In Style • Suit Depot 

T Nails • Top That

White Castle / Church’s Chicken

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