60 | APRIL 11 • 2024 
J
N

BEING A JEW; ANOTHER 
“NASTY” HIP CLOTHIER; 
SUPERMAN PREVIEW? 
MORE
This week, I am catching-
up with two HBO programs 
that recently began 
streaming: Alex Edelman: 
Just for Us (April 6) and 
“Brandy Hellville & The 
Cult of Fast Fashion (April 
9).
Edelman, a stand-up 
comedian, was born 
and raised in a Modern 
Orthodox home in the 
Boston area. After high 
school, he spent a year in 
a Jerusalem yeshivah and, 
while there, he co-founded 
the city’s first comedy club. 
After college, be toured his 
stand-up act in the states, 
in Australia and in the U.K. 
(Brit audiences really love 
him!)
In 2022, his one-man 
play, Just for Us, opened 
off-Broadway. It moved 
to a Broadway house in 
2023. In both venues, he 
got good reviews. After the 
New York run, he toured 
the show in many cities. He 
got plaudits from big-name 
comedians, including Steve 
Martin, Mel Brooks and 
Jerry Seinfeld. 
Just For Us (the play and 
the HBO special) focuses 
on the true story of how 
Edelman attended a white 
nationalist meeting in 
New York City, but without 
revealing that he was 
Jewish.
In a panel interview of 
comedians last October, 
Edelman said: “Rabbi 
Jonathan Sacks said, ‘the 
only cure for antisemitism 
is to communicate to 
people the experience of 
being Jewish.’ And so [I 

wrote Just for Us], I really 
wanted to try and do this 
specific type of outreach 
and let people know what 
it’s like to a Jew. But, yeah, 
there’s the hook of the 
Nazi thing.”
Brandy is a documentary 
about Brandy Melville (BM), 
an Italian retail clothing 
company (130 stores; 40 in 
the U.S.). BM was founded 
by Silvio Marsan, an 
Italian, and it’s now run by 
Stephen Marsan, his son. 
BM has “modeled” 
itself to have a “Malibu” 
hip feeling, and it caters 
to young women and 
teen girls who are slim, 
pretty and white. BM 
doesn’t have traditional 
advertisements — they use 
social media postings, and 
they pay celebs to wear 
their clothes.
Most BM clothes only 
come in one size (small or 
smallish medium). Credible 
reports say that BM limits 
sizes because they don’t 
want overweight shoppers 
in their stores. They also 
don’t put out the welcome 
mat for Black customers. 
BM, I guess, doesn’t care 
if good-looking, white, 
young Jews shop in their 
stores. However, last year 
The Daily Beast reported 
that the top execs of BM 
(including Stephen Marsan) 

have “group joke times” 
and the big favorites are 
jokes about Adolf Hitler 
and the Holocaust. 
HBO says this about 
the Brandy documentary: 
“Through a calculated 
social media presence 
and an unattainable 
aesthetic, Brandy Melville 
has become the must-
have clothing brand 
for teens. Behind the 
scenes, however, a toxic 
work environment and 
discriminatory recruiting 
methods have flourished.”
The film was directed 
by Eve Orner, 50. She 
now lives in Los Angeles, 
but was born and raised 
in Australia. She went to 
a Jewish school for her 
pre-college education 
and she’s a graduate 
of Monash University, a 
prestigious Australian 
school named after a 
Jewish WWI general. 
Orner won (2008) an 
Oscar as the producer of 
Taxi to the Dark Side, a 
“doc” about Afghanistan. 
Her other films include 
Chasing Asylum, a highly 
lauded documentary about 
Australia’s treatment of 
refugees. She directed 
Chasing. 
On Friday, April 12, Hulu 
premieres The Greatest 
Hits, an original film. I 

read reviews of the film, 
and I am still confused 
about parts of the movie’s 
plot. Suffice it to say that 
a woman named Harriett 
can magically go back into 
her past when she hears a 
song from that past time. 
She may or may not be 
able to change the past 
and bring her deceased 
boyfriend (magically alive) 
to the present. 
Watch it for one reason: 
David Corenswet, 30, 
plays the boyfriend. Now 
filming is a big-budget 
movie entitled Superman 
(opens next year). 
Corenswet was picked out 
of relative obscurity to play 
Superman. If he is good as 
a love interest in Greatest 
Hits, he’ll likely be a hit as 
Superman.
Louis Gossett Jr., an 
Oscar-winning African 
American actor, died 
on March 28, age 87. In 
2009, his many ties to the 
Jewish community were 
detailed in an interview 
with the Jewish Journal of 
Los Angeles. Those ties 
began during his youth in 
the Coney Island area of 
Brooklyn and continued, in 
many forms, throughout his 
life. Do read this very good 
article. Google: “Louis 
Gossett Jr. to Give Shul 
Inaugural Ball Toast.” 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

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Louis Gossett Jr.
Alex Edelman
David Corenswet