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New flicks

Lots of movies opening Dec. 9 … “The Sitter” stars Jonah Hill, 27, as a college student who is suspended from school, goes home and is coaxed into babysitting for the two kids next door. He leaves his post to hook up with his girlfriend (Ari Graynor, 28) and a wild night ensues, including being chased by drug dealers. Erin Daniels (Dana Fairbanks on “The L Word”), 38, plays the kids’ mother.

“New Year’s Eve,” directed by Garry Marshall, is very much like his 2010 hit “Valentine’s Day,” which was killed by critics but did great at the box office. Like “Valentine’s,” it features interspersed stories of couples and singles seeking romance on a holiday. The huge cast includes Sarah Jessica Parker, 46, Lea Michele, 25, and Sara Paxton, 23. From the trailer, it looks like Michele (“Glee”) belts out a song to the Times Square crowd.

 

So cute

The annual People magazine “sexiest man alive” issue hit newsstands around Thanksgiving. Actor Bradley Cooper won the title role this year, and the magazine has a big article about him with photos. About a dozen other guys are honored with individual bio sketches and pics. Included in this group are Anton Yelchin, 24, and Josh Charles, 40. The magazine’s judgment about “sexiness” is quite influenced by acting success: Yelchin is in a hit indie movie (“Like Crazy”) and Charles co-stars in a hit TV show (“The Good Wife”).

The category “sexy at any age” only gets the cute guy a headshot. In this group are rocker Adam Levine, 32, and actors Jake Gyllenhaal, 30, and James Franco, 33.

 

Celebrities on Chanukah

I recently received a copy of a book called “Hanukkah Stories: Thoughts on Family, Celebration & Joy.” Written by Nancy Rips, it can be obtained via the publisher (http://www.fellpub.com). It includes a number of quotes from famous people about Chanukah. Here are a few:

Magician David Copperfield, 55: “We’re taught in the Jewish tradition the same story over and over, whether it’s the Holocaust or the Maccabees, we have to rise above persecution and do our best, just as the magic is about making people dream, we learned to take things that aren’t supposed to be and turn them into something beautiful.”

Astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman, 67, who flew on five space shuttle missions, including the successful mission to repair the Hubble telescope: “When I realized the Hubble mission would occur during Hanukkah, I decided to carry along a few appropriate Jewish objects. An Israeli artisan presented me with a miniature menorah and some dreidels. … When I had free time toward the end of the mission I decided to try spinning a dreidel. Because of gravity in space, it never stopped spinning. The top floated magically in the cabin, suspended in mid-air. I was struck by the juxtaposition of the Jewish tradition, one of humanity’s oldest, with space flight, one of humanity’s newest. Our religion proved to be extremely portable as well as long lasting.”

Poet Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), most famous for her poem on the Statue of Liberty, also penned “Feast of Lights.” Here are the first few lines, which also appear in the book: “Kindle the taper like the steadfast star/ Ablaze on evening’s forehead o’er the earth/ And add each night a luster till afar/ An eightfold splendor shine above thy hearth.”

Published in 1882, the rest of this poem becomes a call for a Jewish national revival, well before the term “Zionism” was coined. Just type the title and the author’s name into Google, and you will easily find the full text on the Internet.

 

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

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