58 | AUGUST 18 • 2022
INDUSTRY ON HBO,
RENEWALS, GODFATHER
‘JEWISH’ STUFF
The HBO series Industry
recently made it on my
radar. It premiered in 2020
during the apex of the pan-
demic but was filmed before
the pandemic hit. Almost all
reviewers said the show was
an unrealistic look at the
lives of young people trying
to move up the ladder at a
large London financial ser-
vices company. Many critics
said you could overlook the
unrealism because the ener-
gy of young people living
pre-COVID professional and
romantic lives had a certain
fun and charm.
While their financial talk
was “mumbo-jumbo,” critics
said, the characters strictly
personal conversations were
witty. Many said it was more
fun than Succession.
A second, eight-episode
season premiered on Aug. 1.
About a week ago, I learned
that a star of Industry,
Marisa Abela, 25, is the
(British) daughter of a Jewish
mother and a non-Jewish
father. Abela plays Yasmin
Kara-Hanani, a woman of
Lebanese background who
comes from a wealthy family.
Yasmin’s father makes his
debut in the second season.
He’s played by Adam Levy,
51, a Brit actor.
Abela father’s family is of
Maltese (almost certainly
Catholic) origin. Her moth-
er’s parents, Abela says,
are the children of Polish
Jewish refugees. I learned
about Abela’s background in
a brief article that said she
was in “early talks” to play
the late Amy Winehouse,
the famous British Jewish
pop singer. The article noted
that the filmmakers were
determined to find someone
of Jewish background to
play Winehouse.
The Old Man, an original
Hulu series, ended its
seven-episode premiere
season on July 21. A second
season was just ordered.
It stars Jeff Bridges as an
ex-CIA agent who has long
been living under a false
identity. Here’s just two
reasons to watch the first
season: It got great reviews,
and Joel Grey, 90, turns in a
great performance in a quite
small but important recurring
role.
I hope by the time the
second season premieres
I can verify that the two
producers and co-writers
of the show, “newbies”
Jonathan E. Steinberg and
Robert Levine, are Jewish.
Seems like a “gimmee,” but
it’s not.
Also renewed for a
second season is The Bear,
an acclaimed FX/Hulu series
about a top chef who is turn-
ing a “greasy spoon” into a
gourmet delight. As previ-
ously noted, it co-stars Ebon
Moss-Bachrach, 45.
The Offer is a (concluded)
Paramount+ series about the
making of The Godfather, a
1972 Paramount studio film.
As I previously wrote, there
was a “record number” of
real-life Jewish characters
in the series and a lot of
Jewish actors playing Jews.
However, The Offer, while
sometimes “fun,” disap-
pointed me because it was
incredibly inaccurate.
The series credits say it is
based on the memories of
Al Ruddy. Ruddy, 92, The
Godfather’s producer, is
constantly falsely depicted
as the “indispensable man.”
Events are often made up
out of whole cloth.
A silver lining is that as
I looked into The Offer, I
incidentally came across
three “new-to-me” Jewish
sidelights on The Godfather.
Share them with friends and
family who are fans of The
Godfather. The number of
such fans has only grown
in the last 50 years. Here
goes:
(1) John Marley, born John
Marlieb, played big-time
producer Jack Woltz, the
guy who wakes up with a
horse’s head in his bed. In a
1972 interview, Marley said
that a fake head looked too
fake, so a real horse’s head
was obtained from a local
slaughterhouse!
(2) There’s a brief scene
in which we see a sign in
front of a movie studio gate
that says Woltz International
Pictures. The sign was
actually posted in front of
a Paramount studio gate.
The Paramount studio street
that begins at that gate has
recently been renamed
in honor of Jewish actor
Leonard Nimoy, and
(3) Just before the film’s
release, studio execs
complained there was no
Godfather scene in which
stars Al Pacino and Marlon
Brando exchanged more
than a few words. Coppola
asked his friend, screenwrit-
er Robert Towne, now 87, to
write such a scene. Towne’s
scene is very memorable:
Brando tells Pacino how to
ferret out traitors and how
much he regrets that his son
(Pacino) has been drawn into
the criminal life.
When Coppola won the
best screenplay Oscar (1972)
for Godfather, he thanked
Towne. Towne, who was
born Robert Schwartz, got
his own best screenplay
Oscar for Chinatown (1974)
and he wrote many other
famous films. His niece is
married to Simon Helberg,
41 (Howard on The Big Bang
Theory).
CELEBRITY NEWS
NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
ARTS&LIFE
IMDB
Marisa Abela
WIKIPEDIA
Joel Gray
GOLDEN GLOBES
John Marley