\nStreisand arrived in Israel late last week in preparation for the Peres party and also to perform in two sold-out concerts in Tel Aviv. In the meantime, Babs\u00a0accepted<\/a>\u00a0an honorary degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem before a packed auditorium at the Mount Scopus campus.<\/p>\n
Streisand\u2019s speech included references to her acting career and connection to Judaism, as well as a visit to Israel 30 years ago when she dedicated the Emanual Streisand Building for Jewish Studies in honor of her father.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish the world could be more like the Hebrew University, where women and men, Jews and Arabs, Muslims and Christians all sit together in classrooms and cafeterias,\u201d the new doctor said.<\/p>\n
Stone’s Israeli instinct<\/strong><\/p>\n Movie star Sharon Stone, who also came to celebrate Peres,\u00a0stopped by<\/a>\u00a0at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem to meet with Israeli and Palestinian children.<\/p>\n What mostly attracted the attention of the Internet community was a photo of Stone next to an Israeli guy wearing a T-shirt with a photo of he famous interrogation scene from the film “Basic Instinct.” The photo was uploaded to social networks and became an instant hit.<\/p>\n The future according to Spielberg\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Steven Spielberg<\/strong>\u00a0is\u00a0predicting<\/a>\u00a0price variances at movie theaters, where \u201cyou\u2019re gonna have to pay $25 for the next \u2018Iron Man,\u2019 you\u2019re probably only going to have to pay $7 to see \u2018Lincoln.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Spielberg introduced his theory last week in a speech at the University of Southern California. He links it to an \u201cimplosion\u201d in the film industry brought on by the flopping of a handful of big budget movies.<\/p>\n The Oscar-winning director shared the stage with George Lucas, who says he believes that Hollywood will soon look more like Broadway, putting out fewer films that stay in theaters for longer periods of time. Spielberg recalled that in 1982, \u201cE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial\u201d stayed on the big screen for a year and four months.<\/p>\n Even for a someone like Spielberg, making movies remains an uphill battle these days. “Lincoln,” he says, almost ended up on HBO. He had to co-own his studio, he claims, in order to get the saga into theaters.<\/p>\n Not that Spielberg has anything against television — or video games, for that matter. He is working on the TV version for the Xbox 360 game \u201cHalo.\u201d Sounds interesting, but we\u2019ll stick with his \u201cLincoln\u201d-type material, thank you very much (especially if it costs under $10).<\/p>\n Sting doing Auschwitz<\/strong><\/p>\n Sting\u00a0will play<\/a>\u00a0Poland for the first time at The Life Festival in Oswiecim, the city that was home to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The British rock icon will be performing\u00a0June 29\u00a0with a five-piece band as part of his “Back to Bass” tour.<\/p>\n Festival creator Darek Maciborek, an Oswiecim-born journalist, is seeking to spread messages of peace and tolerance in his hometown. Sting is choosing to make his Poland debut here most likely because of the peaceful philosophy of the event and his involvement with human rights organizations, specifically Amnesty International, participating in the festival.<\/p>\n According to Haaretz, festival organizers had no response when questioned about holding a concert in a space with such a controversial and violent history. The Life Festival, in its third year, has featured performances by James Blunt and Peter Gabriel.<\/p>\n Archie is back<\/strong><\/p>\n Archie Comics lovers, rejoice!<\/p>\n Warner Brothers Pictures\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0last week that it was partnering with “Glee” writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and director Jason Moore to bring Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge and the rest of the Riverdale gang\u00a0 to life on the big screen.<\/p>\n Archie Comics, founded by the Jewish editor and publisher\u00a0John Goldwater<\/strong>, started publishing in 1942. Animated spinoffs have been produced since the 1960s, and NBC aired the TV film “Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again” in 1990.<\/p>\n Now Goldwater’s son, Jon, is CEO, and hopes to convey a modern “high school” narrative film based off Archie Comics while still appealing to a teenage audience to whom comic books have become exceedingly sparse.<\/p>\n “The idea for this is to capture a very truthful, authentic coming-of-age story with these kids that includes heartache, that includes pain, that will obviously temper the fun and the hijinks,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “It’s going to be a fun, hopefully, summer movie, but we’re not shying away from the truth and the awkwardness and the growing pains of being a teenager.”<\/p>\n With comics stacked in my attic, and as one who has seen the ’90s TV movie (twice, not ashamed), I’m greatly looking forward to this film. Nothing describes awkward, young and lovesick better than the Betty, Veronica and Archie love triangle.<\/p>\n For the latest Jewish celebrity news, visit\u00a0JTA’s 6 Degrees (No Bacon) blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThe Red Hot Chili Peppers also were scheduled to perform but reportedly have dropped out.<\/p>\n![\"Share](\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\")