52 | JUNE 29 • 2023 

FORD IS INDY ONE 
LAST TIME; CHALAMET 
IS DYLAN; SCHUMER’S 
SPECIAL
Opening June 30 is Indiana 
Jones and The Dial of 
Destiny. It is the fifth and 
final Indiana Jones movie, 
and everybody associated 
with the series, like Steven 
Spielberg, swears there will 
be no more “Indy” films. 

You can find the plot of 
this almost-certain block-
buster anywhere. So, I will 
omit it here. Of course, 
it wouldn’t be an Indiana 
Jones film if Harrison Ford, 
80, wasn’t playing archae-
ologist Indiana Jones. As 
I have noted before, Ford, 
80, is the son of an Irish 
Catholic father and a 
Jewish mother. He’s always 
been “very” secular. 
Here’s a Ford “fun fact” 
I recently came across. He 
serves as a general trust-
ee of the Archaeological 
Institute of America (AIA). 
It’s the oldest and largest 
American organization 
devoted to archaeology. 
Ford informs the public 
about three of the AIA’s 
missions: public awareness 
of archaeology, the preven-
tion of looting and stopping 

the illegal antiquities trade.
Dial of Destiny was direct-
ed by James Mangold, 
59, and he co-wrote the 
script. Mangold has direct-
ed a lot of hits, includ-
ing Walk the Line, The 
Wolverine, Logan, 3:10 to 
Yuma and Ford v. Ferrari. 
The last film, which was 
released in 2019, is the 
highest grossing live-action 
auto racing film of all-time, 
even allowing for inflation.
Mangold’s father, artist 
Robert Mangold, 85, isn’t 
Jewish. His mother, art-
ist Sylvia Pilmack Mangold, 
84, is Jewish. It is fairly 
clear that James is secular, 
and a U.K. Jewish paper 
says he’s referred to him-
self as “half-Jewish.”
In 2020, Mangold 
said that he would 
direct a bio-film 
about Bob Dylan, titled A 
Complete Unknown (ref-
erencing a line from the 
Dylan hit “Like a Rolling 
Stone”). The pandemic put 
the film on hiatus until last 
April, when Mangold said 
that filming would probably 
start this August. However, 
the writer’s strike may affect 
that schedule.

Timothee Chalamet, 27, 
is set to play Dylan. He’s 
a good choice for many 

reasons. He’s a good actor; 
he says he can sing; he’s 
Jewish, like Bob; like Bob, 
he has natural “Jewfro” 
curly hair; and, as I will 
explain, he and Dylan have 
a similar career arc. 
The film will almost 
certainly focus most on 
the period 1962-1966. In 
1962, Dylan was 21 and an 
unknown when he made 
his first album. By 1965, he 
was internationally known 
and highly respected. He 
was called “the voice of his 
generation.” In 1965-1966, 
he made the jump from top 
folksinger to rock star.
Chalamet was just 21, and 
almost unknown, when he 
co-starred in the hit film Call 
Me by Your Name (2017). 
Other hit films followed, 
including Dune (2021) 
which grossed $400 million 
and made Chalamet not 
just an indie film star, but 
a blockbuster film star (a 
Dune sequel will open this 
November). 
I have to mention that 
Chalamet’s sexy androgy-
nous look and fashion taste 
have made him a fashion 
icon worldwide. Vogue and 
GQ gush about him con-
stantly. Chanel and Cartier 
have signed him to big 
endorsement deals.
In just five years, he went 
from an unknown to an 
international star — and like 
Dylan, this all happened 
from age 21 to 26. It seems 
likely that Chalamet’s very 
rare parallel experience will 
inform his portrayal of Dylan.
Somehow, I missed writ-
ing about Amy Schumer’s 
new Netflix stand-up spe-
cial. The special began 
streaming on June 13.
The upside is that I got 
a chance to see the spe-
cial before writing about it. 
There are a lot of amusing 
things in her set, but only 
a few bits that were both 
amusing and insightful. I 

don’t want to spoil the bits 
for you — but if you think, 
early in the set, that the 
humor is less than “crack-
ling,” it’s worth sticking 
around for three quite good 
spiels: one about going to 
a party at a rich blind man’s 
house; a deserved take-
down of Hilaria Baldwin, 
Alec Baldwin’s wife — you’ll 
learn why she’s anoth-
er George Santos; and 
Schumer’s comments about 
her beloved husband, who 
is on the autistic spectrum.
I have a close friend who 
is a high-functioning autistic 
person. So, I recognized 
how right Schumer’s com-
ments were. She didn’t 
make fun of her husband. 
She cogently explained that 
some of his “autistic con-
duct” was funny and per-
fectly logical if you under-
stood his thinking. 
Schumer, 40, explained 
that her husband’s condi-
tion was called Asperger’s 
Syndrome, but that term, 
she said, “was dropped 
when it came out that Dr. 
Asperger had Nazi ties.” 
She then added: “I hate 
when that happens. [Nazi 
ties revealed.] Like some of 
our neighbors, lately. Can 
we please love Jews? There 
aren’t many of us left.”
Ain’t that the truth. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

GAGE SKIDMORE

Harrison Ford

Timothee Chalamet

YOUTUBE

Amy Schumer

MARIOR SANTOR

