Who knew?

KATHRYN HAHN’S NEXT JEWISH ROLE: JOAN RIVERS

Gabe Friedman (JTA)—Showtime is producing a limited series on the late Jewish comedy legend Joan Rivers, and its lead actress should not come as a surprise.

Kathryn Hahn, Kathryn Hahn. the non-Jewish star known for playing a rabbi on the very Jewish series Transparent among other Jewish roles, will portray Rivers, who died in 2014 after complications from a surgery.

The series The Comeback Girl will focus on the years in the 1980s after Rivers dealt with a string of professional defeats and contemplated suicide. Rivers often referenced her Jewishness in her stand-up comedy and left donations to several Jewish institutions in her will.

Hahn, who grew up Catholic, but is married to Jewish actor Ethan Sandler, will also soon appear in The Shrink Next Door on Apple TV+, an adaptation of a 2019 reported podcast about a Jewish psychiatrist on the Upper West Side of Manhattan who takes control of the life of one of his Jewish patients.

In 2016, Hahn talked to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about her research for the role of Rabbi Raquel on Transparent.

“Playing a rabbi on this show has changed me in so many ways I can’t articulate. It’s perfect timing for me in my life as a mom with two kids and wandering spirituality,” she said at the time.

DAVID LEE ROTH, VAN HALEN’S PROUDLY JEWISH FORMER FRONTMAN, IS RETIRING FROM MUSIC

Gabe Friedman (JTA)—David Lee Roth is done running with the devil.

The Jewish rock star, best known for fronting Van Halen during the influential band’s heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, says that he is retiring from music.

“I am throwing in the shoes. I’m retiring,” he tells the Las Vegas ReviewJournal. “This is the first, and only, official announcement.”

Roth, 66, grew up with Jewish parents and reportedly first learned to sing while preparing for his bar mitzvah. He grew up in Indiana and later southern California, where he performed with other bands before joining Van Halen in 1974. As a part of the world famous group, also anchored by its late virtuosic guitar player Eddie Van Halen, Roth became one of rock music’s most famous showmen. He first left the band in 1985—he would leave and rejoin it multiple other times— and embarked on a less touted solo career, releasing seven albums on his own.

In his autobiography, Crazy From the Heat, and in a rollicking interview with The Washington Post during a stretch of his solo run in 2003, Roth expounded on his Jewish identity. He claimed, in the words of Post writer David Segal, that “much of his style and energy came from fury over anti-Semitism and an urge to crush Jewish stereotypes.”

“There’s not a lot of Jewish action figures,” Roth told Segal. “Heroes for little Jewish kids are very few and far between….”

“Jewish kids take a paperback to the beach instead of a football,” he added later, “half-approvingly” according to Segal.

Roth was a member of Van Halen again during the time of its guitarist’s death last year, after which the group disbanded.

He will play a farewell series of shows in Las Vegas in January.

David Lee Roth.

ADAM SANDLER IS GEN Z’S FAVORITE CELEBRITY

Gabe Friedman (JTA) — Who says Adam Sandler’s heyday is behind him?

A survey of 10,000 teens, conducted Aug. 17 to Sept. 16, found that the Jewish actor and comedian is their favorite celebrity.

“Adam Sandler moved up from no. 4 in the Spring to the top celebrity taking the spot from Kevin Hart,” according to Piper Sandler, an investment bank and securities firm with no relation to the actor, which asked the question as part of its twice-yearly survey of teen attitudes.

After repeated movie flops in the 2010s, the 55-year-old star of early career hits like Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, is having a pop culture resurgence. His acclaimed performance in the 2019 drama Uncut Gems as a frenetic Jewish jeweler sparked a “hot dad” fashion conversation. Young fans on Instagram can’t get enough of his love for pickup basketball (and the retro baggy shorts he wears while playing). His crashing of a Jewish wedding in 2018 delighted the couple and made headlines.

What’s next for the Sandman? Two more dramas, neither of which have release dates: Spaceman, in which he will star as an astronaut on a solo mission, and Hustle, about a basketball scout who tries to resurrect his career by bringing a player over from Europe into the NBA. Adam Sandler.

NETFLIX RENEWS MY UNORTHODOX LIFE FOR SECOND SEASON

Gabe Friedman (JTA)—Netflix is bringing back My Unorthodox Life, the reality series about a formerly Orthodox fashion mogul and her family, the streaming giant announced last month.

No details about the content of season two or any approximate release date were disclosed.

The series follows Julia Haart, who left the Orthodox community she grew up in in Monsey, New York, to become CEO of the Elite World Group fashion model agency. Over the course of nine episodes, she and her four children wrestle with how to adapt their varying levels of Jewish practice in secular New York City society.

The show sparked a wide array of debates in different Jewish communities and drew some criticism for its portrayal of Orthodox communities as harshly restrictive.

“Before you judge the show, maybe you might want to watch the show?” Haart told the JTA after the series debuted in July. “Because they had the word ‘unorthodox’ in it, people have made a thousand assumptions without actually taking the time to listen to what I actually have to say.” Julia Haart.

ALANA HAIM MAKES ACTING DEBUT IN STARSTUDDED PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON FILM

Gabe Friedman (JTA)—The Haim family is getting into the movie business. Or at least one of them, that is.

Alana Haim, guitarist of the famed band made up of three Jewish sisters, is set to star in director Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, Licorice Pizza. Its trailer was released last month.

The coming-of-age film stars the youngest Haim sister as a teenage actor in Los Angeles’ San Fernando valley—the exact location where the Haim family grew up.

Its impressive cast includes the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son Cooper, along with Jewish director Benny Safdie (part of the brother duo behind Uncut Gems), Sean Penn, musician Tom Waits and Bradley Cooper—who plays Barbra Streisand’s former boyfriend Jon Peters. In a memorable moment in the trailer, Cooper’s character corrects a mispronunciation of Babs’ last name.

Anderson is one of Hollywood’s most respected directors, known for films such as There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights, also set in the San Fernando Valley. He is married to Jewish comedy star Maya Rudolph, who also has a role in Licorice Pizza.

Anderson worked with Haim on multiple music videos tied to their acclaimed last album, Women In Music Pt. III—which they promoted with a series of concerts at Jewish delis.

Alana Haim.