60 | NOVEMBER 17 • 2022
MORE FABELMANS,
AMAZON COMEDY,
STALLONE’S NEW FAMILY
As I wrote last week, The
Fabelmans opens wide in
theaters on Friday, Nov.
23. It’s a “sort of” memoir
of Steven Spielberg’s teen
years, and it was directed
and co-written by Spielberg,
75.
I have to add to my last
column. First, to my great
surprise, Spielberg disclosed
the “devasting family
secret,” as it was described
in the Fabelmans’ advance
publicity, in an interview
(Nov. 6) with CBS Sunday
Morning. The interview is
posted on YouTube. It’s
entitled Steven Spielberg on
The Fabelmans: A Happy
Beginning.
Not only does Steven
“spill the beans”— the CBS
interview includes an excerpt
of an old interview with
Spielberg’s now-late parents
in which they discuss “the
secret” or “secrets” (there
are really two highly related
secrets).
Don’t watch the interview
or read detailed critics’
reviews if you want to learn
the “secret” from a film
showing. Do watch it after
for “the whole story.”
Last week, I wrote that
Gabriel Labelle, 20, who
plays Sammy Fabelman
(the Steven-like character),
isn’t Jewish. I’m now reliably
informed that his father,
character actor Rob Labelle,
60, is Jewish. (It is very hard
to find info on Gabriel’s
mother).
Gabriel, a Vancouver
native, has had some
Canadian TV roles. He
was picked out of 2,000
actors who were invited to
audition for the Sammy role.
In a Vulture interview, he
seems to say he identifies
as Jewish. Vulture writes:
“Labelle and Spielberg
connected over the
experience of growing up
as the lone Jewish kid at
school, wondering whether
certain classmates ‘were
being hateful or trying to be
funny and didn’t have that
empathy.’”
She Said is a dramatic film
(opens Nov. 18) about Jodi
Kantor and Megan Twohey,
the NY Times reporters who
broke the story that big-time
movie producer Harvey
Weinstein, now 70, was a
serial sex harasser (and,
now, a convicted rapist).
Their 2017 investigative
reporting was so detailed
that, within weeks, Weinstein
was fired by his production
company and stripped
of his membership in the
Motion Picture Academy
(which gives the Oscars).
Their reporting greatly
helped launch the “me too”
movement, a movement
that has really changed the
culture.
Not surprisingly, Kantor
and Twohey shared the
2018 Pulitzer Prize for
Public Service. In 2019, they
wrote a book, titled She
Said, about the Weinstein
investigation. When She
Said came out, I quoted
something Kantor, now
47, said in 2017: “I grew
up around people with
numbers on their arms — my
grandparents are Holocaust
survivors. It led me to think
about the big questions we
often ask in investigative
journalism: ‘How could
something like this have
gone on? What allowed this
to happen?’”
Zoe Kazan plays Kantor in
the film. This is her second
Jewish role in the last few
years. I won’t kvetch: Her
grandfather, the late Elia
Kazan, directed Gentlemen’s
Agreement (1947), the first
blockbuster film about
American antisemitism. (The
movie won the best pic
Oscar and Kazan got the
best director Oscar).
Rebecca Lenkiewicz,
44, wrote the She Said
screenplay. I’m not sure what
her formal Jewish ties are.
Her late stepfather, popular
English painter Robert
Lenkiewicz, was the son
of Jewish refugees from
Germany. Unlike her two
“full” brothers, Rebecca took
Robert’s last name. She has
co-written two acclaimed
Jewish-themed films
(Disobedience and Ida).
The People We Hate at
the Wedding is an original
Amazon comedy film that
begins streaming on Nov. 18.
Here’s the official capsule
description: “Struggling
American siblings Alice
[Kristen Bell] and Paul [Ben
Platt, 29] reluctantly agree to
attend the wedding of their
estranged, wealthy half-sister
in the English countryside
alongside their mother,
Donna [Allison Janney].”
The trailer gives us a little
more information. Platt, who
has long been openly gay,
plays a gay character. Donna
is “OK” with Paul being
gay but is very awkward in
conveying this.
Tulsa King, a series, began
streaming on Paramount+ on
Nov. 13. Sylvester Stallone
(whose maternal grandfather
was Jewish) stars as Dwight
Manfredi, a NYC Mafia big-
wig who has just finished a
25-year prison sentence. His
boss sends him to Tulsa to
establish a crime operation
there. Not knowing anyone
in Tulsa, Manfredi has to
build his own “family.”
Max Casella, 55, plays
Armand, Manfredi’s right
hand man. Casella, whose
father was Jewish, had a
pretty big recurring role on
The Sopranos as gangster
Benny Fazio, a Soprano
Mafia family member.
Andrea Savage, 49, a
quite talented actress best
known for her comedic
roles, has a “main cast”
role as a federal ATF agent
stationed in Tulsa.
Frankly, I think that the
Tulsa premise, for too many
reasons to mention here,
is absurd. But maybe many
viewers won’t notice.
CELEBRITY NEWS
NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
ARTS&LIFE
BY DANIEL BENAVIDES
Ben Platt
BY SA 2.0, WIKIPEDIA
Gabriel Labelle
BY GREG2600
Max Casella