OK, so maybe that\u2019s not the most promising statement we\u2019ve ever heard, but Tony does<\/em> wistfully dangle Ziva\u2019s Star of David pendant in the last scene, so who knows — maybe we will someday get another chance to watch a tough, complicated Jewish woman on TV.<\/p>\n And if that\u2019s the case, we\u2019ll make sure to tune in.<\/p>\n Portman directing in Israel<\/strong><\/p>\n Let the Natalie Portman Holy Land sightings begin.The actress is in Israel working on her adaptation of Amos Oz\u2019s \u201c“A Tale of Love and Darkness,\u201d<\/a> Haaretz reported last week. <\/a>Portman is making her directorial debut while starring in the film, which will begin shooting in Jerusalem in January.<\/p>\n No need to scan the Kotel crowd for her just yet, though. The Israeli-born actress was staying in a Tel Aviv hotel.<\/p>\n American TV stars visit Israel<\/p>\n Israel has received an influx of American talent of late: some for work, others for vacation.A bunch of TV actors were on a weeklong tour of the country with American Voices in Israel, a program that aims to bolster Israel\u2019s image in the United States by bringing over celebs who will then hopefully become friends of Israel.<\/p>\n Trip participants include actress Lea Thompson (\u201cSwitched at Birth\u201d and \u201cBack to the Future\u201d) and her director-producer husband, Howard Deutch, along with their daughters Zoey Deutch, an actress like mom, and Madelyn Deutch, a musician. Zoey is starring in the Harvey Weinstein-directed film \u201cVampire Academy: Blood Sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n Other visitors include C.S. Lee from \u201cDexter,\u201d \u201cSullivan & Son\u201d co-star Vivian Bang and Anson Mount of \u201cHell on Wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve always really wanted to come to Israel but we never got around to it,\u201d said Thompson, whose husband and children are Jewish. \u201cThis is the perfect opportunity, not only to be able to collaborate with other artists, but to have a tour geared toward artists.\u201d<\/p>\n Stops have included Yad Vashem, Tel Aviv and the Golan Heights. For Thompson, though, one of the more enlightening parts of the trip has been time spent at the homes of regular Israelis and away from the tourist attractions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to understand a place this complicated without visiting it and having conversations with people there,\u201d she told 6NoBacon while en route to a Sabbath dinner. \u201cI\u2019ve learned that Israel is in a lot of ways like America in that you\u2019re allowed to have a different opinion. There\u2019s a lot of messiness in a democracy, so it feels familiar in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Portman, Marvel pushing science careers to girls<\/strong><\/p>\n This week in amazing things Natalie Portman is doing, our favorite Israeli-born actress is encouraging high school girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.<\/p>\n Portman, who studied neuroscience at Harvard, appears in a for Marvel\u2019s just-launched \u201cUltimate Mentor Adventure\u201d <\/a>contest in which she discusses her love for science and how her role as astrophysicist Jane Foster in \u201cThor\u201d helped her further explore science.<\/a><\/p>\n The competition is calling for female students in grades 9-12 to interview women with STEM careers and make a video about the experience. Winners will be flown to Hollywood to see the premiere. Bonus: A documentary short about their adventures will be shown prior to the screening.<\/p>\n The contest ends Oct. 20, so any aspiring Jane Fosters should check out the site for details <\/a>ASAP.<\/p>\n <\/a>Sacha Baron Cohen\u2019s arachnid doppelganger<\/strong><\/p>\n A software engineer in the Indian city of Bangalore has discovered a spider he claims looks just like Sacha Baron Cohen\u2019s \u201cBorat\u201d character, the <\/span>Daily Mail\u00a0reports. (Really, this is not from The Onion, we swear).<\/p>\n Anand Joshi\u00a0photographed the eight-legged creature after he noticed it crawling on his front-door step. The Kazakh connection is based on its \u201cmarkings that look like a bushy moustache and green \u2018mankini\u2019-coloured legs,\u201d the paper states.<\/p>\n Now if that doesn\u2019t make your day, we don\u2019t know what will.<\/p>\n Ronan Farrow: Son of Woody or Sinatra? Whatever<\/strong><\/p>\n Mia Farrow has revealed in a recent Vanity Fair\u00a0piece that her son Ronan, long assumed to be the lone biological offspring of Farrow and Woody Allen, might really be the child of\u00a0Frank Sinatra. No DNA tests prove this, but when you juxtapose the <\/span>it seems entirely unlikely.<\/p>\n While one might think it would be traumatic to see such personal and life-altering news splattered all over the media, Ronan appears to be taking it in stride — at least per his Twitter account, where he tweeted, \u201cListen, we\u2019re all *possibly* Frank Sinatra\u2019s son.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Share](\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\")