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