Nate Bloom blogs on this week's Jews in the News.

 

Comedy/Drama Based on Real Life; Supernatural Thriller, Gilded Age Actor, More

 

SCARLETT JOHANSSON, 40, co-stars in “My Mother’s Wedding”, a British film that was filmed in 2023, but opens in theaters on Aug. 8, 2025. Here’s the set-up: Three sisters return to their family home to attend the wedding of Diana, their 2x widowed mother (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas). Diana was widowed twice because her two husbands, military pilots, were killed in plane crashes.

All three sisters are quite different: One is a palliative nurse (Emily Beachum), another (Siena Miller) is an actress, and the third (Johansson) is a Royal Navy captain.

Here is an excerpt from a “Hollywood Reporter”. You decide whether you want to see this flick: “It’s too bad the screenplay, which Scott Thomas wrote with journalist John Micklethwaite, is not what it could have been. With too many familiar tropes, the film feels like a lesser variation on one of Richard Curtis’ amiable, sleek comic-dramas, without the sharp-witted dialogue. But there is still a lot to like in this warm story about a family of grown-ups coming to terms with their relationships and the past.”

Fun fact: “Wedding” is the 3rd time  Scott Thomas has played Johansson’s mother. First two: “The Horse Whisperer” (1998) and “The Other Boleyn Girl” (2008).

Interesting Sidelights:  As noted above, the screenplay was co-written by Thomas and John Micklethwait. He is the editor-in chief of Bloomberg News. Micklethwait married Thomas in 2024. Previously, she was married (1987-2005) to FRANCOIS OLIVENNES, 66, a very prominent French Jewish obstetrician. They had three children, who were raised in Paris.

Years ago, Thomas said she “almost” converted to Judaism. She starred in “Sarah’s Key” (2011) a film about the life of a French Holocaust survivor and she has often condemned anti-Semitism.  

Thomas’s  father, a Royal Navy pilot, died in an accident plane crash. She was five years old.  Her stepfather, also a Royal Navy pilot, died in a plane crash when she was 12. Obviously, Thomas’s real-life tragedies were incorporated in her film’s screenplay.

JULIA GARNER, 31, stars in "Weapons", a supernatural, somewhat horror film. It opens on Aug. 8. The premise: All but one child from the same school class mysteriously vanishes on the same night at exactly the same time. A small community is left questioning who or what is behind the disappearance. Only one of the students in a class of 17 students has not disappeared.

Three of the four leading adult actors are Jewish. Garner plays Justine Gandy, a teacher who finds almost all her class has vanished. ALDEN EHRENREICH, 35. plays Paul, a police officer who has a complicated relationship with Justine, and AUSTIN ABRAMS, 26, plays Anthony, a drug addict and burglar.

The fourth leading actor is Josh Brolin, 57. He plays Archer Graff, father of one of the missing children. It’s worth noting that Josh is the “long time” stepson of BARBRA STREISAND, now 83. She married Josh’s father, actor James Brolin, now 84, in 1998.

The last episode of the 3rd season of “The Gilded Age” (HBO) will stream on August 10. Earlier this year, I said that I only knew one Jew in the cast: MORGAN SPECTOR, 44, has a starring role as George Russell. Spector’s father is Jewish.

I missed DOUGLAS SILLS, 65. He is Jewish. He plays Monsieur Baudin. the chef of the Russell household. He initially presented himself as French. He is fired after it is revealed that he is Josh Borden from the Midwest. Borden is quickly re-hired after he answers an “SOS” call to save a fancy Russell banquet.

Sills’ role is not that big. But he is in almost every episode and he starred in the episode about his firing and re-hire (Season1; episode 9). Sills’ career has mostly been as stage actor. His credits include important roles in Broadway shows.  

Brief plug: The documentary, Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T-Rex,” will open in theaters on August 8 and will begin streaming on Sept. 5.

BOLAN and T-Rex were pioneers in the British glam rock movement of the ’70s. They are best known for their 1971 hit which was known as “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” in the U.S. It peaked at #10 on the singles chart.

Bolan, who died in a car accident in 1977, at the age of 29, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. Many big musical stars talk about Bolan in this new documentary.

Bolan’s father was Jewish and while he wasn’t religious, Bolan identified as Jewish.