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