SEPTEMBER 7 • 2023 | 51

‘MY BIG FAT’ WEDDING 
NOTES 
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 
3 [MBFGW3] opens in 
theaters on Sept. 8. Of 
course, it is a sequel to 
the comedies My Big Fat 
Greek Wedding (2002) 
and My Big Fat Greek 
Wedding 2 (2016). The 
first film followed Toula 
Portokalos (Nia Vardalos, 
who also wrote the film), a 
30-year-old woman whose 
life is not happy: She 
works long hours in her 
family’s Greek restaurant; 
she has let herself “go” 
and she has no romantic 
prospects. 
 Then she meets Ian, a 
very handsome teacher 
(John Corbett) and they 
fall in love. The problem is 
that Toula’s family is “very 
Greek,” and Ian is a WASP. 
But the “Big Fat Wedding” 
is “on” after Ian converts 
to the Greek (Christian) 
Orthodox faith. 
MBFGW was a surprise 
box office and critical hit. 
It was made for $5 million 
and grossed $368 million 
worldwide. This huge cash 
haul must have made pro-
ducers Tom Hanks and 
Rita Wilson (Hanks’ wife) 
happy. Wilson’s mother 
was Greek and Hanks, like 
Ian, converted to his wife’s 
Greek Orthodox faith.
In MBFGW2, Toula has a 
rebellious teen daughter 
and has money problems. 
Her parents have an issue 
with the “legality” of their 
marriage. Reviews were 
“so/so,” but it still earned 
a good profit (cost $18 mil-
lion, made $90 million). 

Greek American Michael 

Constantine, who often 
played Jews, was great as 
Gus, Toula’s “super-proud-
to-be-Greek” father in the 
first two films. Sadly, he 
died in 2021. 
While many of the actors 
in both films are of Greek 
ancestry — two of the 
films’ stars are not: Andrea 
Martin, who played Toula’s 
“saucy” aunt Voula, is of 
Armenian ancestry, and 
Lainie Kazan, 83, who 
played Maria, Toula’s 
mother, is Jewish. 
It’s often reported 
that Kazan is of partial 
Sephardi (Greek?) 
ancestry. But I couldn’t 
verify this. I do know she 
was born Lainie Levine, 
and her mother’s maiden 
name is Kazan. 
Vardalos, Corbett, 
Martin and Kazan reprise 
their roles in MBFGW3. 
The new film finds the 
extended Portokalos clan 
traveling to Greece. They 
visit Toula’s late father’s 
childhood village. 
This column item is 
longer than intended 
because of two interesting 
“nuggets” I found while 
looking at the films’ casts. 
 
 
 
 
 
 A synopsis of the 
second film said that 
Gus’ very elderly mother, 
Yiayia, “calmed” down in 
the second film. In the first 
film, Yiayia is “addled” and 
often mistakes her own 

family for Turks who want 
to kidnap her. In Greek 
(with English subtitles), 
Yiayia repeatedly shouts 
at Gus, calling him “a Turk” 
and telling him to leave 
her alone. 
I noticed that actress 
Bess Meisler played 
Yiayia. I thought Meisler 
is often a “Jewish name.” 
However, I could only 
find her birth year (1922) 
in the easy-to-find 
online sources. But I ran 
her down on Ancestry.
com. She was born Bessie 
Alalouf. Her parents were 
both immigrant Greek 
Jews. Her father was 
Avraam (later “Albert”) 
Alalouf and his ethnicity, 
as stated in some 
censuses, was “Hebrew.” 
He was a fruit dealer (how 
Greek!). 
Bess(ie) Meisler married 
Seymour Meisler, an 
Ashkenazi Jew, in 1943. 
Sadly, they divorced in 
1962. But they had a 
daughter, now in her 70s, 
who lives near her mother 
in Southern California. 
I have to assume that 
Bess Meisler’s fluency in 
Greek really helped get 
her cast in MBFGW. The 
only other actors of Greek 
Jewish ancestry I know of 
are Hank Azaria, 59, and 
the late Art Metrano. 
Meisler, who is now 
101 years old, is not in 

MBFGW3. 
The second nugget is a 
Lainie Kazan film I never 
heard of before looking 
at her credits. The film 
is Tango Shalom. It’s an 
indie film that was made in 
2016 but wasn’t released 
until 2021. It got very good 
reviews, but only played 
film festivals. You can 
watch it on Amazon Prime 
(free to members), and on 
Freevee and Tubi (free, 
with ads, apps). Tango was 
produced by Joel Zwick, 
81, who directed the first 
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 
film. Zwick’s father was an 
Orthodox cantor.
Here’s the basic plot: 

Chasidic rabbi and 
amateur hora dancer 
Moshe Yehuda 
enters a televised 
tango competition to 
save his Hebrew School 
from bankruptcy. One 
big dilemma: in Orthodox 
Judaism, a married man 
is not allowed to touch 
a woman other than his 
wife. (Yet he finds a way 
to dance without breaking 
any rules).
Next week: Thanks to a 
friend, I can provide some 
Jewish details about Owen 
Kugell-Elliot, 56. She’s the 
only child of “Mama” Cass 
Elliot (1941-74), the very 
talented (Jewish) member of 
the famous ’60s group The 
Mamas and the Papas. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

JOHN MUELLER

Lainie Kazan

MUBI

Bess Meisler 

DISNEY WIKI

Joel Zwick

