Mila Kunis says she ultimately wants a family over a movie career. (Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons)
NEW YORK (6NoBacon) — We pay a lot of money for Sacha Baron Cohen to make us feel uncomfortable.
The Jewish London native is officially the highest paid British actor in America, according to Forbes.com, and even tops Brad Pitt and Tom Hanks in bringing in the dough.
Last year, Baron Cohen raked in nearly $31 million thanks to his film “The Dictator,” but did not make the Forbes Celebrity 100 list because they did not deem him famous enough in the U.S. Tom Cruise led the way with about $74 million. Hanks at $26.2 million and Pitt at $24.7 million trailed Baron Cohen.
Surfacing to stardom through his hilarious HBO sitcom “Da Ali G Show” (you may remember “Throw the Jew Down the Well”), Baron Cohen went on to make the Hollywood blockbusters “Borat” and “Bruno.” Other notable films that raised his salary include playing the voice of King Julien in Dreamworks’ “Madagascar” trilogy”; his role as Inspector Gustave in "Hugo," which won 11 Oscars; and most recently as the innkeeper Thenardier in "Les Miserables."
Daniel Radcliffe’s circumcision luck
Daniel Radcliffe, best known for sporting round glasses in the “Harry Potter” franchise, is the star of the new film ”Kill Your Darlings,” which just showed at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. But his magic onscreen wasn’t the key factor in helping him land the role of playing the American Jewish poet Allen Ginsberg; it was the Jewy-ness of his family jewels.
The film’s director, John Krokidas, told Out Magazine that he was worried Radcliffe wasn’t Jewish when he cast him for the role.
“Before I sent out the script, I said, ‘Oh shit, Daniel’s not Jewish,’ “ Krokidas said. “And my boyfriend said, ‘Of course he’s Jewish — everyone in the world knows that. Didn’t you see the shots from ‘Equus’? He’s only British from the waist up.’ ”
Krokidas was referring to the 1979 play about a psychiatrist who treats a young man suffering from an obsessive fascination with horses that resurfaced in London 2007. Radcliffe as the patient appeared nude on stage, confirming for drama buffs in England and then New York that he indeed was circumcised — at least for those in orchestra seats. So Radcliffe might owe his mohel a phone call.
Drew Barrymore is having her tattoos removed
Choosing religion over butterflies, Drew Barrymore allegedly is having her tattoos removed to adhere to her husband’s Jewish religion, Star magazine reports.
While converting to Judaism for her husband, William Kopelman, the 38-year-old Barrymore is having six tattoos removed so that she can be buried in a Jewish cemetery.
Apparently the array that will disappear after painful surgery are a bouquet of flowers on her hip, a butterfly on her stomach, a moon crescent on her toe, two angels on her lower back and a cross on her leg.
“Drew also wants to be a Santa Barbara mom, and tattoos clash with that wardrobe,” a source told Star. “She’s growing up and turning conservative.”
Mila Kunis wants motherhood over Hollywood
Mila Kunis, girlfriend to Ashton Kutcher and star in the upcoming film “Oz, the Great and Powerful,” apparently would prefer a life at home with kids rather than playing on the big screen. In an interview with Playboy, Kunis revealed that being a mom and homemaker is more appealing than being an actress.
“The truth is, I don’t think I can do this for the rest of my life. I also want a life. I want a family, like, one day, not tomorrow,” she said. “I want to be a present mom … I’m never in the same place for more than two months. How am I ever going to have a family like that?"
She added, "If that means I do one movie a year, if people still want to see me and hire me and I don’t suck by that point, great. My only source of happiness can’t be dependent on something so fickle.”
Drake spurs Rihanna-Chris Brown split?
The battle between the Jewish Canadian rapper Drake and Chris Brown lives on.
A source told The Sun that Brown and girlfriend Rihanna split because Rihanna was caught messaging Drake, her ex-boyfriend. Brown and Drake reportedly are suing each other in the aftermath of a brawl last July at a New York nightclub reportedly started over Rihanna.
“She was messaging him and Chris saw and it didn’t go down well,” the source said. “Since that night they have barely spoken and have been doing their own things. For now they have split up, but they will probably make up at some point.”
The source said the couple broke up the night of the Grammys; the night Drake picked up his first Grammy, for Rap Album of the Year. After cozying up during the show, Brown and Rihanna left looking rather unhappy and later sat at opposites of a club during an after-party.
Clive Davis reveals he’s bisexual
Music icon Clive Davis has finally revealed the truth about his sexual orientation — he’s bisexual.
The 80-year-old Jewish music producer, in the most revealing parts of his new memoir titled “The Soundtrack of my Life,” discusses his bisexual life, Rolling Stone reports.
The memoir, which came out Tuesday, has a five-page section toward the end in which Davis, the chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment, talks about his sexuality for the first time in his life.
“On this night, after imbibing enough alcohol, I was open to responding to his sexual overtures,” the twice-divorced Davis writes about a sexual encounter with a man during the ‘era of Studio 54.’ “After my second marriage failed, I met a man who was also grounded in music. Having only had loving relationships and sexual intimacy with women, I opened myself up to the possibility that I could have that with a male, and found that I could.”
The rest of the 500-page book chronicles Davis’ Brooklyn childhood and his music career in working with Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, Kelly Clarkson and many others.
Isla Fisher on the road for breastfeeding campaign
Isla Fisher, Sasha Baron Cohen’s better half, has joined Save the Children’s 95 Babies breastfeeding campaign, and traveled to Brazil to promote the campaign under her new role as ambassador, Marie Claire reports.
Fisher’s father has been involved with the organization for some 30 years, and Fisher joins other stars such as Victoria Beckham, Myleene Klass, Donna Air and Mariella Frostrup in joining the fight to reduce child mortality rates by promoting breastfeeding.
“Over the past 20 years, the government has slashed the infant mortality rate by over 50 per cent, and one of the ways they’ve done that is using a unique superfood – breast milk,” she said.
Despite spending time filming the upcoming movie “The Great Gatsby,” Fisher, a mother of two, had time to travel to Sao Paulo, where the infant mortality rate has been reduced by half since Brazil joined a breastfeeding campaign in 1981.
Orthodox female band Bulletproof Stockings hits AOL
The female Chabad band Bulletproof Stockings rocked out last week on AOL’s “You’ve Got” series and explained why its religious adherence only allows them to perform for women. Its members explained that religious law forbids men to listen to the singing of women and that the band caters to an all-female audience.
“We specifically want to create a space that’s just for women,” said Perl Wolf, one of the band members, explaining that playing music for women only takes away from tensions and distractions of having men around.
Dalia Shusterman, another band member, added, “The general assumption is that we’re cutting out half our audience, which I suppose is true. But there are only what, 3 billion women in the world? I think we’re good with that.”
The Bulletproof Stockings story has made headlines in the Times of Israel, the New York Post and the New Yorker.
John Galliano stirs it up with fashion choices
Some saw it as mocking, others thought differently when former Christian Dior fashion designer John Galliano showed up in public in New York wearing a long dark jacket, a black top hat and his hair styled in a way that resembled side locks.
Was Galliano — who just signed on to head the fashion house Oscar de la Renta and had lost his Dior gig for ranting anti-Semitic slurs at a Paris cafe — fashioning the look of hasid?
“Who is he mocking?” Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind asked in the New York Post. “The way the socks look, the jacket, the peyos … My question is, who’s he laughing at?”
Steve Kolb, the CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, came to Galliano’s defense.
“That is John’s hair and how he dresses and certainly not a mockery of others,” Kolb tweeted before writing, ”Lets all take a deep breath, relax and remember it’s just clothes!”
Liz Rosenberg, a spokewoman for Galliano, said any implications that the look was meant to offend was incorrect.
And Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said he didn’t find Galliano’s outfit offensive — and that it didn’t resemble hasidic garb.
“This is a deliberate distortion of his outfit. No hasid wears a scarf or fedora, and Galliano has long hair,” Foxman told JTA. “He’s not trying to make any statement, and after he reached out to the Jewish community to turn over a new leaf, I find it very sad that this is the way they treat him.”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus irks Israeli women with TV ad
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, best known as Elaine on “Seinfeld” and vice president on HBO’s “Veep,” made Israeli headlines after starring in Israel’s YES satellite television company commercial. In the ad, Louis-Dreyfus assumes a woman in her elevator is pregnant and fires out solutions on how to rectify her mistake.
The commercial ends with her saying, “Made a mistake? Just fix it!” Viewers then are told how they can switch to YES satellite if they still have cable.
The bit provides plenty of laughs, but Israeli women are saying the commercial makes women look silly.
Galit Wolloch, the chairwoman of the Israeli women’s organization Na’amat, complained to Israel’s Channel 2 and took to Facebook to write how insulting and condescending the commercial’s message is, Haaretz reported.
“I call for a stop to this rude and insulting ad, which is running in prime time on commercial television,” Wolloch wrote in Hebrew, saying the placement of an attractive woman near a heavier one appearing to be pregnant offends “hundreds of thousands of women across the country.”
(For more Jewish entertainment news, visit 6nobacon.com, the illegitimate child of JTA.)
