By Nate Bloom
Contributing Columnist
Lotta Arquette Stuff, Surprise Series, Mr. Roberts
“Dracula” opens in theaters on February 6. It is an English-language film made in France, and it was written and directed by Luc Besson, a Frenchman.
Here’s much of the plot, but not the ending: In the 1400s, Prince Vladimir of Romania (Caleb Landry Jones) is battling the Muslim Turks. His beloved wife, Elizabeth, is killed during this battle, and Vlad renounces God and becomes Dracula.
For four centuries, Dracula seeks the reincarnation of Elizabeth. This changes when Dracula meets with Harker, a Parisian attorney. It’s a “boring” business meeting, but during this meeting Dracula realizes that Mina, Harker’s wife, is the reincarnation of Elizabeth. Vlad wants Mina and Harker, of course, wants her too.
ZOE BLEU (SIDEL), 31, plays Mina. “Dracula” is her first big film part. She has also been a part-time fashion model and a part-time ballet dancer.
Zoe’s mother is actress ROSANNA ARQUETTE, now 63. Rosanna’s well-known siblings are actors PATRICIA ARQUETTE, 57, and DAVID ARQUETTE, 54. The three siblings had a Jewish mother, but not a Jewish father.
Rosanna has long given “hints” that she identified as Jewish in a religious sense. This was confirmed when I found out she hosted (2021) Rabbi MORDECAI FINLEY, a Los Angeles rabbi, on her podcast. The summary says Finley “has been instrumental in Rosanna’s perspective on life, marriage, and motherhood, and much more.”
Patricia has always avoided any formal religious identity. I don’t think David is ‘very’ religious. However, in 2012, on a visit to Israel to film a TV episode, he celebrated his bar mitzvah at the Western Wall. An Orthodox rabbi presided over the bar mitzvah.
Zoe’s (Jewish) father is JOHN SIDEL, now 59. He was married to Rosanna from 1994–1999. Zoe is Rosanne’s only child. Sidel, an American, is a political scientist and he’s a faculty member of the prestigious London School of Economics.
Very recently, I saw a short summary of the plot of “Cash Queens,” a French comedy thriller series that begins streaming on Netflix on Feb. 5. Here’s that summary: “When life pushes them to the brink, five desperate friends decide the only way out is to form a gang, swipe some guns and start holding up banks”.
The five friends I learned from the title, and a trailer, are females. I don’t know if any of the French actresses who play these women are Jewish. However, I did see that two French actors have names that sound Jewish — JONATHAN COHEN and OLIVIER ROSEMBERG. I quickly find out that Rosemberg and Cohen are about 40, and they often are writers for series that they also act-in. Rosemberg is the creator of “Cash Queens,” as well as acting in the series.
Then something special happened: I find out that they both starred-in, and were writers for “Family Business,” a ‘very Jewish’ series that I missed when it began playing on Netflix in 2019. It was so popular that three seasons of the show were made and streamed (6 episodes a season). All those seasons are still streaming on Netflix.
Here’s Netflix’s plot summary: “After France is about to legalize pot, a down-on-the entrepreneur and his family race to turn their butcher shop into a marijuana café”.
I gathered, from various sources, that the name of the “pot family” is “Hazan,” a very Jewish last name. I also learned the butcher shop sells kosher meat.
I found out there is tons of Jewish stuff in the series. Like using very popular Yiddish words that Jews in English speaking and French speaking countries use — like bubelah. I found out that almost all the actors playing the “Hazan” family are Jewish in real life. Cohen and Rosemberg are “kosher.”
I just came across these two series and I haven’t seen an episode of “Family Business” yet. I will start watching as soon as I finish this column. I hope “Family Business” is a treat — and when “Cash Queens” streams — I hope it is a success for Monsieur Rosemberg, the series creator.
Here is one more “showbiz” Jew who passed away in 2025. Actor TONY ROBERTS died on Feb. 7, 2025, age 85. Roberts worked steadily in theater, TV and movies from 1962 to 2017, and you’ll almost certainly recognize him — but you probably don’t know his name.
He is best known for acting in five WOODY ALLEN movies. He had pretty big roles in all these flicks. Perhaps his most memorable Allen role was in “Annie Hall.” Roberts played Rob, Alvy Singer’s best friend. Woody played Alvy Singer.
