52 | MARCH 9 • 2023 

WARNER GRANDSON VS. 
KILLER, POP-POP POPS-
UP AGAIN, TODD DOING 
WELL

The Ritual Killer is an 
action thriller that opens in 
theaters on Friday, March 
10. Here’s the capsule 
plot: Detective Boyd (Cole 
Hauser) is haunted by his 
daughter’s death. He goes 
on a fevered hunt for a 
serial killer who murders 
according to a brutal tribal 
ritual known as Muti. He 
seeks help from Professor 
Mackies, an anthropologist 
(Morgan Freeman).
Hauser, 47, has had a 
good, if not stellar career. 
He mostly has appeared in 
action movies. Currently, he 
co-stars in Yellowstone, the 
Paramount+ series, as Rip 
Wheeler. 
Hauser’s mother, Cass 
Warner, 75ish, is the grand-
daughter of Harry Warner, 
a founder of Warner 
Brothers. Her father, Milton 
Sperling, was an important 
studio executive. Cass uses 
the “more marketable” last 
name Warner, but Sperling 
appears to be her legal 
name. She’s had a minor 
showbiz career in her own 
right. 
Hauser’s father, actor 
Wings Hauser, isn’t Jewish. 

Wings Hauser and Cass 
Warner were married for 
a brief time, and Cole was 
raised by his mother. So far 
as I know, Cole has never 
talked about any religious 
beliefs.
It’s nice to see Freeman, 
85, in anything given his 
age. He’s a great actor. 
He is now older than he 
was supposed to be at 
the end of Driving Miss 
Daisy (1989). This hit film 
made Freeman’s career. 
He received a best actor 
Oscar nomination for his 
performance as Hoke, a 
chauffeur for Miss Daisy, a 
Southern Jewish woman. 
Freeman almost lost 
the role, even though he 
played Hoke in the original 
Alfred Uhry Broadway play, 
because the film director 
thought he looked too 
young (he was “only” 55). 
It’s nice to note that 
Freeman narrated The 
Long Way Home (1997), 
a documentary about the 
World War II Jewish refugee 
situation — from liberation 
to the establishment of the 
modern state of Israel.
Judd Hirsch, another 
octogenarian, is nominated 
for a best supporting actor 
for his performance in The 
Fabelmans. In looking over 
his credits this week, I was 
reminded that Hirsch has 
a recurring role on The 
Goldbergs, an ABC series. 

He plays Pop-Pop, the 
father of Murray Goldberg, 
the former co-head (with 
his wife) of the Goldberg 
family. 
I say former because 
Jeff Garlin, 60, who played 
Murray, bowed out of the 
series in the last (ninth) sea-
son. The storyline said he 
(Murray) had died. 
I wish that I told you last 
week that Hirsch appears 
this week in a Goldbergs 
episode. This episode 
aired, first, last night. But 
don’t despair, you can eas-
ily catch a replay on the 
ABC app or on Hulu. In this 
episode, Geoff Schwartz 
(Sam Lerner, 30) helps 
Pop-Pop with his roommate 
situation. Schwartz is mar-
ried to Erica Goldberg, Pop-
Pop’s granddaughter. 
This season, the 10th 
season, is the last sea-
son for The Goldbergs. 
Ratings really declined last 
year, and it got the axe. 
That’s too bad because 
the Goldberg family, while 
nominally Jewish, flew 
its “Jewish flag” now and 
again (there was always a 
Chanukah episode). Plus, 
the show employed a lot of 
Jewish actors in recurring 
or guest roles. Most of the 
main cast actors, who play 
Goldberg family members, 
aren’t Jewish. 
Last September, I brief-
ly noted the premiere of 
the CBS drama, So Help 
Me Todd. This series stars 
Marcia Gay Harden as 
Margaret Wright, a but-
toned-down, tough defense 
attorney. Her son, Todd, 
played by co-star Skylar 
Astin, 30, screws up as a 
private investigator and 
loses his license. His moth-
er, however, can legally 
hire him as an investigator 
for her law firm, and that’s 
what she does.

Margaret figures she can 
keep a close eye on Todd. 
Todd figures if he does well 
at his mother’s firm, he can 
quickly get back his license.
Reviews have been pretty 
good, and the series drew 
a big enough audience 
that it was renewed for a 
second season last week. 
In the episode airing on 
March 9 (9 p.m.) Todd is 
tasked with babysitting a 
teen hacker for the dura-
tion of his trial. 
This being Oscar week, 
I remembered that Harden 
won a best supporting 
actress Oscar for playing 
painter Lee Krasner (1908-
1984) in the 2000 movie 
Pollock. It’s about the 
famous abstract expres-
sionist painter Jackson 
Pollock. Krasner was mar-
ried to Pollock. 
While looking up 
Harden’s credits, I also 
checked out Krasner’s bio 
and learned something 
new. Many sources say 
that since Pollock opened, 
Krasner’s reputation has 
soared in academia and 
among collectors. She 
is no longer viewed as a 
“good woman painter” or 
just Pollock’s wife. She is 
now the “highest-ranked” 
Jewish female painter and 
she’s ranked as a “first-tier” 
artist, period. Her paintings 
now often sell for $1 million 
or more. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

GREG HERNANDEZ 

Cole Hauser

GEORGES BIARD

Morgan Freeman

BERNARD GOTFRYD

Lee Krasner

