58 | FEBRUARY 2 • 2023 

CELEBRITY NEWS
ARTS&LIFE

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

BRADY’S FANS, THE ARK, 
DAILY SHOW GUEST 
HOSTS, GRAMMYS

80 for Brady opens in the-
aters on Feb. 3. It’s based 
on a real story. Four Boston-
area senior women bonded 
over the fact that they were 
all fans of Tom Brady, then 
the New England Patriots 
star quarterback. Long story 
short: Brady became aware 
of the “Brady Club” and 
he befriended them. A few 
years ago, he got Paramount 
to “greenlight” a movie 
about the group. He pro-
duced 80 and he appears in 
the film as himself.
Four big stars play the 
club members: Jane Fonda, 
85; Rita Moreno, 91; Detroit 
native Lily Tomlin, 83; and 
Sally Field, 76. The sup-
porting cast includes Bob 
Balaban, 77, and Sara 
Gilbert, 47.
In case you were wonder-
ing: Moreno’s late husband 
was Jewish (one child), and 
Field’s (second) ex-husband 
is Jewish (one child). 
The screenplay was 
co-written by Emily Halpern, 
42. She is a Boston-area 
native and a Harvard grad. 
She’s been writing TV shows 
and films since 2005. Her 
credits include co-writing the 
hit film Booksmart (2019). 
Halpern authored a beau-
tifully written article com-
paring her emotions during 
the height of the pandemic 
to her feelings after her 
adored father died while 
hiking in bad weather. She 
was 15 and he was 50. (To 
read the article, Google: 
Emily Halpern plus “Modern 
Loss”). Here’s hoping that 80 
is as well-written. Too many 
comedies about seniors are 
way too cute. Seniors aren’t 

pets or toddlers.
The Ark premiered on the 
SyFy cable channel on Feb. 
1 (easy to catch-up). It is a 
10-episode series set 100 
years in the future. It follows 
the crew of a spacecraft, 
known as Ark One, who 
struggle to survive after a 
catastrophic event kills many 
crew members and damages 
the ship. 
Lisa Brenner, 48, stars as 
Commander Susan Ingram. 
The series was created by 
Dean Devlin, 60. Devlin 
is best known for pro-
ducing and co-writing the 
Independence Day films, 
which had major Jewish 
characters. 
Devlin, the son of a Jewish 
father and a Filipino mother, 
is a practicing Jew. Brenner 
(born Lisa Goldstein) married 
Devlin in 2003 and they 
have two children. Brenner 
has appeared in many guest 
shots and in several recur-
ring TV roles. 
Trevor Noah decided to 
stop hosting The Daily Show 
and he left his Comedy 
Central show on Dec. 8. 
Since then, guest hosts have 
taken Noah’s place. The line-
up of guest hosts includes Al 
Franken, Sarah Silverman 
and Chelsea Handler. 
When Franken will appear 
hasn’t yet been announced. 

However, Handler and 
Silverman’s hosting dates 
were just released. 
Handler, 47, will guest host 
on Monday, Feb. 6 (11 p.m.) 
though Thursday, Feb. 9. 
Silverman, 52, will host from 
Monday, Feb. 13, through 
Thursday, Feb. 16. If you 
don’t have Comedy Central, 
go to YouTube, where the 
channel posts long Daily 
Show excerpts. 
Interest in the Grammys 
has declined for decades 
as have the viewership 
numbers for the awards 
ceremony. Of course, every 
broadcast show has declined 
in ratings due to competition 
from streaming channels, 
etc. But there are many more 
factors. Too many to list here. 
Suffice it to say that the 
biggest reason is that the 
music market has fragment-
ed. Most people older than, 
say, 35, don’t even know the 
names of bestselling musi-
cians anymore. Most fans of 
one genre (like rap) really 
don’t pay attention to any 
other genre. 
Fifteen years ago, there 
were scores of Jewish 
nominees. That’s not true 
today and I don’t know all 
the reasons. No doubt, “the 
aging” of the Jewish popula-
tion has a lot to do with this. 
Popular music popularity is 

mostly confined to young 
performers, songwriters and 
producers. 
That all said, here are 
some of the Jewish nom-
inees for 2023 Grammys. 
The ceremony will be broad-
cast on CBS, on Feb. 5, at 8 
p.m. 
Greg Kurstin, 52, is 
3x-nominated for three 
recordings sung by Adele 
(producer, record of the year 
and the album of the year; 
and he co-wrote the song of 
the year, “Easy on Me”); The 
Black Keys band, featuring 
Dan Auerbach, 43, for best 
rock performance and best 
rock album. Auerbach’s 
father was Jewish; rock 
group Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, 
for best alternative music 
album. Their drummer is 
Brian Chase, 44; (Aubrey) 
Drake, 44, is up for six 
awards, all in the rap cate-
gory; Janis Siegel, 70, has 
been a member of the vocal 
group Manhattan Transfer 
since it was founded in 1969. 
The Transfer is nominated 
for best jazz vocal album; 
Asleep at the Wheel (band) 
for the best Americana song 
performance. The band’s 
front guy is Ray Benson, 71; 
and Mel Brooks, 96, for best 
audio book — reading All 
About Me!: My Remarkable 
Life in Show Business. 

U.S. SENATE PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO

Al Franken

ALI SHAKER/VOA

Sarah Silverman

US DEPT. OF EDUCATION 

Chelsea Handler

