Actress Mayim Bialik has successfully escaped the ex-child-star curse. The star of Blossom took her TV money and went to UCLA, where she earned a PhD in Neuroscience. Now a wife, mother, and observant Orthodox Jew, Mayim also appears on shows like The Big Bang Theory and Secret Life of the American Teenager. Now, she’s blogging for the Jewish website Kveller.com (via The Frisky). Her most recent post is about sex. She writes: “Sex really can be for fun and... Read more
Israeli-born actress Natalie Portman has been vocal about her Jewish faith, even speaking out against Dior designer John Galliano (who was fired from his post after making anti-Semitic comments) despite being the face of a Dior perfume. Now, she’s showing her commitment to raising newborn son Aleph in the Jewish faith. In a rare public appearance since her son’s birth, Portman was photographed attending services at Ohr HaTorah synagogue in Los Angeles. Aleph, whose name is the first letter of... Read more
Actress Rose McGowan was raised in the controversial Children of God cult, but she hasn’t publicly discussed the experience until recently. In People magazine, Rose talks about her early years in the cult – which was known for “Flirty Fishing,” encouraging women to hook up with men in order to witness to them – in Italy. Ultimately, McGowan’s father, who illustrated tracts for the group, became worried that Rose and her sister would fall prey to sexual abuse, since the... Read more
Congratulations to actors Danny Masterson and Bijou Phillips, who were married on Tuesday in the Irish countryside. People magazine, who got the exclusive on the announcement, didn’t mention anything about the ceremony – but since both actors are devout Scientologists, odds are pretty good that it was a Scientologist ceremony. While there are several options for Scientologist weddings, one of the most popular was the one that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes did when they got married. Here’s a refresher... Read more
Actor Seth Green has legally changed his name to, well, Seth Green. The actor was born Seth Benjamin Gesshel-Green but has been using Seth Green professionally for so long that he decided to make the change official. TMZ already beat me to the “less Jewy name” joke, but it bears repeating. That said, “Natalie Portman” is a lot easier to pronounce than “Natalie Hershlag” and nobody doubts her Tribe bona fides, so as long as Seth doesn’t convert to another... Read more
Jamie DeWolf, great-grandson of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard (that’s LRH to you!) is a poet based in San Francisco. He just directed his first music video for fellow San Franciscan Forrest Day. If you’re looking for Xenu symbolism in this video, don’t bother – DeWolf’s family is out of Scientology, and DeWolf has made many public statements denouncing his great-grandfather and calling the Church “a pyramid scheme.” I guess this means he won’t be hired to direct the next... Read more
Actress Nia Long and her boyfriend, former pro basketball player Ime Udoka, are expecting a child later this year. But the road to pregnancy wasn’t as easy as she’d hoped. Long – who already has an eleven-year-old son named Massai – struggled with infertility and thought she’d never be able to have a baby again. “I honestly asked God for this,” she says in a new interview with Ebony magazine (where she appears naked and pregnant on the cover). Although... Read more
Sara Leal, the woman who had sex with Ashton Kutcher on the night of his sixth wedding anniversary with Demi Moore, isn’t missing a moment of her newfound spotlight. She sold her story to Us Weekly, and some of the details are particularly intriguing: The post-coital talk was a little unexpected, she confesses; the duo talked astrology (they’re both Aquarius), religion, love, even politics. “I told him I was a Lutheran from Texas. He said, ‘Oh my gosh! Are you... Read more
Brandon Flowers is the lead singer of the Killers. He’s also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He recently made a video, “A Fire Still Burning,” about his faith and how it influences his life and his career. Flowers knows it’s expected for rock stars to be wild, drink a lot, and sleep around, and he also knows he’s in the minority of frontmen who have a wife and kids at home. But, he says,... Read more
Turns out that you don’t have to be Jewish to be on the receiving end of antisemitism. Burlesque performer and style icon Dita Von Teese has won a lawsuit against her former landlord, who refused to return Von Teese’s $5,000 security deposit after he went on a “Mel Gibson-style” antisemitic rant against her managers. Landlord Lallubhai Patel claimed in a countersuit that Von Teese had damaged the property, but after he was a no-show for several court appearances the star... Read more
Faith Goes Pop
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