50 | SEPTEMBER 1 • 2022

AN OFFICE COMEDY FOR
LABOR DAY; SANDBERG
RE-MARRIES; BUSEY,
VICTIM OF KARMA?
Out-of-Office is an original
Comedy Central film that
premieres on Sept. 5 (Labor
Day) at 8 p.m. The film has a
somewhat vague official syn-
opsis. I gathered this much
— it focuses on how the pri-
vate lives of at-home workers
often gets mixed-up with their
work lives. It focuses on a
young woman who finds out
that keeping her job is some-
how tied to helping her boss
save his failing marriage.
Milana Vayntrub, 35, plays
the young woman. Vantryb,
who is very youthful-looking,
is best known for playing
Lily, the store salesperson
in the AT&T TV ads. Jason
Alexander, 62, and SNL vet
Cheri Oteri play her parents.
From the trailer, it appears
that comic actor Ken Jeong
plays Vayntrub’s boss. Two
African American SNL vets,
Jay Pharoah and Leslie
Jones, round-out the remain-
ing big-name stars.
The film was directed and
written by Paul Liberstein,
55. He’s a member of the
most remarkable Jewish
entertainment biz family that
you probably never heard
of. Paul was an executive
producer of The Office; wrote

many Office episodes; and
acted “a bit” in the series.
His brother-in-law, Greg
Daniels, 59, is a five-time
Emmy winner — he was a
top SNL writer and a top
Simpsons writer before he
successfully adapted the
(original) British version of
The Office for American audi-
ences. He also co-created
Parks and Recreation. Greg’s
father, Aaron, 87, the son of
a Russian Jewish immigrant,
was head of ABC radio
broadcasting.
Greg’s wife, Susanne
Daniels, 57 (Paul’s sister)
has helped develop many
hit TV shows, and she’s held
many top entertainment
media posts. She’s now
“Global Head of Content”
for YouTube. She was Lorne
Michael’s (SNL creator) sec-
retary when Greg met her.
The couple have four, proba-
bly funny, children.
Sheryl Sandberg, 52, the
chief operating officer of
Meta (Facebook), married
executive Tom Bernthal,
50, on Aug. 19. The cou-
ple reportedly bought out
the Four Seasons Hotel in
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for
the weekend. The guests
included Tom’s brother, actor
Jon Bernthal, 44 (Walking
Dead, King Richard).
No word whether it was a

Jewish ceremony. But that
seems very likely. Sandberg’s
late husband, high-tech exec
Dave Goldberg, was Jewish
(he died of a heart attack,
age 47, in 2015). The couple
had two children.
I presume that Bernthal’s
ex-wife, Lauren Pomeranz,
is Jewish. They divorced in
2020 and have three chil-
dren.
Reports say that U.S.
Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, 60, was at the wed-
ding. This makes sense —
Tom Bernthal has long ties
to the Democratic Party. He
began his working life in the
White House communica-
tions office during the Clinton
administration. He went on
to produce many NBC news
programs. Currently, he is
the head of a big marketing
company.
Sandberg will step down
from her Meta post this
fall but will remain on the
company’s board. Her top
post at Meta/Facebook has
made her a familiar name in
the news. She got a lot of
good press as the author of
Leaning In (2013), a best-sell-
ing guide for professional
women. In the last few years,
she and Facebook found-
er Mark Zuckerberg have
attracted fierce criticism for
Facebook’s “shortcomings”

— No. 1 being its glacial pace
in removing hate speech and
Russian/domestic disinforma-
tion.
You might have heard that
actor Gary Busey, 78, was
arrested on Aug. 19 for sexual
assault for groping several
women at a fan convention in
New Jersey. The next day, he
was seen with his pants off at
a Los Angeles beach.
More likely than not, he
will do no time. It’s pretty
clear that Busey has never
completely recovered from
permanent brain damage he
suffered when he was in a
motorcycle accident in late
1988.
But I have little sympathy
for him because, in 1987,
he played an American
Jewish doctor in the viciously
antisemitic Turkish TV series
Valley of the Wolves. Busey’s
doctor character, aided by
an American military offi-
cer (played by Billy Zane of
Titanic fame), forcibly “har-
vested” body organs from
Iraqi civilians and brought
them to Israel.
This antisemitism led to
the series being banned in
Germany and it was hardly
shown in the United States
(the antisemitic scenes were
cut out in America).
Busey got few good roles
after his Oscar-nominated
role in The Buddy Holly Story
(1978) and, by 1987, he proba-
bly needed money. However,
most “starving” actors
wouldn’t have “sold their
soul” for a paycheck. Busey
mostly got away with play-
ing the doctor because the
Valley of the Wolves scan-
dal was hardly reported in
America. But if there is karma,
it has finally come down real-
ly hard on Gary Busey.

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

GAGE SKIDMORE

Milana Vayntrub

STATE DEPARTMENT

Antony Blinken

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM FROM COLOGNY, SWITZERLAND

Sheryl Sandberg