MAY 26 • 2022 | 61

TOP GUN, AGAIN; A 
MYSTERY, A MEMOIR AND 
MINCEMEAT FICTIONS

 Top Gun: Maverick opens 
in theaters on May 27. It is 
a sequel to Top Gun (1986), 
a huge box-office hit that 
starred Tom Cruise as Pete 
“Maverick” Mitchell, a stu-
dent at the Navy’s fighter 
pilot school. The sequel finds 
Maverick (Cruise) leading a 
group of recent pilot school 
graduates on a secret, very 
dangerous mission.
Jennifer Connelly, 51, 
plays Penny, Maverick’s love 
interest. Penny’s a single 
mother, bar owner and the 
daughter of a former admiral. 
Connelly, who won a best 
supporting actress Oscar 
for A Beautiful Mind (2001), 
is the daughter of a Jewish 
mother and not-Jewish father. 
She’s always been secular.
Tom Cruise is 59 but looks 
about 50. Still, I am sure 
that everyone connected 
with the film realized that 
even a 50-year-old fighter 
pilot is improbable. Also, 
the Maverick character was 
originally written as a full-of-
himself, “cheeky bad boy” 
who wooed the strait-laced 
(female) flight instructor at the 
flight school. Can Cruise be 
that guy again?
Connelly was a good 
casting choice. She’s a strik-
ingly attractive woman at 51. 
Penny and Maverick’s rela-
tionship is age-appropriate, 
but still potentially “hot.” You 
have to figure that Penny, the 
daughter of an admiral, and 
a bar owner, is prepared to 
banter with the “still-cheeky” 
Maverick as they “do the 
dance” of a movie romance. 
Just being in such a romance 
makes Cruise seem younger 
and “cheekier.” 

Bosch a series about Harry 
Bosch, an LAPD detective, 
streamed on Amazon Prime 
from 2014-2021. A spin-off, 
titled Bosch: Legacy, began 
streaming on May 6 on the 
newish IMDB streaming 
service (free, with ads). In 
Legacy, Bosch is retired from 
the LAPD and is working as 
an investigator for Honey 
Chandler, a defense attorney.
Mimi Rogers, 66, co-stars 
as Chandler. Born Miriam 
Spickler, Rogers is the daugh-
ter of a Jewish father and 
non-Jewish mother. She was 
raised a Scientologist. She 
broke with them about 15 
years ago. By the way, it was 
Rogers who introduced Tom 
Cruise to Scientology while 
they were married (1987-89). 
She left; he never did. 
Mean Baby, a memoir by 
Detroit-area native Selma 
Blair, has got a lot of media 
coverage. But do read, 
online, a May 15 interview 
with the NY Times Book 
Review. The actress talks 
about what it meant to 
her to record The Diary of 
Anne Frank. The well-read 
Blair mentions a lot of other 
“tribe members” in the same 
interview: Primo Levi, Todd 
Soldonz, A.O. Scott, Melissa 
and Joan Rivers, and Carrie 
Fisher.

 
THE REAL OPERATION 
MINCEMEAT

Operation Mincemeat is an 
original Netflix film that is 
now streaming. It’s about a 
(real) British intelligence oper-
ation during WWII that saved 
thousands of lives. Colin 
Firth plays Ewen Montagu 
(1901-1985), a naval intelli-
gence officer who played 
a central role in Operation 
Mincemeat. Montagu 
belonged to one of the 
most famous British Jewish 
families and was very active 
in the Jewish community. 
Montagu was a top barrister 
before joining British Naval 
Intelligence in 1938. 
I didn’t write about 
Mincemeat before I saw 
it because some advance 
reviews referred to 
Montagu’s wife as Jewish. 
I thought perhaps the film 
had erased Montagu’s own 
Jewish identity. Not quite so.
In an early scene, Montagu 
is sending his wife and kids 
to Canada. He says he is 
doing so because of the 
potential Nazi danger to 
“a Jewish family.” It’s a bit 
unclear, but viewers proba-
bly “get it” that Montagu is 
Jewish, too. This scene is the 
only Jewish reference in the 

film. 
The “real” Operation 
Mincemeat was a highly dra-
matic operation. It had the 
built-in drama of a prominent 
Jew leading an anti-Nazi 
operation. But that wasn’t 
enough for the screenwrit-
ers. Below are the biggest 
inaccuracies in the film. Don’t 
read them if you want to 
watch the film first. But do 
watch the film, in any event. 
Here are the top four 
made-up things, as compiled 
by the Deadline website: 
1) Admiral Godfrey (played 
by Jason Isaacs, 58), is 
Montagu’s superior officer. 
He’s against Mincemeat until 
it succeeds. Truth: Godfrey 
wasn’t against Mincemeat 
and left for other duties 
months before Mincemeat 
concluded. 
2) Montagu’s closest col-
league, Chas. Cholmondeley, 
spies on Montagu for British 
intelligence. In return, high-
er-ups bring back his soldier 
brother’s body from Burma, 
where he served. Truth: 
Cholmondeley didn’t spy on 
Montagu and his brother was 
killed after Mincemeat. 
3.) Joan Leslie is an 
essential member of the 
Mincemeat team. She and 
Montagu were at the edge of 
having an affair. Truth: Leslie 
had only a peripheral role 
in Mincemeat. Montagu did 
not hide his friendship with 
Leslie. He told his wife, via 
letters, about it. 
4) Montagu’s brother, 
Ivor, is suspected of being 
a Communist. He lives in 
Ewan’s house. Truth: Ivor 
was an open Communist, not 
shocking in the UK in 1943. 
Ivor lived with his wife, in 
their own home. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

KARON LIU

Jennifer 
Connelly

JOELLA MARANO

Selma Blair

