Celebrity Jews

Poor boy from the Bronx

Jerry Moss will be in Baltimore this weekend to watch his Kentucky Derby winning horse, Giacomo, run in the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of racing's Triple Crown. Giacomo was a 50-1 longshot going into the Derby.

Moss, 70, grew up a poor boy in the Bronx. In the early '60s, he moved to Los Angeles and teamed up with trumpet player Herb Alpert to form A&M Records. The duo became very wealthy on the strength of Alpert's "Tijuana Brass" hits and the many other top acts they recorded before they sold the label in 1990. Moss' many favored charities include Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation.




Star Wars mania

Poor Natalie Portman is running ragged this month. "Revenge of the Sith," the Star Wars movie co-starring Portman, opened May 15 at the Cannes Film Festival and May 19 in the United States. As this column went to press, Portman was scheduled to break from shooting the dark thriller "V for Vendetta" to attend the Cannes premiere, but she probably won't have time to stay at the festival for the opening of "Free Zone," the Amos Gitai-directed Israeli film in which she also co-stars.

In other Jewish Star Wars news, Hasbro Toys has a winner with its new Darth Vader Mr. Potato Head, complete with light saber sword. No, Darth Vader isn't Jewish, but Hasbro was founded and is still owned by the Jewish Hassenfeld family, who have been generous to Jewish charities.




Voice of Smuckers

Even if you didn't know his name, you knew his voice. Mason Adams, a veteran character actor who died last month at age 86, had a 30-year gig doing Smucker's ads. It was Adams' gravelly voice saying that famous trademark line: "With a name like Smucker's, it has to be good." Adams is also remembered for his co-starring role as Charlie Hume, a newspaper managing editor on "Lou Grant," the hit TV show.

Obituaries reported that the actor was born Mason Abrams in Brooklyn and he was survived by Margot Feinberg, his wife of 37 years. Well, I figured that it was pretty likely that he was Jewish, and a phone call to a person who knew Adams confirmed my educated guess.

Mason Adams was praised by many, including Allan Burns, the co-creator of "Lou Grant," who said of him: "What he brought to every part and especially to Charlie Hume was what he was himself, which was smart as hell. He had tremendous integrity and he was such a wonderful, wonderful actor."




Briefly quoted

Former Paramount head Sherry Lansing told the N.Y. Post that she and her husband, director William Friedkin, were going to Israel for five weeks. Said Lansing: "I'm excited. I hear there's a Banana Republic and Gap in Tel Aviv."

Rocker Jakob Dylan decided to break his silence about his father and told the N.Y. Times that Bob Dylan was a supportive and loving father and they are very close, but his childhood had unique problems. One was crazed fans, with Jakob asking rhetorically, "Do most kids have people who crash their bar mitzvah?"

Opening Friday, May 27, is "Madagascar," an animated flick featuring the voices of David Schwimmer (as a hypochondriac giraffe named Melman who is afraid of heights) and Ben Stiller (as Alex the lion). The pair play two of four pampered New York zoo animals who break out of the zoo and end up shipwrecked on the island of Madasgacar. Sascha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G) has a supporting role as the voice of King Julien, head of the island's lemurs.




Columnist Nate Bloom, an Oaklander, can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).