6 Degrees (no Bacon): Jewish celebrity roundup

Paula Abdul's Kotel bat mitzvah

HOLLYWOOD, Fla.-Better late than never, as they say. At 51 years young, former "American Idol" and "X Factor" judge Paula Abdul will celebrate her bat mitzvah at the Western Wall, The Times of Israel reports.

Abdul, who was raised Jewish and has been linked recently to Chabad, arrived in Israel last Monday. In addition to marking the milestone in Jerusalem, she will also visit Tel Aviv and the Galilee. She met last week with President Shimon Peres.

That all sounds fascinating, but here's what we really want to know: What will Abdul wear to the ceremony, and is Ryan Seacrest doing the video?

There will be an 'Entourage' movie!

The movie version of the HBO comedy "Entourage" has been in the works forever, but lots of drama has delayed it from getting off the ground. The latest holdup was due to more heated negotiations, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

It turned out Jeremy Piven, who plays Gold, is getting paid a lot more than the rest of the guys, and they weren't happy about it.

But those of you following the "Entourage" saga can finally breathe easy. The movie is on!

"It's a go. Love you all," Doug Ellin, the show's creator and screenwriter, wrote on Twitter Monday evening in a tweet that included a group photo of the cast.

Are Adrian Grenier and the rest of the boys finally getting paid as much as Piven, who plays the sharky Jewish studio head Ari Gold?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, production should begin in January. Let's hope they stick to that schedule-and that it turns out better than Piven's bar mitzvah comedy "Keeping Up with the Steins."

Ivanka Trump's brit photo

And now the moment we've all been waiting for since Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner welcomed their second child into the world: a shot from lil Joseph Frederick's brit.

Thanks to the proud mom and the miracle of social media, we didn't have to wait long. And thanks perhaps to superhuman genes, Ivanka looks nothing like someone who delivered a baby eight days earlier.

More power to her, and mazel tov, of course.

Showtime renews 'Homeland'

Fans of the Showtime series "Homeland" can look forward to a fourth season of the Emmy-winning CIA thriller.

While "Homeland" is the network's top-ranked series, there has been grumbling about this season not measuring up. Which makes us wonder, will there be enough juice for a whole new batch of episodes?

After all, "Hatufim" (aka "Prisoners of War"), the Israeli show on which "Homeland" is based, only lasted two seasons.

Hopefully they'll turn things around and avoid disappointing the 6.5 million viewers who have tuned in for the first three episodes of season 3. No pressure or anything.

Brooks talks to Conan about Jewish roots

On the latest installment of "Serious Jibber-Jabber," host Conan O'Brien welcomed Mel Brooks, whom he calls "one of the funniest men on earth."

The web series, in which O'Brien "talks for a long time with interesting people," is old school in that it is longer than 10 minutes, making it the perfect format for an old-school entertainer like Brooks, whose career spans a number of decades and includes cultural treasures such as TV's "Get Smart," the film "Blazing Saddles," the film and Broadway hit "The Producers," and so much more.

For more than an hour, Brooks and O'Brien discussed everything from Richard Pryor to "Spaceballs" to growing up in Williamsburg, a Brooklyn neighborhood so Jewish, Brooks joked, "you take a wrong step and you step on a Jew."

Growing up in such an insulated community, Brooks was convinced comedy was a specifically Jewish medium and that only Jews could be funny. He also describes his heartbreak upon learning that so many renowned authors did not share his heritage.

"Between Beckett and Yates and James Joyce, these were old Irish writers," he said. "The best f****** writers in the world, not one was a Jew. I had a nervous breakdown. I cried for about a month. I was only restored by when they told me Modigliani was a Jew."

Lena Dunham a Vogue cover girl?

Vogue editor Anna Wintour wants to appeal to a younger, hipper audience, and reportedly she's hoping Lena Dunham can help.

The fashion queen set up a "top secret, private dinner" to woo Dunham, according to Radaronline.com. There's also a chance Wintour wants the "Girls" creator on the magazine's cover.

"Anna is trying to seduce Lena into bringing her next-generation audience into the Vogue brand," a source said. "And she's willing to violate a lot of Vogue traditions to do it, including putting her on the cover even though she doesn't really conform to the body type that Vogue has featured for most of its history."

But Dunham wouldn't be the only non-teeny-tiny woman to have graced Vogue's cover. The British singer Adele was featured on the cover of the March 2012 issue.

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