44 | JUNE 22 • 2023 

ANDREW BARTH 
FELDMAN, STAN LEE, 
CYNTHIA WEIL 
No Hard Feelings, a 
comedy-drama, opens 
in theaters on June 23. 
Here’s the plot: Maddie 
(Jennifer Lawrence) is 
broke when she answers a 
very unusual ad. A wealthy 
couple are concerned 
about their son, Percy, 
who is a brilliant high 
school student, but is not 
interested in people — no 
friends, no dates. They hire 
Maddie, to quote the film, 
“to date Percy’s brains out.”
The No Hard trailers 
are quite amusing and, of 
course, Jennifer Lawrence 
is a terrific actress, equally 
good at drama or comedy. 
Her presence alone makes 
me high on the film. 
No doubt, Lawrence is 
offered many roles and 
turns most of them down. 
She has a sharp eye for 
good scripts, and almost 
all her films are critical and 
box-office hits.
Matthew Broderick, 61, 
plays Percy’s father, and 
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, 46 
(Girls on HBO and The 
Bear on Hulu) plays Gary, a 
family friend.
Andrew Barth Feldman, 
20, who plays Percy, is 
making his feature film 
debut. He has an amazing 

track record already as a 
musical stage actor on and 
off Broadway. In 2019, he 
played the title role in the 
long-running Broadway 
show Dear Evan Hansen. 
Normally, I have some 
difficulty “verifying” that 
a young actor is Jewish. 
However, the NY Times 
made it easy for me. 
They did a long profile of 
Feldman when he was 16 
and was about to play Evan 
Hansen. The profile noted 
that his bar mitzvah project 
was to put on a cabaret-
night at his school with the 
box-office receipts going 
to autism research. The 
cabaret was such a hit that 
it became an annual event. 
No Hard Feelings was 
co-written and directed by 
Gene Stupnitsky, 45. He 
was born in Kyiv and grew 
up in a Chicago suburb. He 
was a longtime writer for 
The Office, and he wrote 
and directed Good Boys 
(2019), a hit comedy film.
I hope Stupnitsky hits 
a home run with this film. 
It’s been a long time since 
Hollywood has released an 
intelligent “coming-of-age” 
film that amuses teen and 
adult audiences alike. 
Stan Lee, a new 
documentary, is now 
streaming on the Disney+ 

channel. Of course, it is 
about the “father of the 
Marvel Universe” Stan Lee 
(1920-2018). The film has 
gotten rave reviews from 
critics. The most interesting 
review, I think, was written 
by Owen Glieberman, 64, 
for Variety (free online; 
6/10). (Gleiberman was 
raised in Ann Arbor.)
The Variety review 
functions as a short but 
very insightful biography of 
Lee. Its first paragraph (just 
below) made me want to 
see the film, pronto. 
“There’s a moment in 
Stan Lee, David Gelb’s 
lively and illuminating 
documentary about the 
visionary of Marvel Comics, 
that’s momentous enough 
to give you a tingle. The 
year is 1961, and Lee, 
approaching 40, is burnt 
out on comics. It’s a form 
he has never taken all that 
seriously, even though he’s 
been working at it since 
1939, when he started, 
at 17, as a gofer ... Within 
two years, he’d become 
the company’s editor, art 
director and chief writer… 
The comics he creates get 
so little respect that he 
tries to hide his profession 
when asked about it at 
cocktail parties ... He is 
ordered to devise a team 
of superheroes that can 
compete with DC’s Justice 
League … Lee, weary of 
superheroes, is ready to 
quit the business ... With 
nothing to lose, he comes 
up with the Fantastic 
Four as a new breed of 
superhero: characters with 
a dash of angst and a host 
of ordinary problems…”
David Gelb, 39, is the 
son of Peter Gelb, 70, 

the artistic director of the 
Metropolitan Opera, and 
the grandson of the late 
Arthur Gelb, a managing 
editor of the NY Times. 
Lyricist Cynthia Weil died 
on June 1, age 82. Weil’s 
professional partner was 
composer Barry Mann, 
now 84. They married 
(1961) shortly after they 
began working together, 
and they remained married 
until Weil’s death. So far 
as I know, they were a 
devoted couple. They had 
one child, Dr. Jenn Mann, a 
psychologist. They had hits 
in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. 
 If you have never heard 
of the couple, or barely 
heard of them, here is a 
very partial list of their 
big hits and the artist(s) 
most associated with the 
song: “You Lost That Lovin’ 
Feeling” — the most played 
song on American radio 
in the 20th century — 
and “You’re My Soul and 
Inspiration” (both Righteous 
Brothers); “Don’t Know 
Much” and “Somewhere 
Out There” (both Linda 
Ronstadt), “Here You Come 
Again” (Dolly Parton); “We 
Gotta Get Out of This 
Place”(The Animals); “On 
Broadway” (The Drifters); 
and “Walking in the Rain” 
(The Ronettes). 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

BROADWAY PODCAST NETWORK

Andrew Barth Feldman

GAGE SKIDMORE

Stan Lee 

ANGELA GEORGE

Cynthia Weil

