66 | JULY 11 • 2024 
J
N

FLY ME TO THE MOON
(MOVIE & SONG); 
SAUSAGE PARTY SERIES
Fly Me to the Moon is a 
romantic comedy that 
opens in theaters on 
July 12. It’s set in the late 
1960s, when the U.S. and 
the Soviet Union race to 
land on the moon first. 
A relationship develops 
between the NASA director 
in charge of the Apollo 11 
mission (Channing Tatum) 
and a marketing specialist 
(Scarlett Johansson, 39) 
brought in to fix NASA’s 
public image and stage a 
“back-up” fake moon land-
ing.
Curious, I looked up 
who wrote the hit (1954) 
song “Fly Me to the Moon.” 
Long ago, I became inter-
ested in the Golden Age 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(c. 1920-1970), during which 
most of the most famous 
song standards were writ-
ten. I figured out that about 
70% of those songs were 
written by Jews and, along 
the way, I noticed that a 
big percentage of Jewish 
composers were gay and 
a huge percentage of the 
non-Jewish composers 
were gay. 
It would take three col-
umns, at least, to try and 
give my reasons why this 
is so. Suffice it to say that 
“Fly Me” was not written 
by a Jew. But it is a sweet 
story. Composer Bart 
Howard (1915-2004) was 
born Howard Gustafson. 
He was born and raised 
in a small Iowa city. He 
left home when he was 16 

and he made a living, for 
decades, as the accompa-
nying pianist for top sing-
ers.
Howard dedicated “Fly 
Me,” his only big hit, to 
Thomas Fowler, his life-
long partner (together for 
58 years when Howard 
died). Kaye Ballard had 
a hit (1954) with the first 
recording of “Fly Me” and 
Frank Sinatra sang it fre-
quently when the Apollo 
moon missions were ongo-
ing. Howard said that “Fly 
Me” royalties allowed him 
and Fowler to have a com-
fortable life.
Sausage Party: 
Foodtopia is an animated 
adult, eight-episode Apple 
TV+ series. It premieres 
on July 11. It’s based on 
the animated film Sausage 
Party (2016). This pretty 
raunchy film was a surprise 
big hit with critics and with 
filmgoers (cost $19 million, 
made $141 million). The film 
was written by Seth Rogen, 
42, Evan Goldberg, 41, Ari 
Shaffir, 50, and Jonah Hill,
40.
The animated characters 
in the film, and series, are 
foods that are sold out 
of a grocery store’s deli 
counter (like a hot dog, 
sausage and bagel). As the 
film opened, the food item 
characters don’t know that 

they get eaten by humans. 
They think that they go to 
a fictional heaven. Frank, 
a sausage (voiced by 
Seth Rogen) discovers the 
“truth” and “tells all.” 
About half the charac-
ters in the film are in the 
series. Here are some 
of the returnees: Rogen, 
as Frank; Kristen Wiig as 
Brenda Bunson, a hot dog 
who is Frank’s love inter-
est; Michael Cera as Barry, 
a deformed sausage and 
Frank’s pal; Edward Norton 
as Sammy Bagel Jr., a neu-
rotic Jewish bagel; and 
David Krumholtz, 46, as 
Kareem Abdul Lavash, a 
Middle Eastern lavash who 
has on-and-off spats with 
Sammy. 
Me is a 10-episode Apple 
TV+ series that premieres 
on July 12. It follows 
Ben, a 12-year-old who is 
deep into the usual mid-
dle-school stuff (bullies, 
crushes, dances). He’s cop-
ing with this school stuff 
and a newly blended family 
when he realizes he has 
superpowers.
Ben goes on a journey 
to find out what his 
superpowers truly mean. 
He finds an ally in Max, his 
16-year-old stepsister. She 
helps him harness these 
powers to uncover secrets 
behind his town’s mysteries 

and tragedies. 
The series creator and 
writer, Barry Levy, 51, told 
MSN.com: “This is a family 
show, and it is so important 
to make sure that the show 
we made could be watched 
by adults with or without 
their kids, that there was 
enough depth and enough 
emotion and realism that 
there was something for 
everyone.”
Levy grew up in Newton, 
Massachusetts, and in Ann 
Arbor, Michigan. His father 
was a cardiologist and his 
mother, who had a Ph.D. 
in biochemistry, was a col-
lege dean. Levy graduated 
(1990) from Greenfells, a 
private Ann Arbor school. 
He got his B.A. from 
Washington University, St. 
Louis (1994) and he fol-
lowed with a USC degree 
in producing films and TV. 
He did well as an industry 
producer, but after a few 
years, he concentrated 
on script writing. Finally, 
in 2008, a thriller film he 
wrote, Vantage, was made 
and made some money. 
In 2005, Levy married 
Stacy B. Davis, 52, a top 
public relations agent. Levy 
has taught Hebrew and 
social justice classes at 
Temple Israel of Hollywood 
(Los Angeles), in between 
writing jobs. 

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

CELEBRITY NEWS
ARTS&LIFE

GAGE SKIDMORE

Scarlett Johansson

STEPHEN MCCARTHY/COLLISION 

Seth Rogen

THEDEMONHOG

Barry Levy

