Sundown: You Don’t Mess With the Hitch
Plus, the most Jewish HBO series yet, and more
June 17, 2011
Christopher Hitchens.(Richard Picton/Vanity Fair)
• How would you like to see David Mamet get flayed, disemboweled, and then gone to work on? [NYTBR]
• You should check out the complete offerings in Haaretz’s annual “Writers Edition” but first and foremost this essay on Israel and the Arab Spring by contributing editor Leon Wieseltier. [Haaretz]
• They’re still working on that whole peace process thing. [WSJ]
• An HBO pilot about “a group of con men and magicians who use their skills of deception to help defeat Hitler and the Germans,” written by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, will be directed by Darren Aronofsky. There’s probably a way to make this Jewier, and they just haven’t thought of it yet. [Variety]
• Midnight in Paris will go to more than 1,000 screens, giving it the widest theatrical play of any Woody film. [ArtsBeat]
• Rep. Gary Ackerman, Democrat of New York (Queens and Long Island), has personally appealed to Egyptian authorities in the case of Ilan Grapel. The imprisoned Israeli-American law student is a former Ackerman intern. [JTA]
Looks like New York will get same-sex marriage after all (maybe). Quoth the deciding voter, Republican state Sen. Roy MacDonald: “You might be very cynical about that. Well, fuck it, I don’t care what you think. I’m trying to do the right thing.” Word.
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
