Why Hollywood's Jewish guys fall in love with shiksas

From Diane Keaton to Mariel Hemingway to Scarlett Johansson, Woody Allen's favorite women have been WASPy blonds. [UPDATE: As many readers have noted, Johansson is actually Jewish, so perhaps I should call her a WASPy blonde Jewess.] At any rate, Allen is not alone. As Liel Leibovitz writes in a fascinating new essay in Tablet magazine, "Since the dawn of American entertainment, Jewish women were largely rendered invisible, absent everywhere from burlesque to Hollywood to prime-time television. Instead, they watched as their sons and brothers and husbands became successful producers, directors and impresarios, powerful men who then chose to populate their works with a parade of sexy, sultry shiksas who looked nothing like their female kin."

It's a big, bold accusation, but Leibovitz does a pretty persuasive job of proving it, digging all the way back to the earliest days of burlesque, when if you worked for the striptease kingpins the Minsky Brothers, you had to be a blond or a redhead, never a brunet. The early Hollywood moguls, eager to shed their shtetl roots, quickly dumped their first wives for Gentile trophy dames and largely banished both Jewish men and women from their all-American hymns to assimilation, forcing Jewish actors like John Garfield (Julie Garfinkle) and Danny Kaye (David Kaminsky) to change their names to far less ethnic-sounding monikers.

But Leibovitz argues that even today, long after Jewish TV execs allowed male characters to be named Seinfeld, Steinberg and Fisher, they still required the guys to lust after decidedly non-Jewish women. She points to a slew of shows, including "Mad About You," "Chicken Soup," "Flying Blonde" and "Anything But Love," that all feature neurotic Jewish (filmmaker/pajama salesman/biz exec/writer) men pining after gorgeous and free-spirited shiksas. Each show was designed around the idea of transformation, or more specifically, the power of a non-Jewish woman to extricate her Jewish lover from his suffocating, crass and unhealthy environment.

When it comes to being an onscreen presence in a Jewish guy's life, blonds clearly have more fun, whether it's Cheryl Hines playing opposite Larry David in "Curb Your Enthusiasm" or Drew Barrymore being Adam Sandler's love interest in "The Wedding Singer" and "50 First Dates." (Maybe I'm forgetting someone, but by my count, it wasn't until 2008's "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," where Sandler played an Israeli hairdresser, that he cast an actual Jewish actress -- Emmanuelle Chriqui -- as his romantic partner.)

Leibovitz could expand her critique, since when it comes to being invisible, African American women have it even worse than Jewish women, rarely if ever getting a meaty part playing opposite black mega-stars like Denzel Washington, Sam Jackson and Will Smith. But her point is well taken. In an era where Jewish women have cracked the glass ceiling time and again as producers and studio executives (from Sherry Lansing and Laura Ziskin to Gail Berman and Amy Pascal), it's slim pickings when it comes to parts for actresses looking to shine in the spotlight. In Hollywood, if you're a Jewish woman, your best career possibilities are still behind the camera, feeding all the good lines to the shiksa goddesses.

Speaking of shiksa goddesses, here's one with a spider in her bathroom:

  

Comments

[Mike]

It is outrageous that the slur "s---sa" is used by the writer in a mainstream newspaper article of this sort. The origins of this term are very clear, and it is a vicious and hatefully disparaging term used to refer to non-Jewish women.

Many of you posters even use it in your own comments. You should be ashamed! How would you react to seeing a white reporter referring to African-American women with one of the disparaging slurs from years gone by? The term "s---sa" should stimulate the same reaction, for the same reasons.

Jennifer L, never use this hateful term to describe yourself. It is a derogatory label used by Jewish people to differentiate themselves from other human beings that they consider different or inferior. It is a divisive term, and has no place in our language in 2009.

[Jennifer L.]

Mike,

You're absolutely right. Working in this business, I've just gotten so used so being seen as "other" .

Jennifer

[michael don gross]

maybe this writer never saw what a Jewish woman looked like after 30?

[Razman]

Since the entertainment industry is effectively controlled by Jewish people and has been going back to the Warner Brothers, it is bad enough that we have to see so many Jews on TV. Look at Steve Guttenburg, Howie Mandel, and SJ Parker (oh yeah, she looks real WASPY (LOL)).

Look I have nothing against Jews having representation in America, but they are over-represented in all areas- Hollywood, Wall St., Politics, etc.).

As for Jewish women being less-represented, why shouldn't they be. Many men find them uglier than other groups (WASPs, Scandinavians, Latins, Indians, etc.). Anyone who denies this is living a lie.

I am Indian and -not very well represented in Hollywood but give us time- and have lived and gone to school around Jewish women. I have found them (generally) very aggressive, pushy, and unattractive with poor features (big noses, bad eyes, shorter than average, kinky-haired, too fat or 'Zaftig', etc.). And why would people want to see women who look like Golda Meir over those who look like Grace Kelly?

I know, not every Jew looks like that, but enough do. Same goes with other ethnic groups (e.g. Armenians, Greeks, etc.) with similar features- they will always be left behind for the sexy blonde shiksa or exotic Latin/East Indian. Accept reality- Jews are an ugly race!

[Mark]

Why are Jews allowed to throw the term "shiksa" around so casually? It's a racist pejorative. I would list equivalents but that would be an excuse to not approve my comment. Use your imagination though.

[Mark]

Also, when it comes to under-representation in Hollywood, I hardly think any Jews have a right to complain!

Why is every executive producer of every show, generally speaking, Jewish? Are gentiles simply not as talented at entertainment? From Hitchcock to Danny Boyle, plus a million others, we all know that is a ridiculous proposition. One is left, unfortunately, with the conclusion that there is a silent, yet lethal, pro-Jewish discrimination at work in Hollywood.

Of course that is going to anger people.