58 | NOVEMBER 28 • 2024 
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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