By Nate Bloom
Contributing Columnist
The Disney Channel will premiere a new documentary entitled “The Beach Boys.” Of course, it is about the very successful rock group which was most popular in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
There were a couple of Jews in the Beach Boys orbit. The original band line-up included Brian Wilson (principal songwriter); Brian’s brothers (Carl and Dennis); Mike Love (a cousin of the Wilson brothers), and Al Jardine (a neighbor of the Wilsons) — and, sometimes, DAVID MARKS, now 75. He was also a childhood neighbor of the Wilsons.
Marks, a very good guitarist, played on the Beach Boys’ first four albums (1961-63). He left the band in 1963 after arguing with band manager, Murry Wilson, the almost psychotic and violent father of the Wilson brothers.
He rejoined the band several times, usually to play on tours (2005, 2008, 2011, and 2013). Marks’ father was Jewish and his mother wasn’t Jewish. A reliable source tells me he talked to Marks and Marks said he identified as Jewish.
MARILYN KOVELL, now 81, married Brian Wilson in 1964 and they divorced in 1979. She is a talented (Jewish) singer and the mother of Brian’s daughters, CARNIE, now 56, and WENDY, now 54. Carnie and Wendy formed two-thirds of the singing group Wilson-Phillips, which had hits from 1989 until their first breakup in 1992 (the band is now active again).
My same source tells me that Kovell didn’t raise her daughters in any faith and, as adults, they don’t seem to have any Jewish ties.
On May 24, Netflix will premiere “Atlas,” a sci-fi thriller film. Jennifer Lopez stars as Atlas Shepherd, a brilliant data analyst with a distrust of artificial intelligence. She and a renegade robot join forces to save humanity from AI gone amuck.
The film was written by ARON ELI COLEITE, 50. He’s a veteran sci-fi writer (TV series “Daybreak” and “Heroes”). A 2020 Jewish Journal profile noted that he had a strong formal Jewish education, he met his wife through a Jewish group, and he tries to incorporate Jewish humanistic values into his scripts.
On May 30, Netflix will premiere “Eric,” a six-episode series. Premise: Vincent (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a puppeteer in 1980s New York whose nine-year-old son, Edgar, has gone missing. Vincent is the host of a children’s TV program (with puppets) called “Good Day Sunshine.” His son’s disappearance makes Vincent increasingly volatile and his behavior alienates him from his friends and family.
After issues with substance abuse, Vincent becomes convinced that he can reunite with Edgar with the help of his seven-foot-tall puppet, Eric.
DAN FOLGER, 47, a familiar and busy character actor, (“The Goldbergs” and “Walking Dead”), portrays Lennie Wilson, Vincent’s best friend. Lennie is also Vincent’s work colleague, and a brilliant puppeteer and maker in his own right. Lennie has a special bond with Edgar, who frequently visited the set of “Good Day Sunshine” before his disappearance.
“Kidnapping: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara” opens in theaters on May 24. This Italian film got generally good reviews when it opened last year at the Cannes Film Festival and in European theaters. You’ll have to check when it might open in a theater near you. It’s emotionally a hard film to watch and I suspect that means many theaters just won’t screen it.
In 1857, the Pope still had secular control of a fairly large part of Italy, including the city of Bologna, where the Jewish MORTARA family lived. In 1857, a Catholic housekeeper told a priest that she had worked for the Mortara family and she secretly baptized EDGARDO when he became ill as a baby. She thought he would die.
This priest ran with this news — Papal law then held that no baptized child could be raised by Jews (unless the parents converted to Catholicism).
Edgardo was six years old when he taken by the Papal police in June, 1858. Of course, his parents wanted him back. But that return never happens, despite international protests.
Much more information on the Mortara kidnapping can be easily be found online. The new film, critics agree, depicts the real “Mortara” case events in historically accurate scenes.
For years, STEVEN SPIELBERG said he would make a film about the Mortara case. But, about four years ago, he said he would not make that film. He cited casting problems. But the Italian director of “Kidnapping” says he believes that Spielberg, a worldwide “Jewish icon,” came to realize that if he made a Mortara film, it would hurt the current, “pretty good” Catholic-Jewish relationship.