52 | MAY 30 • 2024 
J
N

AN OK FILM, UPCOMING 
SERIES, FOOD (SORT OF) 
NEW SHOWS 

It’s almost always 
something of a mystery 
why a film didn’t open in 
theaters, despite having 
a big name actor star and 
good film festival reviews. 
This is the case with Am 
I OK?, a comedy-drama 
that premiered at the 
Sundance Film Festival in 
January 2022. 
It was positively review-
ed by major publications, 
including the Hollywood 
Reporter (which loved it) 
and the Guardian (mostly 
loved the film). But no 
film company decided to 
take on the financial costs 
(publicity, etc.) of opening 
OK in theaters.
Well, HBO/Max is giving 
the film a second life. Am 
I OK? begins streaming on 
that channel on June 6. 
Here’s the basic premise: 
Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) and 
Lucy (Dakota Johnson) 
are women in their early 
30s. They have been best 
friends since they were in 
high school. 
Something in Lucy 
cracks when Jane tells 
her that she (Jane) has 
accepted a job in London. 
Jane’s news prompts Lucy 
to tell Jane that she’s 
attracted to women. How 
these women sort out all 
of this is the theme of 
most of the rest of the film. 
Molly Gordon has a 
supporting role as Kat, an 
annoying “phone-addled” 
co-worker of Jane’s who 
becomes friends with 
Lucy. Jane doesn’t like 
this nascent friendship —
maybe because she likes 
Lucy in a romantic way? 

Gordon, 28, has been 
acting since she was a 
child, but she got on most 
person’s radar when she 
joined the cast of the hit 
series The Bear in the 
show’s second season 
(2023). She plays Claire, 
the doctor girlfriend of 
Carmy, the series lead 
character. 
Am I OK? was written by 
Lucy Pomerantz, 45. She 
has long been “out of the 
closet.” She was Emmy-
nominated for writing a 
sketch for SNL and she 
won a daytime Emmy for 
her writing for the Ellen 
DeGeneres talk show. 
In 2017, Pomerantz 
married writer Elizabeth 
Clark (the granddaughter 
of bestselling writer Mary 
Higgins Clark) in a secular 
ceremony. The NY Times 
featured the wedding in 
its “Vows” section. The 
couple now have two 
children. 
Last week, Apple TV+ 
announced that Time 
Bandits, a comedy, fantasy 
adventure series based 
on the hit 1981 movie of 
the same name, will begin 
streaming on July 24. This 
series is the “blockbuster” 
of Apple’s new program 
offerings for this summer. 
Lisa Kudrow (Friends), 60, 
stars as the leader of the 
Time Bandits. 
There is no premiere 

date yet, for No Good 
News, a Netflix comedy 
series about three couples 
trying to buy the same 
house. Kudrow also 
co-stars in this series, as 
does Abbi Jacobson, 40 
(Broad City). No Good 
News was created by 
Liz Feldman, 46, a top 
comedy writer who also 
created the hit Netflix 
series Dead to Me.
Actor Jason Biggs, 44, 
and his wife, comedian 
Jenny Mollen, 44, will 
host Dinner with a Movie 
on TBS (starts June 1). It’s 
a revival of a TBS series 
that ran from 1995-2011. 
Each Saturday, the Dinner 
hosts talk a bit about 
the “big” hit film they 
are showing that night. 
Before the movie runs, 
and during breaks, the 
hosts get into food-related 
“stuff.” The hosts welcome 
Food Network stars and 
other celebs during these 
breaks. These guests 
bring recipes and tasty 
goodies.
Biggs and Mollen 
were married in 2008 
and they have two sons. 
Biggs has a mostly Italian 
background, and he was 
raised Catholic. He is well-
aware that most people 
think he’s Jewish. He 
looks Jewish, and he has 
played a number of Jewish 
parts (American Pie films, 

Modern Orthodox, Saving 
Silverman).
Mollen is the daughter of 
a Jewish father and a non-
Jewish mother. She wasn’t 
raised in any religion, but 
firmly identifies as Jewish 
as an adult. Her sons had 
a religious bris ceremony, 
and the couple toured 
Israel in 2020. Biggs 
posted pics of one bris, 
and their Israeli tour, on 
Instagram. 
Believe it or not, the 
Roku channel will actually 
premiere a series entitled 
Celebrity Family Food 
Battle (starts on May 
31). The title is hype. It’s 
not a remake of a Three 
Stooges pie-throwing short 
film. 
Here’s the gist of the 
show’s publicity release: 
Celebs like Sofia Vergara 
(Modern Family) and 
Howie Mandel, 68, 
team up with their family 
members in a new cooking 
competition. The winning 
team will win (in the words 
of the publicity release) 
“the coveted Golden Fork.”
I seriously think that a 
lot more people would 
watch a series in which 
celebrities and their family 
members throw cream 
pies and other (soft) food 
into the faces of other 
celebs and their family 
members. In other words, 
a real family food battle. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

MTV UK

MAKOTO2007

IDOMINICK

Molly Gordon 
Lisa Kudrow 
Abbi Jacobson

