In Jerusalem, I became the AP’s unofficial regional culture andentertainment reporter in addition to my other duties. Here is a selection of some of the stories and features I have written about movies, TV, music and books in Israel.
JERUSALEM (AP) — After two decades of hosting “The Tonight Show,” Jay Leno says his transition into retirement has been seamless. Without the daily grind of hosting NBC’s popular late-night show, Leno said he feels “liberated” to travel and invest…
JERUSALEM (AP) — In the Holy Land, the state of Palestine does not yet exist. But in Hollywood, it already has an Oscar finalist. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ announcement that “Omar,” one of this year’s candidates…
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — State-of-the-art TV studios above an ancient Mideast port signal Israel’s arrival in a modern media landscape in which countries increasingly seek to broadcast their own perspective to the world. Israel advocates have long alleged that…
JERUSALEM (AP) — In one of the central scenes of the summer blockbuster movie “World War Z,” Israeli troops funnel Palestinian refugees to safety in Jerusalem behind a massive concrete wall. There, the Arabs and Jews embrace, dance and sing…
HERZLIYA, Israel (AP) — She’s Israel’s top diva, the Jewish state’s beloved national singer. So when Rita released an album entirely in the language of her country’s arch-enemy Iran, naturally more than a few eyebrows were raised. “Even my friends,…
JERUSALEM (AP) _ Colombian pop singer Shakira promoted her global education campaign with a stop at a joint Israeli-Arab school in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Kicking off Israel’s third annual Presidential Conference with a plea for children’s education worldwide, Shakira, a…
TEL AVIV, Israel — Students at the Bialik-Rogozin school in a rundown Tel Aviv neighborhood have survived genocide, war and famine. But they were all smiles on Monday after learning that a documentary about their plight had won an Academy…
JERUSALEM (AP) _ When British novelist Ian McEwan accepted a prestigious Israeli literary award this week, he used the occasion to criticize Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. His high-powered audience, which included the nation’s president…
JERUSALEM – The rapper Shyne is singing a new tune: After serving eight years in prison for a nightclub shooting, the former protege of Sean “Diddy” Combs has converted to Orthodox Judaism, come to Jerusalem, and is devoting his days…
TEL AVIV, Israel – Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the world renowned sexpert, is in Israel probing something completely new. She’s researching the country’s tiny Circassian Muslim community for a PBS documentary. The work follows similar films she has made in recent…
JERUSALEM – It seems almost Kafkaesque: Ten safety deposit boxes of never-published writings by Franz Kafka, their exact contents unknown, are trapped in courts and bureaucracy, much like one of the nightmarish visions created by the author himself. The papers,…
TEL AVIV, Israel — Pounding his piano in blue-tinted sunglasses before nearly 50,000 screaming fans, Elton John took center stage in a battle over Israel’s image. The legendary British rocker’s concert on Thursday night followed a string of cancellations by…
JERUSALEM — Bruno’s flamboyant sashay across the Middle East has succeeded in one thing – uniting Sacha Baron Cohen’s unwitting Israeli and Palestinian victims in their joint disdain for his latest comedic creation. Bruno is an over-the-top gay Austrian fashionista…