68 | FEBRUARY 16 • 2023 

RUDD IS ANT-MAN AND A 
DEAD ACTOR; SELLING THE 
MOON; NASTY CULT

Ant-Man and the Wasp: 
Quantumania is the fifth film 
in which Paul Rudd, 53, plays 
“Ant-Man” (AKA Scott Lang). 
It opens in theaters on Friday, 
Feb. 17. 

Here’s the essential Ant-
Man info: Lang got Ant-Man 
powers via a suit created 
by Hank Pym, the original 
Ant-Man (played by Michael 
Douglas, 78). Lang’s compan-
ion, Hope Van Dyne, AKA the 
Wasp, (Evangeline Lily), is the 
daughter of Pym and Janet 
Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). 
Hope got her Wasp suit from 
Janet. 
The plot is very complex. 
Suffice it to say that the char-
acters described above are 
“the heart” of the new film.
Readers know that I 
kvetch about how characters 
described as Jewish in a 
comic book, or a novel, are 
“nothing” in a TV show or 
movie in which that character 
appears. Marvel Comics had 
and has many Jewish authors 
and a number of Jewish 
super-heroes. However, my 
friend Michael tells me that 
the new Ant-Man is the 31st 
consecutive Marvel Comics 
Universe film not to have an 
explicitly Jewish character.
The streak will end in 2024. 
An explicitly Israeli (Jewish) 
character (Sabra; AKA Ruth 
Bat-Seraph) will be in Captain 
America: New World Order. 
Sabra premiered in comics in 
1980.
Last week, it was 
announced that Meryl Streep 
and Paul Rudd will appear in 
the upcoming third season 
of the Only Murders in the 
Building, the hit Hulu series. 

It hasn’t been disclosed if 
Streep will play a cameo role 
(perhaps as herself) or will be 
a “full-blown” guest star.
Rudd guest-starred in the 
last episode (August 2022) 
of the series’ second season. 
His character, Ben Glenroy, 
a Broadway star, was intro-
duced in that episode. The 
second season ended with 
Glenroy dying on stage. 
When he died, Glenroy was 
on stage with actor Charles 
Haden-Savage, an Only 
Murders star character (played 
by Steve Martin). The play that 
Glenroy “died in” was direct-
ed by Oliver Putnam, another 
Only Murders star character 
(played by Martin Short).
The death of Glenroy will 
be the focus of the third sea-
son, and we can look forward 
to Oliver and Charles solving 
his murder, as they have 
solved the murders in the 
first and second season (one 
per season). Rudd’s appear-

ances in the third season will 
be flashbacks as (the living) 
Glenroy. 
Hello, Tomorrow is an Apple 
TV+ sci-fi “dramedy” that pre-
mieres on Feb. 17. Here’s the 
terse official description: “In a 
retro-futuristic world, a group 
of traveling salesmen try to 
sell timeshares on the moon.”
The main cast has just 
five actors. Billy Crudup (The 
Morning Show, also on Apple 
TV+) is clearly the star of 
Hello. But the always-amusing 
Hank Azaria, 58, comes sec-
ond in the credits. 
Stolen Youth: Inside the 
Cult at Sarah Lawrence, is a 
three-part Hulu documentary 
that began streaming on Feb. 
9, with the next two parts 
premiering on Feb. 16 and 
23. Any Hulu subscriber can 
watch, at any time, already 
premiered episodes.
From 2010 until about 2013, 
eight Sarah Lawrence college 
students got ensnared into 

a cult ruled by Larry Ray, the 
father of one of the students. 
Many online articles and 
the documentary itself can 
give you the very disturbing 
details (like sex-trafficking). I 
am writing about the docu-
mentary because its director 
is the very talented Zach 
Heinzerling, an Oscar nom-
inee, and because I figure 
that many readers are like 
me: I am drawn to films about 
cults that snare well-educated 
people. 
So, if you have, or will view 
this documentary — here 
are answers to two “Jewish” 
questions I asked myself. 
Daniel Levin, now 31, 
appears frequently in the 
documentary. He was one of 
Ray’s student victims until he 
left the cult in 2013. He spoke 
to New York Magazine in 
2019 about the cult, and the 
magazine’s subsequent article 
prompted a federal investi-
gation of Ray. The same year, 
Levin went to Heinzerling and 
tried to get him interested in 
making a documentary. 
In 2021, Levin wrote a mem-
oir (Slonim Woods, 9) about 
the cult. I read excerpts online 
and Levin mentions that he 
was raised in a Conservative 
Jewish home and, during a 
moment of despair, he man-
aged to find, on campus, a 
Jewish prayer book. 
Another major “player” is 
Isabella Pollok, 31. She was 
a student who became Ray’s 
“top lieutenant.” She was so 
enmeshed in Ray’s wrongdo-
ing that she was charged with 
several crimes. She pleaded 
guilty “to a lesser charge” 
and will be sentenced this 
month. (Larry Ray, 66, was 
given a 60-year- 
sentence last January).
Pollok sounds like a Jewish 
name, but she isn’t Jewish. 
Family history sites gave me 
that answer. 

ARTS&LIFE
CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

BY NICK ALECK

Hank Azaria

BY RED CARPET REPORT ON MINGLE MEDIA TV 

Paul Rudd

