Sheitels and Sex, Hollywood's Take

There's a new movie in production.  It's John Turturro's comedy, Fading Gigolo, about a cash-strapped guy who decides to become a gigolo in the Hasidic Jewish community.

It get's interesting as Woody Allen is involved:

...But nobody has ever asked me to be in their film! Over the years. When I say nobody, two or three times I've been asked, and I've always said yes. But it's been two or three times in, I don't know, thirty years. Or more than that. So when John Turturro asked me if I would be in Fading Gigolo, I said sure. Because nobody ever asks me, so I was happy to do it.

Are you going to be the fading gigolo?

WA: No, he is!

Will any of these ladies be in sheitels?

...Sofia Vergara is in talks to take on a supporting role, and Sharon Stone is also set to co-star.
Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte ("The Kids Are All Right") and French shingle MK2 are producing the pic, which finds Turturro and Allen playing cash-strapped best friends who decide to go into the gigolo business together and subsequently attract the suspicion of the Hasidic Jewish community in which they live. Duo take on the pseudonyms Virgil and Bongo, with Allen pimping out Turturro's character until he falls for a Jewish widow, who has not yet been cast. Stone will play Allen's dermatologist who hires Turturro to sleep with her, while Vergara is expected to play another wealthy client who's bored with her marriage and wants to have a threesome with Turturro and Stone.

 and

Because this project isn't crazy enough, "Modern Family" star Sofia Vergara is also circling the film as a housewife on the prowl for more exciting bedfellows and Sharon Stone is already set to co-star as Allen's dermatologist, who hires Turturro's services. Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte ("The Kids Are All Right") is producing the film with MK2.

 Is his next movie to be about the Yeshiva-bochur who tries out for the job of lifeguard at the local mikveh?


P.S.  NYTimes on Hassidic cress in hot weather.

...When the mercury passes 90, most New Yorkers start to wilt. Many resort to shorts and tank tops, even in the office. More than a few bankers and lawyers reach for their seersuckers.

A shtreimel, a fur hat, has been given holes for ventilation. /Joel Czin displayed lightweight frock coats at G&B Clothing in Borough Park./ A prayer shawl, lighter because it is made of fine thread./ A sleeveless tzitzit for daily wear, offered by Malchut Judaica, is made of cotton and eliminates the need for a separate T-shirt. 

Yet amid all the casual summer wear, in some neighborhoods more than others, Hasidic men wear dark three-piece suits crowned by black hats made of rabbit fur, and Hasidic women outfit themselves in long-sleeved blouses and nearly ankle-length skirts. To visibly cooler New Yorkers, they can look painfully overdressed. 

Some New Yorkers who are not Hasidic surely ask themselves: How on earth do they stay cool?

The answer is a mix of the spiritual and, yes, the creatively physical. The Hasidim will tell you they have learned to live comfortably in all seasons with their daily attire. 

“I think I’m not as hot as other people because the sun is not on me,” said Chany Friedman, who was shopping recently in Borough Park, Brooklyn, with two of her five children in tow, wearing a sweater and dense stockings in addition to other concealing clothing. “If I’m covered, the sun is not on me. I’m happy that I’m not exposed to the world.” 

Using a Hebrew name for God, she added, “That’s what Ha-Shem wants from us.”...

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Who Is In The Mikvah With You?

JTA reports it could be not what you expected.

The book.

Luke Ford.

And yes, I know mikveh dipping is a single-person activity, but there is the outer rooms, too.

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Arutz 7 Tweaks

Arutz 7, aka Israel National News, is a religious-oriented news network with web site, TV video clips, op-eds, the works. It is directed by Rabbanit Shulamit Melamed.

Reading a recent story, I found this bit:

"I think they would find it interesting because they can understand in a tangible way how every aspect of a Jewish life can be holy," Bloom said, even down to the barest details.

Barest?

Well, you wouldn't get the joke unless you knew what the story was about, right?

Well, then, here:

Online Mikvah Calendar Eases Jewish Family Purity Observance

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) A new Online Mikvah Calendar created especially for the internet-savvy Jewish woman-of-today is making it easier to observe the complex Jewish laws of family purity.

The website, which was rolled out this week, is the brainchild of Rebbetzin Rivkah Bloom...Bloom came up with the idea for the new website in response to requests for help from women learning about mikvah observance – the laws of purity, which include immersion in a ritual pool.

"They asked me to develop a program to calculate their important dates," said Bloom. It took her four years to develop the Mikvah Calendar program, together with a colleague from MIT who "would like to remain anonymous." She told Israel National News in an exclusive email interview that she personally would "continually add new features to the site."

...Although the observance of mikvah is primarily relevant to married women, Bloom said that she believes single women, men and even people of other faiths would also enjoy the new website.