52 | MARCH 24 • 2022 

FAMILY MOVIE; 
RADCLIFFE KIDNAPS 
BULLOCK; A GODFATHER 
GUIDE-OF-SORTS
Rescued by Ruby is an 
original Netflix film that was 
released on March 17. 
 It’s a “feel good” movie 
for the whole family. It’s 
based on a true story. The 
“real” Ruby was a wayward 
puppy. This Australian 
shepherd and border 
collie mix ended up in a 
Rhode Island animal shelter 
because of behavior prob-
lems. Five families adopted 
her and then returned her. 
Then Dan O’Neill, a state 
police corporal, came to 
the shelter looking for a 
(free) search-and-rescue 
dog. He was taken with 
Ruby’s intelligence and 
energy. He adopted (2011) 
Ruby, then 8-month-old 
pup, and trained her. 
 Well, you can guess that 
Ruby did something spe-
cial to merit a lot of press 
— and a movie about her. 
I won’t spoil your viewing 
by telling you what she did. 
Grant Gustin (TV’s “Flash”) 
plays Dan. Scott Wolf, 43, 
has a big role as Dan’s 

commanding officer.
Wolf, who was raised in 
a Reform Jewish home, 
became well known play-
ing star character Bailey 
Salinger on the hit series 
Party of Five (1994-2000). 
Wolf didn’t become a big 
star after Party of Five 
ended. But he has worked 
steadily. He was a series 
regular on The Night Shift, 
an NBC medical show 
(2014-17), and now he is a 
series regular on Nancy 
Drew, a CW series which is 
now airing its third season. 
The Lost City, which 
opens in theaters on March 
25, stars Sandra Bullock 
as Loretta, a romance nov-
elist who is kidnapped by 
Fairfax, an eccentric bil-
lionaire. Fairfax thinks that 
Loretta really knows the 
location of a treasure-filled 
lost city mentioned in a 
novel she wrote.
Loretta’s novel has a 
photo of its (fictional) 
hero on the cover. Alan 
(Channing Tatum) is the 
handsome model whose 
photo was used. Alan 
decides to make fiction real 
and rescue Loretta. Brad 
Pitt plays a CIA agent who 
helps him.
Daniel Radcliffe, 32, 
plays Fairfax. As everyone 
knows, Radcliffe became 
famous as the adolescent 
star of the Harry Potter 
movies. His adult film 
career hasn’t been stellar 
— but he’s worked steadi-
ly, and he is doing much 
better than many actors 
who become stars when 
they are children or teens 
and then fade away. Plus, 
Radcliffe is sitting on a 
“gelt pile.” His huge Potter 

paydays left him with a per-
sonal fortune of about $100 
million.
As I have noted before, 
Radcliffe is the son of an 
English Jewish mother and 
an Irish Protestant father. 
He identifies as Jewish, 
although he was raised 
secular and remains so. 

GODFATHER 
ANNIVERSARY
As you probably heard, 
2022 is the 50th anniversa-
ry of the release of first of 
the three Godfather films. 
On March 22, a box set of 
the trilogy was released on 
Blu-Ray discs (Ultra-HD, 4K). 
If you have a 4k TV set, you 
might consider buying it. 
Also, late in April, a mini-se-
ries about the making of 
the first Godfather movie 
will stream on Paramount+.
Below is a list of Jewish 
actors in the first Godfather 
film. I’ll cover The 
Godfather: Part II in anoth-
er column. Readers of this 
column know that I kvetch 
about non-Jews playing 
“very Jewish” parts — so 
much so that Jewish actors 
say they rarely, if ever, get 

a Jewish part. That said, 
I think Italian (not Jewish) 
actors and Jewish actors 
have a special relationship. 
There is something about 
the look, culture and “body 
language” of these groups 
that is so similar that mem-
bers of one group can 
credibly play “the other.” 
Plus, there seems to be a 
fair exchange — if you sur-
vey all major TV and movie 
roles — the number of Jews 
playing Italians is roughly 
equal to Italians playing 
Jews.
 Here are the Jewish 
actors who played Italians 
in The Godfather: James 
Caan, now 81, co-starred 
as Sonny Corleone. By 
the way, Caan ad-libbed 
the words “bada-bing” 
as he, as Sonny, talked 
about shooting someone. 
Sopranos fans know that 
Bada Bing was the name 
of a strip club run by 
the Soprano crime fam-
ily; the late Abe Vigoda 
played Tessio, one of the 
Godfather’s two main 
lieutenants; the late Rudy 
Bond played Cuneo, a 
crime family head; and 
the late Louis Guss (who 
played Cher’s uncle in 
Moonstruck), played a 
Mafia leader who memora-
bly proclaimed, at a Mafia 
big-wig meeting, that he 
would keep the drug trade 
in black neighborhoods. 
Two others of note: the 
late Alex Rocco, an Italian, 
played Jewish gangster 
Moe Greene and the late 
John Marley, who was 
Jewish, played the (possi-
bly Jewish) movie executive 
who woke up with a horse’s 
head in his bed. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

GAGE SKIDMORE

Scott Wolf

GAGE SKIDMORE

Daniel Radcliffe

