JUNE 16 • 2022 | 51
GOING LARGE AND
WINNING; JULIE
ANDREWS’ “JEWISH” HITS
Jerry and Marge Go Large,
an original Paramount+ film,
begins streaming on June
17. It is based on the true
story of Jerry Selbee (Bryan
Cranston) and his wife,
Marge (Annette Bening).
The couple, who are now in
their 80s, was the subject
of many articles and a 60
Minutes story.
The Selbees have long
lived in Evart, Mich., a small
town (about 2,000 people)
in Osceola County. Before
retiring, the Selbees made
a modest living from their
convenience store. Not long
after they retired, Michigan
introduced (2003) a new
lottery game called Winfall.
Jerry, who has a college
degree in mathematics,
uncovered a mathematical
quirk in the Winfall lottery
game. Anyone (legally) could
earn “net” winnings if they
bought enough tickets. He
enlisted friends in a “betting
pool” or club.
When the Michigan game
ended, the Selbees found
a similar game in another
state. The club’s “grand” net
winnings total was $8 mil-
lion, before taxes. In a 2021
profile, the couple said they
still live in Evart and that
they used their winnings to
found a construction financ-
ing company that helps to
build homes for military vet-
erans in Northern Michigan.
David Frankel, 62, direct-
ed the film. Frankel, an
observant Jew, has helmed
some really big comedy hits,
including The Devil Wears
Prada and Marley and Me.
His father is Pulitzer Prize-
winner Max Frankel, now
92. Max and his family fled
Nazi Germany in 1940. He
retired (1996) as the NY
Times executive editor.
After a two-year delay,
due to the pandemic, the
American Film Institute (AFI)
finally got a chance to give
actress/singer Julie Andrews
an AFI lifetime achievement
award. As I write this, the
June 9 ceremony hasn’t yet
happened and, for what-
ever reason, the AFI never
reveals, in advance, the
names of the celebrities who
will speak at a lifetime cere-
mony. But you have to figure
some are Jewish.
A video of the ceremony
will air on TNT at 10 p.m. on
June 16, with a repeat show-
ing at 11:30 p.m. There will
also be an encore showing
on TCM, but the date is not
yet set.
When I saw that Andrews,
a truly great musical actress,
was being honored, I
thought of the most famous
musicals she starred in. They
were My Fair Lady (origi-
nal Broadway production;
1956-58), Mary Poppins (film,
1964) and The Sound of
Music (film, 1965).
I then realized that all
these musicals were writ-
ten or co-written by Jews.
I suspect that Ms. Andrews
knows this, too. My Fair
Lady was written by Alan J.
Lerner (script of musical and
song lyrics) and Frederick
Loewe (music; Loewe’s
father was Jewish). By the
way, Lerner and Loewe’s first
musical (1942), titled Life of
the Party, was written for a
Detroit theater company.
Richard Rodgers (music)
and Oscar Hammerstein II
(lyrics) wrote The Sound of
Music songs (Hammerstein’s
father was Jewish). The
Mary Poppins songs were
written by Richard Sherman,
now 93, and his late broth-
er, Robert Sherman. Julie
Andrews lauded them in
the 2009 documentary The
Boys: the Sherman Brothers
Story. It’s now streaming on
the Disney Channel.
Irma Vep, an eight-ep-
isode HBO Max series,
began streaming on HBO
Max on June 6. The reviews
were almost uniformly great.
The series centers around
Mira (Alicia Vikander). She’s
a troubled American movie
star who comes to France
to star as Irma Vep, the title
character in a remake of a
French silent film classic.
The role has troubling psy-
chological effects on Mira.
Carrie Brownstein,
47, plays Mira’s agent.
Brownstein is best known as
a member of Sleater-Kinney,
a long-popular rock band.
She showed she could
act when she co-starred
in the IFC comedy series
Portlandia.
The series was written and
directed by Olivier Assayas,
67, a famous French film-
maker. His father, Raymond
Assayas, was a top French
screenwriter. Raymond came
from a Sephardi family that
settled in France after WWI.
He escaped the Nazis and
joined the Free French forc-
es overseas. On Olivier’s
13th birthday, Raymond
casually told Olivier: “If
we were practicing Jews,
you’d have your bar mitz-
vah today.” Olivier, stunned,
asked a few questions and
his father confirmed that he
was Jewish.
Olivier’s mother was
raised Protestant, but she,
too, has some Jewish ances-
try (it’s unclear how much).
Olivier was raised Christian,
but he’s long been secular.
He said in an interview: “You
can’t avoid the echoes of
that history [the Holocaust].
It shapes your identity. So, in
a way I’ve been extremely
concerned and defined by
my half-Jewish identity, even
if it was passed on to me in
a such an awkward way.”
CELEBRITY NEWS
NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
ARTS&LIFE
THE PEABODY AWARDS VIA WIKIPEDIA
Carrie Brownstein
CANADIAN FILM CENTRE VIA WIKIPEDIA
David Frankel
EVA RINALDI VIA WIKIPEDIA
Julie Andrews