News

Exclusive: Fans of Israeli TV were handed an early Chanukah gift on Wednesday when broadcaster Yes and Fremantle revealed they had cooked up a prequel to hit drama series Shtisel.

Just as crucial a cog in the Kugel machine is Izzy, an Israeli streaming platform that has taken rights to the prequel and will air the show from early next year outside of Israel.

“Everyone wanted to keep this brand alive,” said Nati Dinnar, an Israeli TV vet who founded Izzy in 2020 and has since landed global rights to both Kugel and Shtisel.

Kugel has already launched locally on Yes and yet the majority of its global fanbase and industry only learned of its existence 48 hours ago. Set several years earlier than Shtisel, Kugel moves to Antwerp, Belgium, where Shulem Shtisel’s brother Nuchem and his daughter Libi are making their way in life, with plenty bumps along the way.

L.A.-based director Guy Nattiv is back in his native Israel with new film Golda starring Helen Mirren as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.

The drama, focused on Meir’s controversial handling of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, opened the Jerusalem Film Festival on July 13, with Mirren squeezing in an appearance just hours before the SAG-AFTRA strike was declared.

The picture originally world premiered at the Berlinale in February, but for Nattiv the Israeli premiere is equally if not more momentous.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Nattiv tells Deadline in Jerusalem.

The director believes the film will chime with current debates in Israel on both its past and future.

“It’s kind of an Israeli movie with an international swagger,” he says of the English-language production, starring a mixture of international and Israeli stars who also include Camille Cottin and Lior Ashkenazi. “It has another layer that...

Oliver Stone said Friday he was shocked to hear that the stars of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer had walked out of its London premiere the day before as SAG-AFTRA officially declared strike action.

“I know several producers are opening movies, like Oppenheimer. Chuck Roven, he was in London. I heard it was going to be cancelled,” said Stone, when asked for his view on the strike.

“I don’t know if it went ahead but all the actors left. That was shocking that they really meant business and cut off right away all the promotion, which is big.”

Commenting on the ongoing 11-week WGA strike, Stone suggested the roots of the current industrial action lie in the deal brokered to end the five-month writers strike in 1988.

“There was a basic miscarriage of justice way back when, when Brian Walton was the head of the WGA, when we gave in. I...

High-flying Access Entertainment, a division of Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries and equity investor in A24 and “His Dark Materials” producer Bad Wolf, is investing in “Red Skies,” one of the biggest titles set to world premiere at this year’s Series Mania, in main International Competition.

Blavatnik and Danny Cohen, Access Entertainment president, will serve as executive producers on “Red Skies,” a position they also hold one upcoming movies such as Beau is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Jonathan Glazer’s “Zone of Interest,” “Iron Claw,” starring Zac Efron, and “Conclave,” from Edward Berger, director of “All Quiet on the Western Front.”

An eight-episode series, “Red Skies” will be broadcast on Reshet 13 later this year.

“Red Skies” marks Access Entertainment’s first foray into Israeli television drama production. It makes its bow on a series which involves a bevy of the prime movers on Israel’s international TV scene.

Produced by Yoav Gross,...

HBO has released the first official trailer for “Oslo,” a film adaptation of the Tony-winning play of the same name starring Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott. Playwright J.T. Rogers wrote and executive-produced the movie, which is directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher. “Oslo” centers around a Norwegian couple who find themselves in the middle of negotiations for the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, a pivotal agreement between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (Plo).

Here’s more from the official synopsis: “‘Oslo’ follows the secret back-channel talks, unlikely friendships, and quiet heroics of a small but committed group of Israelis and Palestinians, plus one Norwegian couple, that led to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords. ‘Oslo’ stars Ruth Wilson as Mona Juul, a Norwegian foreign minister, and Andrew Scott as Terje Rod-Larsen, a Norwegian sociologist and Mona’s husband.”

Premiering Off Broadway in 2016, “Oslo” transferred to Broadway the following year, eventually...

This story was originally published in Issue 747 on November 14, 1996.

A Few Times Each Year, Larry King puts everything aside and sets out for La Costa, a health spa in the hills north of San Diego. Nearly 10 years ago he had a heart attack, followed by quintuple-bypass surgery, and going to La Costa is his way of asking fate for a few more years. Each morning he takes a brisk walk around the golf course, checking his pulse along the way. Each afternoon he heads to the spa, pulls off his...

Showtime’s “Homeland” ended on Sunday, upsetting us loyal fans who were so grateful to this enthralling series for distracting us from the weekly horrors of the coronavirus crisis.

Anticipating the finale, I spent the past week asking friends who their favorite “Homeland” villain was. The enigmatic al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Nazir, played by Navid Negahban, came up as the top winner. The Persian-born actor performed so brilliantly that he attracted high praise from former Israeli President Shimon Peres and former U.S. President Barack Obama.

I was about to email Negahban my informal poll results when his fundraising appeal arrived in my inbox. He had unleashed a campaign to save the Los Angeles artist retreat he created, the Romany Artist Center & Studio, that now is in dire financial straits.

Negahban conceived the center, which will house up to eight artists in addition to providing studio space, as “an artist colony...

With much of the world’s population currently advised to remain at home due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Netflix (and other streaming services) are more popular than ever. The company is reporting record audience numbers, which isn’t exactly surprising given that they almost literally have a captive audience, and over the last few weeks, Netflix has become so popular that in Europe they’ve had to decrease their video quality as so many people are streaming that they were in danger of slowing down the whole internet.

With cinemas now closed, folks want something to look forward to in the weeks to come and thankfully, we know what to expect. Below you’ll find what’s on May’s menu for the United States, with this being just the first batch of announced titles and more to follow soon.

“May 1st:

All Day and a Night (2020) N – Drama featuring...

American-Israeli filmmaker Yaron Zilberman set off to shed light on the 1995 assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in “Incitement,” which world-premiered at Toronto in the Contemporary World Cinema section.

Nominated for 10 Ophir awards in Israel, “Incitement” charts the events leading up to the assassination of Rabin at the end of a peace rally celebrating the Oslo Accords and is told through eyes of the murderer, Yigal Amir, a promising young law student who progressively turns into a delusional ultranationalist.

“It’s one of the most traumatic stories in the history of Israel, along with the Yom Kippur war,” said Zilberman, whose last film was 2012 relationship drama “A Late Quartet.” “I was 27 years old at the time and it had a very strong impact on me and it was a trauma in Israel. So many taboos were broken by this murder … it was an attack on democracy and it...

The British actor, who stars alongside Christian Bale in the forthcoming Vice, talks about politics, playing baddies, and doing the kids’ homework

Eddie Marsan, 50, is a prolific British character actor who has played roles as diverse as Shimon Peres, Heinrich Himmler and Bob Dylan. Born and raised in east London, he left school at 15 and apprenticed as a printer before becoming an actor. It took a decade before he started getting regular work, helped by Mike Leigh casting him in Vera Drake (2004) and as a volatile driving instructor in Happy-Go-Lucky (2008). In the Us, where he now mostly works (though he lives in Chiswick), he is best known for his role as Terry, an ex-boxer with Parkinson’s, in the Showtime series Ray Donovan. For his latest film Vice, exploring Dick Cheney’s insidious role in the last Bush administration, Marsan plays deputy secretary of defence, Paul Wolfowitz.

When did you...

Directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan go behind the scenes of the secret Israeli-Palestinian talks that tried to bring about peace in the 1990s

Like a sombre archaeological dig, this documentary disinters the 1990s Oslo peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. It began in 1993 with imaginative, off-the-record discussions between unofficial representatives in a conference venue outside Oslo – no more neutral and non-Middle Eastern location could possibly be conceived, short of hosting the talks on Pluto. And it ended catastrophically, with the assassination of the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

Unlike in South Africa and Northern Ireland in that same era, the chance for peace was missed. Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan’s film reconstructs the lost atmosphere of hope, with interesting interviews, including one with Israel’s then foreign minister, Shimon Peres – the last one he gave before he died.

Pope Francis: A Man Of His Word Focus Features Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Wim Wenders, David Rosier Screenwriter: Wim Wenders Cast: Pope Francis, Recep Tayvip Erdogan, John Kerry, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Shimon Peres, Vladimir Putin, Donald J. Trump, Melania Trump, Win Wenders Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 5/14/18 Opens: May 18, 2018 As […]

The post Pope Francis: A Man of His Word Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Though the Oscar ceremony is less than two weeks old, the studios are returning to real-life subject matter with a non-fiction flick usually released toward year’s end for awards consideration. Oh, and this true tale from nearly 42 years ago has been dramatized multiple times. It all really depends on this film maker’s take, their perspective. Big battles of WWII have been the source of several films. Just last year the story of Dunkirk was the backdrop for three films: the propaganda romance Their Finest, the acclaimed Churchill profile The Darkest Hour and Christopher Nolan’s same titled multi-story thriller. Now, returning to theatres is the tale of a hijacked airliner and the secret rescue of its passengers back in 1976. Shortly after the incident, the broadcast networks rushed out two dramatizations (later released theatrically overseas), “Raid on Entebbe” and “Victory at Entebbe” were multi-starred TV events that echoed the...

HBO has acquired all domestic television rights, including streaming, to Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan’s feature documentary “The Oslo Diaries,” the company announced Sunday. The film follows the secret 1992 negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders based on readings of the participants’ diaries from the time, interwoven with never-before-seen archival footage and exclusive interviews with key players, including the last on-camera conversation with former Israeli president Shimon Peres. The talks spanned a period of 1,100 days, and the film offers a portrait of diplomacy and the delicate nature of peace. HBO plans to debut the film later this year to commemorate...

Barbra Streisand is singing praises over late former Israeli leader Shimon Peres in a new documentary from Oscar winner Richard Trank.

"He was gifted with the ability to listen to others who did not share his views, and still remain determined to find a path forward," Streisand says in a new clip from the film, titled Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres. "President Peres was all about love and compassion. He was a giver, not a taker," she added.

Joining Streisand in the film are Barack Obama, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister...

Barbra Streisand will join former U.S. President Barack Obama in a new documentary about former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

Barack Obama and Barbra Streisand have been booked in a new movie. The 44th president of the United States will appear alongside Babs in a new documentary about Shimon Peres, the late Israeli politician who served as both president and prime minister of Israel.

Titled Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres, the project is being directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Richard Trank for Moriah Films, the documentary film production division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Trank tells THR that Peres and his family asked the Moriah team — including the filmmaker and Rabbi Marvin Hier, also an Oscar winner...

Avi Mograbi's Between Fences (2016) is showing on Mubi from March 17 - April 16, 2017 as a Special Discovery.Between FencesIn a bare room, two seated men pretend to offer a deal to a third. They will give the man 2,000 shekels and a passport if he agrees to leave Israel and go to back to Africa. “Your brothers don’t get it,” the boss says. “They’re stupid, but you look smart.” The man listening to the deal, a Sudanese refugee, insists that he must stay in Israel for his own safety. The two men, who are revealed through context to be border patrol agents, up the ante to 3,000 shekels. But the catch is, if the man stays in Israel he will go to Saharonim, a prison-like detention center for an unspecified period of time—“1, 2, 3 years in jail.” As the negotiation wears on, the border agents threaten him with one year, then two,...

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for his determination to end a civil war that killed over 200,000 residents of his country. “I receive this with great emotion,” Santos said in an audio post on Facebook account. “I am eternally grateful.” “I receive this award in their name: the Colombian people who have suffered so much in this war,” Santos continued. “Especially the millions of victims that have suffered in this war that we are on the verge of ending.” Also Read: Shimon Peres, Former Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dies at 93 Santos, 65, went to Harvard and.

No one keeps the president waiting - except Bill Clinton, of course. President Barack Obama's impatient side surfaced on Friday when he just couldn't get a preoccupied Clinton to board Air Force One home after the funeral for former Israeli President Shimon Peres, ABC News reports. Clinton is notorious for running late, and Obama experienced first hand as he stood in the doorway of a plane repeatedly beckoning the former president to hurry up. "Bill, let's go! Let's go! Billy! Let's go!" Obama yelled, while shaking his head at Clinton, according to a video obtained by ABC. Watch: President Barack Obama...

No one keeps the president waiting - except Bill Clinton, of course. President Barack Obama's impatient side surfaced on Friday when he just couldn't get a preoccupied Clinton to board Air Force One home after the funeral for former Israeli President Shimon Peres, ABC News reports. Clinton is notorious for running late, and Obama experienced first hand as he stood in the doorway of a plane repeatedly beckoning the former president to hurry up. "Bill, let's go! Let's go! Billy! Let's go!" Obama yelled, while shaking his head at Clinton, according to a video obtained by ABC. Watch: President Barack Obama...

Shimon Peres, former Israeli president and winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, died Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reports. He was 93. After suffering a massive stroke on September 13, Peres, the last surviving member of Israel’s founding fathers, suffered severe organ failure on Tuesday. He also suffered irreversible brain damage a a result of the stroke. Peres, who held many offices in the Israeli government including prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, along with then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Plo chairman Yasser Arafat, for their work creating the Oslo Accords peace deal. Also...

Hollywood was quick to mourn and pay tribute to former Israeli president and prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shimon Peres, who died on Tuesday aged 93. THR has collected together social media reaction of the news. Shimon Peres, Israeli statesman and Nobel Peace Prize winner, dies at 93 https://t.co/6N1B4LtB1R Great loss for Israel & world-and for Peace — Morgan Fairchild (@morgfair) September 28, 2016 Rip #ShimonPeres Very sad news https://t.co/zgr31tFnk2 — Josh Gad (@joshgad) September 28, 2016 Of all political leaders I have ever met, few commanded a room with as much grace, charm, and

read more...

Rosamund Pike, Daniel Bruhl and Vincent Cassel are all in talks to board Jose Padilha's true story drama "Entebbe" for Working Title and Participant Films.

Set in 1976, the story follows four hijackers - two Palestinian, two German - who took a plane hostage and diverted it to land in Uganda while they demanded the release of dozens of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian prisoners.

The suspense thriller follows the hijackers, hostages, French crew, and then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and future Pm Shimon Peres as they try to decide whether to negotiate or launch a raid to free the hostages.

Greg Burke ("'71") is penning the screenplay while Kate Solomon, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will produce.

Source: Deadline...

Country’s film industry and former president Shimon Peres react with dismay at news that the multi-award-winner has died from cancer

Multi-award-winning Israeli actor-director Ronit Elkabetz has died aged 51 from cancer, it has been announced. The daughter of Moroccan immigrants, Elkabetz’s most successful film was also her most recent: Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, in which she starred as an orthodox Jewish woman attempting to obtain a religious divorce; she also co-directed and wrote it with her brother Shlomi. The film won numerous awards, and was nominated for the best foreign language film Golden Globe in 2015.

News of Elkabetz’s death was greeted with dismay across the Israeli film industry, with fellow director Amos Gitai saying: “It’s no wonder she captivated the world’s attention, she was loved by everyone ... she was simply spectacular.” Former president Shimon Peres said in a statement that Elkabetz was “an...

Country’s film industry and former president Shimon Peres react with dismay at news that the multi-award-winner has died from cancer

Multi-award-winning Israeli actor-director Ronit Elkabetz has died aged 51 from cancer, it has been announced. The daughter of Moroccan immigrants, Elkabetz’s most successful film was also her most recent: Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, in which she starred as an orthodox Jewish woman attempting to obtain a religious divorce; she also co-directed and wrote it with her brother Shlomi. The film won numerous awards, and was nominated for the best foreign language film Golden Globe in 2015.

News of Elkabetz’s death was greeted with dismay across the Israeli film industry, with fellow director Amos Gitai saying: “It’s no wonder she captivated the world’s attention, she was loved by everyone ... she was simply spectacular.” Former president Shimon Peres said in a statement that Elkabetz was “an...

Jose Padilha ("Elite Squad," "Narcos") is in negotiations to direct the ticking-clock thriller "Entebbe" for Working Title and StudioCanal.

The 1976 true story follows four hijackers - two Palestinian and two German - who took a plane hostage and diverted it to land in Uganda while they demanded the release of dozens of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian prisoners.

The action follows the hijackers, the hostages, the flight crew, then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and future Pm Shimon Peres trying to decide whether to negotiate or launch the raid to free the hostages. Greg Burke ('71") is penning the screenplay.

Source: Variety...

Prime Time: Gitai Revisits the Assassination of Israeli Prime Minister

Israeli auteur Amos Gitai reenacts the final moments of Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin prior to his assassination during the Oslo peace talks with Palestine twenty years ago. Laborious in its attempt to convey the political unrest at home which eventually resulted in Rabin’s murder, Gitai crafts the portrait as a docu-drama, mixing newsreel footage with performance. The result is a sometimes intense, yet professorial endeavor on the dangerousness of extremist religion and the degrading aftershocks which halted a progression towards peace. Gitai keeps the tone at a steady simmer and the film manages to be an unsettling reflection of a country perilously divided of a relatively recent tragedy which pitched the turmoil into a tunnel where a light at the end has yet to be conceived.

On October 4, 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin was assassinated. Gitai focuses specifically on...

Chelsea Handler has lost control, and not in the vodka-fueled manner one might expect from the former late-night queen. For her new Netflix documentary miniseries, Chelsea Does, the self-described "control freak" relinquished her power and let others take charge.

"It was a complete departure from anything I had ever done," she says. The New Jersey native had curated a self-deprecating, mean-party-girl image in a series of comedic memoirs (her 2005 book, My Horizontal Life, was the first of five she's penned to date) and eight years as a host on E!

In a world so concerned with being politically correct, what is the best way to approach sensitive subject matter in the media? In true Chelsea Handler form, the actress and comedienne uses her candor to figure that out, as she explores racism in the latest trailer for her upcoming Netflix documentary series, "Chelsea Does." Read More: Watch: 'Chelsea Does... Drugs' in Front of Her Judgmental Dog (But Doesn't Have a Problem) This particular installment, titled "Chelsea Does Racism," follows Handler as she meets with various experts such as members of the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, among other civil rights organizations. Various episode highlights include Handler's sit-down discussion with Rev. Al Sharpton, her visit to a South Carolina plantation, and her journey to Israel where she meets and has an intimate conversation with former president, Shimon Peres.  Directed by Eddie Schmidt and produced by Schmidt, Handler, and Morgan Neville, the...

From a quest for a "fishtail bun" tutorial to an inquiry about what channel Homeland is on, the latest court-ordered release of Hillary Clinton's private emails gives us the biggest glimpse yet into her personal life.

The roughly 7,800 pages of emails released on Monday are full of fun tidbits and celebrity name-drops for politi-philes and laymen alike to geek out over.

Here are the highlights:

1. Clinton's nicknames for Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are nothing short of hilarious.

In a January 2012 note to confidant Sid Blumenthal, Clinton refers to Romney as "Mittens" and Gingrich as "Grinch."

"If Mittens can't beat Grinch in Florida,...

Docudrama about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin takes aim at Netanyahu, but puts stylistic cinema above propaganda

Amos Gitai won’t be receiving any gifts from prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu next Purim. His new film, Rabin, the Last Day, minces no words and charges him as morally culpable for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Not that Netanyahu personally called Rabin a Nazi or carried a coffin in effigy (others did that), but he and his wave of rightwing politics fanned the flames of sedition after the Oslo Accords. A movie with a charge this extreme, and the courtroom scenes that convincingly connect the dots, ought to make for a major international discussion. But that discussion is unlikely to happen, because this isn’t the work of Michael Moore or Oliver Stone. This is Amos Gitai: an iconoclast at times, but an artist first.

Gitai has chosen stylistic cinema over propaganda,...

Docudrama about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin takes aim at Netanyahu, but puts stylistic cinema above propaganda

Amos Gitai won’t be receiving any gifts from prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu next Purim. His new film, Rabin, the Last Day, minces no words and charges him as morally culpable for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Not that Netanyahu personally called Rabin a Nazi or carried a coffin in effigy (others did that), but he and his wave of rightwing politics fanned the flames of sedition after the Oslo Accords. A movie with a charge this extreme, and the courtroom scenes that convincingly connect the dots, ought to make for a major international discussion. But that discussion is unlikely to happen, because this isn’t the work of Michael Moore or Oliver Stone. This is Amos Gitai: an iconoclast at times, but an artist first.

Gitai has chosen stylistic cinema over propaganda,...

At the end of the short interview excerpt that opens "Rabin: The Last Day," the interviewer asks Shimon Peres, the man who succeeded Yitzhak Rabin as Prime Minister of Israel, a bold, hypothetical question: Would Israel be more peaceful and more stable if Rabin had not been assassinated by right-wing radical Yigal Amir back in November 1995? You listen for the conventionally cautious response typical to politicians —perhaps a reframing of the issue, perhaps a protest at the unanswerable nature of a what-if. It doesn't come. Instead, Peres looks straight back at the interviewer and says, levelly and immediately, "Yes." The Israel/Palestine conflict, with its intractable religious, ethnic, historical and cultural divides, is so complex and so deeply rooted that such a bold declarative statement doesn't just sound surprising: it sounds dangerous. And the entirety of Amos Gitai's deeply absorbing, intelligent "Rabin: The Last Day" is similarly bold and.

Minister for Culture and Sport Miri Regev threatened to cut off subsidies if the documentary was not pulled.

In a conflict that some are already calling The Clash of the Regevs, the new Minister for Culture and Sport, Miri Regev, told the director of the Jerusalem Film Festival, Noa Regev (no relation) that she will cut off all of the event’s subsidies unless a documentary entitled Beyond the Fear is taken off the program.

Miri Regev, a former Army censor and a leader of the victorious Likud party which swept recent elections, had already created furor in the media when she first announced that she will not hesitate to clamp down any attempt by artists of any kind to slander the present Israeli policies. Harshly criticized after she threatened to deprive an Arab theatre troupe of all financial assistance because it refused to take its productions on tour through the West Bank territories (that conflict was settled...

Keshet Media Group's Innovative Television conference kicked off in Jerusalem this morning with executives from the likes of HBO, AMC, eOne, MTV, ITV and Sony Pictures Television in town to discuss challenges and changes facing the industry. After meeting with former Israeli president Shimon Peres on Friday, attendees toured the Old City and screened the first episode of local son Gideon Raff’s USA series Dig on Saturday before getting down to business today. First up…...

Chelsea Handler is one bold women! The comedienne and host went topless (again) on Wednesday, but this time she's in Israel ... and there's a camel involved.  The "Chelsea Lately" alum has been known to bare her breasts, and other body parts, to her Instagram followers on many different occasions and this time was no exception.   "A Muslim allowed a topless Jew to sit on his camel. And we say we can't live side by side? I say we try and we can and we will. And, You don't even have to be topless. L'chaim," she captioned the photo In the revealing pic, the 39-year-old, poses on top of a camel with nothing but two Star of David pasties to cover up her...er...assets.  The outspoken funny lady is currently in the "holy land" for a comedy show and to interview former Israeli president Shimon Peres.  We think her visit...

Chelsea Handler has all but taken over the holy land these past few days.

The comedienne arrived in Israel over the weekend, performed a benefit comedy gig, visited Jerusalem and filmed a one-on-one interview with former Israeli president Shimon Peres, believed to be part of her planned documentary specials on Netflix, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. She has agreed to produce four specials for the online streaming service.

Read more Netflix Slots First Chelsea Handler Special, Three Others

Back in June, Handler inked a mega-deal with the streaming service, including the docuseries, in which she will delve into matters that she wants to better understand. That will ...

New York – She had it all. Just like Bogie and, well, her. Lauren “Betty” Bacall accidentally became a movie actress, but that accident led to stardom, two marriages to famous actors and a long life of award winning performances. The 89-year-old star died of a stroke in New York City on August 12th.

She thought her marriage to Humphrey Bogart – who was 26 years older than her – would be her epitaph, but Bacall had so much more going for her through her career, she forged ahead and established her own identity. In that second act, it was the stage that became her main calling, as she won Tony Awards for her lead performances in “Applause” and “Woman of the Year” on Broadway. Her husky voiced, independent style was broadly appealing, especially in her early co-starring roles with Bogart.

Bogie and Bacall in ‘The Big Sleep’

Photo credit: Warner Home Video

Lauren Bacall...

By Robert Welkos Billionaire: Arnon Milchan Net Worth: $4.7 billion (Forbes); $4.2 billion (CelebrityNetWorth) Hollywood Connections: Producer began his Hollywood career in 1977 after being introduced to producer Elliot Kastner (“Harper”). Set up New Regency Productions in 1991. Has worked with directors like Martin Scorsese, Terry Gilliam, Oliver Stone, Roman Polanski and Sergio Leone. Company partnered with Warner Bros. and then 20th Century Fox. One of the producers of this year’s Oscar winning picture “12 Years a Slave.” Films Of Note: “Pretty Woman,” “JFK,” “Fight Club,” “Heat,” “L.A. Confidential,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Noah.” Films In The Works: “Birdman.” Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu. Cast: Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis. IMDb logline: “A washed-up actor who once played an iconic superhero must overcome his ego and family trouble as he mounts a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim his past glory.” “The Revenant.” González Iñárritu to direct Leonard DiCaprio in...

The two dozen Holocaust survivors first-time filmmaker Isaac Hertz interviews in his collection of oral histories Life Is Strange vary widely in notoriety — Israeli president Shimon Peres and children's author Uri Orlev appear, along with a panoply of bigwig academics and family friends of Hertz's — but all tell absorbing tales of their experiences during the war and subsequent emigration to Israel or the United States.

Hertz gives equal time to their happy memories, as if to show the horrors they experienced neither erased the sunnier days before nor ruined their lives thereafter. He intercuts the interview footage with archival clips of Jewish life both during festive occasions and in the misery of the camps.

Hertz hasn't framed his subjects' storie...

One Million Moms so outraged they confuse Billy Porter with RuPaul, Dustin Diamond used a body double for sex tape, Cats may be headed to the big screen

According to E!, the identity of Tom Daley’s mystery boyfriend is Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black, who he was photographed with several months ago. Not that my opinion matters in the least, but I can work with this. They’d make a good looking pair, and there’s a lot of depth and history in Dlb to guide Daley as he comes out into the public eye as being in a same-sex relationship.

Which states in the U.S. swear the most? Well, according to a new study of thousands of customer service calls that were recorded and analyzed, Ohio takes the f*cking cake on that award, while Washington is the most reserved.

Speaking of ranking the states, according to Condomania,...

Hollywood producer gives interview in which he confirms earlier claims that he was an arms dealer

The Hollywood producer behind box office hits including Fight Club, Pretty Woman and La Confidential has spoken about his life as an Israeli secret agent and arms dealer, saying he was proud of working for his country.

Arnon Milchan gave a lengthy interview to the Israeli documentary programme Uvda, broadcast on Monday on Channel 2, confirming claims made earlier in an unauthorised biography that he worked for an Israeli agency that negotiated arms deals and supported Israel's secret nuclear weapons project.

Milchan, who was born in Israel, was recruited as a young businessman to the Bureau of Scientific Relations – known by its Hebrew acronym, Lakam – by Shimon Peres, now Israel's president, in the 1960s. The bureau, which worked to obtain scientific and technical information for secret defence programmes, closed in 1987.

Milchan, 68, is the chairman of New Regency Productions,...

New Regency head Arnon Milchan has confirmed in a TV interview that he took part in clandestine missions for Israel.

Speaking on the Israeli investigative programme Uvda that aired on Monday night (November 25) Milchan spoke of his service to his country.

“I did it for my country and I’m proud of it,” said Milchan, 68, whose producer credits include Mr And Mrs Smith and Fight Club.

Milchan said Shimon Peres, who currently serves as Israeli president, recruited him to the secretive Bureau Of Scientific Relations in the 1960s.

According to a report on the BBC website, Milchan was running a fertiliser company at the time and gathered industry data for the Bureau to pass on to defence sources.

The executive continued clandestine operations as a Hollywood producer. At one point in the interview he said the late Sydney Pollack helped procure sensitive military equipment.

Milchan also addressed longtime rumours that he was an arms dealer.

“I’m not an...

Arnon Milchan has produced scores of notable Hollywood films like Pretty Woman, Under Siege, Fight Club and most recently 12 Years a Slave. But it turns out that was just his day job. In an extensive interview he gave to Israel's documentary program, Uvda, the Tinseltown producer and chairman of New Regency Productions is revealing publicly for the first time that he moonlighted as a spy for Israel. Per the Guardian, Milchan, who was born in Israel, told the show that he was recruited by Israel's current President Shimon Peres in the 1960s to work for the country's Bureau of Scientific Relations while he was running his own fertilizer business. As part of his clandestine mission,...

Paula Abdul, an award-winning singer, dancer, choreographer, and TV personality, can add a new title to her resume: religious pilgrim.

The former American Idol and X Factor judge is on her first trip to Israel, where she is connecting to her Jewish roots and planning on holding a belated Bat Mitzvah — the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony girls typically have at age 12 or 13.

“Beyond being Jewish, I’ve always found myself to be very much in tune with spirituality,” the 51-year-old Abdul told The Associated Press. “I feel very grateful coming to Israel now, where as a woman I know who I...

Paula Abdul, an award-winning singer, dancer, choreographer and TV personality, can add a new title to her resume: religious pilgrim. The former American Idol and The X Factor judge is on her first trip to Israel, where she is connecting to her Jewish roots and planning on holding a belated Bat Mitzvah - the Jewish coming of age ceremony girls typically have at age 12 or 13. "Beyond being Jewish, I've always found myself to be very much in tune with spirituality," the 51-year-old Abdul told the Associated Press. "I feel very grateful coming to Israel now, where as a woman I...

Opening this weekend at the Quad Cinema in NYC and on November 6th in Los Angeles at The Royal and Town Center in Encino, The Prime Ministers is a new documentary directed by Richard Trank and produced by Rabbi Marvin Hier. The film is an epic film that looks at six decades of Israel’s history—from its founding until the early 21st century, and it is the thirteenth production of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s two-time Academy Award®-winning Moriah Films.

Based on Ambassador Yehuda Avner's bestselling book, the documentary retells stories form the offices of several of Israel's Prime Ministers among them Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Shimon Peres. Furthermore, the film counts with incredible voice-over work by some of Hollywood's biggest stars. With Sandra Bullock as the voice of Golda Meir, Michael Douglas as the voice of Yitzhak Rabin, Christoph Waltz as the voice of Menachem Begin, and Leonard Nimoy as the voice of Levi Eshkol, Trank's latest work recreates some of the most important events of the 20th and 21st.

For more information on the film visit Here...

Russian director Alexander Velidinsky’s The Geographer Drank His Globe Away was the big winner at the 4th Odessa International Film Festival (Oiff).

The tragi-comedy picked up the Grand Prix Golden Duke, voted for by the festival audience, and the International Jury’s Golden Duke for Best Film

The $4m production, which had screened to an enthusiastic capacity audience of over 1,200 in Odessa’s Festival Palace on Thursday evening, is being handled internationally by fledgling Russian sales outfit Antipode Film Sales & Distribution and will be released theatrically in Russia on 400 prints on November 7.

Last month, Velidinsky’s film won the Grand Prix and three other awards at the Kinotavr Open Russian Film Festival in Sochi.

The prize for Best Acting went to the female leads Lika Babluani and Mariam Bokeria of Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross’s In Bloom, which won the main prize at Voices in Vologda two weeks ago. The Odessa...

Jerusalem — Entertainment star Barbra Streisand waded into one of Israel's touchiest issues Monday on the first major stop of her tour of the country – Jewish religious practices that separate men and women.

Speaking at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Monday, she took aim at cases of ultra-Orthodox Jews targeting women.

"It's distressing to read about women in Israel being forced to sit in the back of the bus," she said, "or when we hear about `Women of the Wall' having metal chairs thrown at them when they attempt to peacefully and legally pray."

She was referring to isolated incidents in which ultra-Orthodox men tried to force women to sit separately at the rear of buses that go through their neighborhoods, as well as more serious clashes in which ultra-Orthodox Jews tried to prevent women donning prayer shawls and carrying Torah scrolls from praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem,...