50 | JUNE 2 • 2022 

SANDLER HUSTLES, 
HIRSCH STAYS IN THE 
GAME, E.T.’S 40TH 
ANNIVERSARY
Adam Sandler, 56, stars 
in the original Netflix film 
Hustle. It begins streaming 
on June 8. Sandler, a real-
life basketball super fan, 
plays Stanley Sugarman, 
a much-travelled basket-
ball coach for the (NBA) 
Philadelphia ’76ers. He 
dreams of being a basket-
ball coach, but he is stuck 
on the road, year-after-year, 
looking for an undiscovered 
great talent who will turn his 
life around.

While in Spain, he discov-
ers Bo Cruz, a great street-
ball player with a troubled 
and impoverished past. 
Cruz is played by Juancho 
Hernangomez, a Spaniard 
who has played for several 
NBA teams since 2016. He 
is currently a member of the 
Utah Jazz.
Well, I figure that most 
of you know where the 
film is going. It’s a double 
“Cinderella” story — for 
Stanley and for Bo. I haven’t 
seen the film, but I am quite 
sure they will face obstacles 
and sometimes will stumble, 
but in the end their dreams 
will be realized.

Netflix hasn’t given much 
of a synopsis, so most of the 
available information is from 
the film’s trailers. I know 
that Queen Latifah plays 
Stanley’s wife, Teresa, and 
that Ben Foster, 41, plays 
Stanley’s boss (I’m guess-
ing he is the ’76ers general 
manager). The credits say 
that the great Robert Duvall, 
91, is in Hustle. My gut says 
that he has a brief scene 
playing the team’s owner. 
The film was directed 
by Philadelphia native 
Jeremiah Zagar, 50ish. 
Zagar made a series of 
well-received documen-
taries starting in 2008. 
In 2018, he made We Are 
the Animals, his first fictional 
narrative film. This movie 
about an interracial family 
got good reviews. 
Zagar’s first film, In a 
Dream (2008), is a docu-
mentary about his unusual 
family. His father, Isaiah 
Zagar, 83, is very famous 
in Philadelphia for his many 
quite interesting street (wall) 
murals (the murals are most-
ly made up of bits of glass 
and tile). Jeremiah’s mother, 
Julia, 82, is also an artist.
Isaiah Zagar was profiled 
by the Philadelphia Jewish 
paper in 2016. He grew up 
in an Orthodox Brooklyn 
Jewish family. While Isaiah 
said Judaism greatly influ-
enced his work, my sense is 
that he is not, now, a prac-
ticing Jew. The profile didn’t 
say whether Julia is Jewish 
or not.
Hollywood Stargirl is an 
original Disney+ film that 
premieres on June 3. It is a 
sequel to Star Girl, a 2020 
high school musical that got 
pretty good reviews. Grace 
Avery VanderWaal, a teen 
singer with a distinctive 
voice, plays Susan, the “star-
girl” in both films’ titles. In 
the sequel, Susan moves to 

L.A. and makes new friends. 
Jordan Horowitz, 42, (La 
La Land) co-wrote both 
films. Judd Hirsch, 87, has a 
supporting role as Susan’s 
neighbor. It’s nice to see 
“super-veteran” excellent 
actors, like Hirsch and 
Robert Duvall, still working. 
The 40th anniversary of 
the American release of 
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 
(E.T.) is June 11. This truly 
beloved film was made for 
$10.5 million and grossed 
almost $800 million. No 
one expected that. The box 
office returns and the out-
pouring of plaudits from crit-
ics and audiences put direc-
tor Steven Spielberg, now 
75, into the rarefied universe 
of “tippy” top filmmakers. 
Here are three Spielberg 
E.T. “factoids”: While 
Spielberg didn’t write the 
film, he got the screenwriter, 
Melissa Mathison, “going.” 
He told her he long thought 
about making a film about 
his childhood — a lone-
ly childhood in which he 
had an imaginary friend. 
In some ways, Spielberg has 
said, E.T. is a combination 
of that imaginary friend and 
his own beloved father.
Another story: Some writ-
ers said E.T. was a Jesus-like 
figure. Spielberg replied 
that this came as a surprise 
to him and to his mother, 
who he pointed out was the 
owner of a kosher restau-
rant.
The script originally had 

E.T. being lured to come out 
with M&M candies. Mars 
Candy wouldn’t give permis-
sion to use M&M’s unless 
they saw the final script. 
Spielberg didn’t have a sure 
“money in the bank” repu-
tation then and Mars didn’t 
want their candy associated 
with a possibly monstrous 
space alien. The film compa-
ny wouldn’t agree to share 
the final script. 
The Hershey candy 
company took a chance 
and agreed to do a joint 
publicity campaign with 
the filmmakers without 
seeing the final script. 
Reese’s Pieces, a Hershey 
candy, was used in E.T. as 
the “lure” candy. Hershey 
was allowed to show the 
film to their executives and 
their families the day it 
was generally released. The 
Hershey Company audience 
laughed and cried — and 
they all knew that Hershey 
had made a great decision. 
Sales of Reese’s Pieces 
went through the roof. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

Adam 
Sandler

GEORGES BIARD, WIKIPEDIA

Judd 
Hirsch

IMBD.COM

Steven 
Spielberg

GAGE SKIDMORE, WIKIPEDIA

