58 | NOVEMBER 28 • 2024
J
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CAREER-MAKING TURN?
JONES AND SOME JEWS,
SPRINGSTEEN BIOPIC
By coincidence, John Magaro, 41,
has a big role in a new series and
one in a feature film that both
premiere this week. As I have
noted before, Magaro’s mother
is Jewish, and he was raised
Jewish. He grew-up in Munroe
Falls, a suburb of Akron. Since
2015, he’s become a fairly familiar
face in small-to-large supporting
roles in TV shows and in films.
I was disappointed when The
Many Saints of Newark (2021),
a prequel film to The Sopranos
TV series, didn’t make Magaro a
star. He played the young Silvio
Dante, a top ally of the young
Tony Soprano. Sadly, the Dante
role was too small to make any-
one a star.
The Agency is a 10-episode
espionage thriller. It premieres on
Nov. 28 on Paramount+ and on
Dec. 1 on Showtime. Here’s the
official premise: “The Agency is
set within the department respon-
sible for training and handling
deep-cover agents on long-term
missions who live under false
identities for years, aiming to
identify and recruit intelligence
sources.”
Michael Fassbinder and Richard
Gere are the stars of the series.
Magaro has a big supporting role
as “Owen.” For whatever reasons,
the series’ publicity unit provides
no “bio” on leading or supporting
characters.
September 5 opens in limit-
ed number of theaters on Nov.
29 and “opens wide” on Dec.
13. Sept. 5, 1972, was the day
that Palestinian terrorists killed
11 Israeli Olympic athletes in
Munich, Germany. Two athletes
were killed at the attack start,
and the rest were kidnapped
and killed about 15 hours later.
ABC sports had the contract to
broadcast the Munich Games
for American audiences, and
everyone turned to ABC to get
minute-by-minute coverage of the
terrorist attack.
The film focuses on the ABC
newsroom in New York and
some ABC journalists in Munich.
The Hollywood Reporter had a
very good article about ABC’s
TV coverage and September 5.
The Reporter says: “September
5 documents the day when glob-
al terrorism, a host’s country’s
angst and media ethics crashed
into one.”
Geoffrey Mason, now 82, is
the star character of the film. He
worked in ABC’s control room,
and he orchestrated the feed of
Olympic news to the public. The
Reporter says: “Workaday actor
John Magaro plays Mason in a
career-making turn, [Mason was]
a callow producer who rose to
the spotlighted moment, albeit
with no shortage of moral tor-
ment and ulcerative stress.”
ABC News loaned some tapes
of the actual ABC Munich broad-
casts to the September 5 film-
makers. You see, in the film, the
actual tapes of ABC anchor Peter
Jennings reporting on the events
in Munich. It’s worked into the
narrative.
Geoffrey Mason is a long-time
friend of Bob Iger, 73, the head
of Disney and ABC. He asked
Iger to loan the tapes and Iger
agreed.
QUINCY JONES’ LEGACY
Last week, I couldn’t fit in a few
words about the death, on Nov.
3, of Quincy Jones, the famous
music producer, musician and
composer. Then, his Jewish
daughter, actress Rashida Jones,
48, appeared at the Governors’
Awards (Nov. 17). Honorary
Oscars are presented at the
Governors’ Awards.
Rashida Jones accepted her
father’s “lifetime achievement”
honorary Oscar. Before his death,
Quincy Jones wrote an accep-
tance speech, which Rashida
read at the ceremony.
She said about her father, “He
imbued love into every single
second of music he made. That
was his real legacy.”
When Quincy Jones died, I
looked for his Jewish connec-
tions. I knew about his six-year
marriage to the late actress
Peggy Lipton, Rashida’s Jewish
mother.
Here are just some connec-
tions I found: Quincy was the
first African American to be a
recording company vice president
(1961). He was hired by Irving
Green (1916-2008), the head of
Mercury records; Sidney Lumet
(1924-2011) was the first filmmaker
to hire Jones to score a film. It
was The Pawnbroker (1964), a film
about a Holocaust survivor. Jones
scored five more Lumet films.
Steven Spielberg has only hired
four composers to score his films.
Jones is one (The Color Purple);
and Jones produced four hit
songs sung by 1960s fave Lesley
Gore (1946-2015). All the songs
(which were written by Jews) sold
a million records (“It’s My Party,”
“Judy’s Time to Cry,” “She’s a
Fool” and “You Don’t Own Me”).
BOSS BIOPIC COMING
Now filming is Deliver Me from
Nothing, a biopic about Bruce
Springsteen that focuses on
Nebraska, a Springsteen (1982)
album. Jeremy Allen White,
the star of The Bear, plays
Springsteen.
Jeremy Strong, 48, a star of
Succession, plays Jon Landau,
now 77, the producer of most
of Springsteen’s albums.
Strong’s father is Jewish; David
Krumholtz, 46, plays Al Teller,
now 80, top record executive;
and Marc Maron, 61, plays Chuck
Plotkin, now 82, a top record pro-
ducer/engineer.
CELEBRITY NEWS
NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
ARTS&LIFE
MARTIN KRAFT
John
Magaro
Quincy
Jones
CANADIAN FILM CENTRE