6 degrees (no Bacon): Jewish celebrity roundup

Rogen’s Jewish jokes

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)—Longtime pals Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, a comedy team extraordinaire, are at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, for the screening of “Neighbors.” The movie is about new parents (Rogen and Rose Byrne) who move in next door to a frat house headed by Zac Efron.

The Hollywood Reporter chatted with the pair about growing up on screen and off, Alzheimer’s, and the N word. And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Rogen/Goldberg interview if things didn’t get a little Jewy.

A lot of jokes in “Neighbors” really hit close to home. Like the one where Rose goes off on you during a crisis for wanting to call your mother.Rogen: “What is it with you Jews and your mothers?”

Goldberg: That one, you’d think it was all the Jews who laugh at it? But all the non-Jews are like, “Stupid Jews.”

Rogen: It gets a bigger laugh than I’d like. I know there’s not that many Jews in the audience. It’s like oof, but it’s so funny I can’t stop it.

We bet the joke will play just as well in New York and Miami.

Shmuley Boteach to honor Sean Penn

Who needs another Oscar when you’re about to be crowned the 2014 Champion of Jewish Justice?

Not to put words in his mouth or anything, but we’ll bet that was what two-time Academy Award winner Sean Penn was saying to his girlfriend Charlize Theron as soon as they stopped “making out like crazy” at Madonna’s Oscars after-party.

OK, so maybe we’d lose that bet, but for reals, Penn is set to receive the honor at This World: The Values Network’s annual dinner in May. The organization is helmed by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who singled Penn out for his above-and-beyond efforts to help free Jacob Ostreicher, an Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn imprisoned in Bolivia.

“One of the highest Jewish values is to rescue a person from imprisonment,” Boteach told 6NoBacon.

While the former confidante of Michael Jackson admits to disagreeing with the left-leaning Penn on most issues, he was amazed by the actor’s commitment to the Ostreicher case.

“You never judge a man by his views, you judge him by his actions,” Boteach said.

Ostreicher was in Bolivia in 2011 working on a rice-growing venture in which he’d invested when he was arrested on suspicion of money laundering. He also was accused of doing business with drug traffickers. No proof was ever provided in court.

The father of five was held in what has been described as a squalid, inhumane prison for 18 months before being placed under house arrest. According to The New York Times, Penn had a hand in the transfer.

Penn’s involvement in the case made headlines in May when he spoke at a congressional hearing intended to pressure Bolivia to release Ostreicher. In December, Ostreicher finally escaped, thanks to what Penn called a “humanitarian operation” that moved Ostreicher across the border into Peru.

Penn, who reportedly was part of the operation, remained by Ostreicher’s side upon his return to the United States.

“Penn had no obligation to risk his life for Ostreicher,” Boteach said. “I’d like to think he was moved by the simplest of reasons—to save another human being in need.”

No word on whether the rights to this truly remarkable story have been optioned for the big screen, but it sounds like the stuff of a great thriller. Or a buddy comedy about a spunky rabbi and a surly actor who, against all odds, find some common ground. Oscar material, for sure.

Jewish paper confuses American actor, Mexican drug lord

Luis Guzman is not a criminal, but he has played one on TV. Plus he shares a last name with Mexican cartel leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

The similarities were enough to throw off the Lakewood Shopper. The New Jersey Orthodox Jewish newspaper, as reported by Elite Daily, ran a photo of the character actor in a piece about the drug lord’s recent capture. Oops!

Twitter user Malei Rikud brought attention to the publication’s flub.

Good thing Guzman, who has portrayed bad guys in “Carlito’s Way,” the HBO prison show “Oz” and others, has a sense of humor.

No comment yet from Adele Dazeem.

Andrew Garfield ditches Oscars, ruins ‘Batkid’ segment

The latest in handsome Jews behaving badly: Actor Andrew Garfield reportedly let down a 5-year-old cancer survivor.

The “Spider-Man” star was supposed to take the stage at the Academy Awards and introduce Miles “Batkid” Scott as “the world’s next superhero,” according to Mashable. In November, the city of San Francisco, with the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and nearly 12,000 volunteers, morphed into Gotham City, where Miles played Batkid in front of a cheering crowd.

This time Make-A-Wish collaborated with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to get Miles an Oscar. Garfield and Miles rehearsed the segment a day before the Oscars show, but the actor was a no-show at the actual ceremony and the bit ultimately was canceled.

“I don’t know if they ran out of time or if there was something about the segment they didn’t like,” Miles’ mom, Natalie, told the International Business Times. “It got pulled so quickly that we didn’t have a lot of insight into what was going on.”

The family was treated instead to a Disneyland trip.

Lena Dunham to write for Archie Comics

Riverdale, get ready for a hipster invasion!

“Girls” creator Lena Dunham is going to write a four-part story for Archie Comics to be published next year. According to a news release, the story will be about what happens when the eponymous redhead and his gang encounter a reality show filming in their town.

“I was an avid Archie collector as a child—conventions, first editions that l kept in plastic sleeves, the whole shebang,” Dunham said. “It has so much cultural significance, but also so much personal significance, and to get to play with these beloved characters is a wild creative opportunity.”

Will Dunham’s raucous behavior change Riverdale forever? We can’t wait to snuggle up in our bunk beds with a flashlight and find out.

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