6 degrees (no Bacon): Jewish celebrity roundup

Kardashian buys kibbutz stone

NEW YORK—Reality star Kim Kardashian has done her part for a kibbutz in Israel. Take a deep breath—she hasn’t actually performed any manual labor or even visited the place (do they make high-heel Naots?). Her contribution is of the wallet-opening kind.

Kardashian settled on Caesarstone brand quartz countertops, made in Kibbutz Sdot Yam, for the renovation of her Beverly Hills mansion, Tablet reports. Trend-setter that she is, it wasn’t long before her neighbors were using it, too. Not exactly a bad thing for an already growing company. Caesarstone Sdot Yam Ltd. is now worth a billion dollars.

The booming business has just opened a New York factory, where it will produce inventory for another place that Kanye West’s wife-to-be will probably never visit: IKEA.

Pyongyang Express

You loved them in “Pineapple Express.” You’re fairly certain you’re going to love them in “This Is The End.” And now, James Franco and Seth Rogen are teaming up again, for “The Interview,” in which they will play reporters who try to assassinate the president of North Korea.

“It’s Kim Jong-un,” Rogen told Eonline at the June 10 premiere of “This Is The End.” “Literally Kim Jong-un in the movie. We figured it’s North Korea, you might as well make it Kim Jong-un.”

Worried they’ll be putting themselves in harm’s way by traveling to the communist nation, thereby jeopardizing any further collaborations? You can relax.

“We’re going to the foreign land of Vancouver, Canada,” said the actors’ friend and “Interview” producer, Evan Goldberg.

Rogen and Goldberg ‘Jew it up’

Before the North Korea project, Rogen and Goldberg are focusing on promoting “This is the End.” In what may be the most satisfying stop on their promotional tour for the film, Rogen and Goldberg sat down recently with Marc Maron for an (extra Jewy) episode of his WTF podcast.

Maron always ends up asking his Jewish guests about their roots, but this time he dove right in with an enthusiastic, “Let’s Jew it up!”

The creative partners, who grew up together in Vancouver, happily indulged Maron’s questions, and their answers left us more convinced than ever that they were definitely the sweetest, most hilarious guys at sleepaway camp (and that they haven’t changed much since).

Our three favorite Jewish moments from the interview:

• They’re still super connected to their childhood friends. In fact, they brought 30 of them down to Los Angeles for the “This Is The End” premiere. “The Jewish population in Canada just dipped to zero,” Rogen joked.

• Rogen on his dad’s “Farrakhan” yarmulke: “I think it was his way of grappling with baldness.”

• When the three funny men realize they all made their Hebrew school teachers cry. Goldberg to Rogen: “Didn’t you do that to Shira’s mom?”

Definitely worth a listen.

Old Israeli Spice

Old Spice guy Isaiah Mustafa has taken his act to Israel … again.

Two months after sporting a suit and tie for a Maccabee beer ad, the actor has gone shirtless again for Old Spice with an ad called “Israeli men.”

The minimalist ad features Mustafa posing in front of a shower donning a towel around the waist, peppering his homage to the Israeli manly man, or “gever gever,” with Hebrew slang.

“They eat manly food like shwarma, matbucha and gefilte fish,” he deadpans to the camera.

Lena Dunham tattoo

A “Girls” fan reportedly is inking herself permanently with Lena Dunham’s handwriting.

While she could have gone the easy way out and chosen Dunham’s already public wedding dress sketch, superfan Tina Wargo had something else in mind, and she tweeted her request straight to the “Girls” creator. Here’s how it went down:

Wargo: I need help! I want “All adventurous women do” tattooed on me. Help me get a Twitpic of it written in @lenadunham’s handwriting!

Dunham: If you are serious I will obviously do that! I will instagram it tomorrow morning when I locate a pen!

Yes, this is certainly an over-the-top expression of Lena Love, but at least it’s on the cooler end of the HBO-inspired body art spectrum. Definitely cooler than the Shoshanna emoticon tattoo.

Jerry Lewis’ Yiddish rap

Usually when you think of keeping the Yiddish language alive, you think theater and literature, not freestyle rap. Especially not freestyle rap performed by a legendary comic like Jerry Lewis.

Yet thanks to TMZ, the world now has grainy smartphone footage of the 87-year-old Lewis on the set of his new movie, “Max Rose,” engaging in a rap battle with Chris La Vrar of “America’s Got Talent” fame.

It’s unclear what La Vrar was doing there or how the rhyming got started—or if Lewis’ rhymes are in fact actually Yiddish. Either way, it’s pretty endearing when Lewis, after getting rapped at by La Vrar, shoots back with, “Very good. Very, very good. … I want to do one now in Jewish.”

For the latest Jewish celebrity news, visit JTA’s 6 Degrees (No Bacon) blog.