Kathryn Hahn to Play Comedy Icon Joan Rivers in ‘The Comeback Girl,’ a Limited Series in the Works at Showtime....

Jason Zinoman's tweet...

Is it a shonda for the goyim?

Sarah Silverman has thoughts, starting around the 30 minute mark.

I love Kathryn Hahn; jewish or not, she'll be awesome

Can non-Jewish women play Jewish women if their name sounds Jewish?

I love Kathryn Hahn. Like a lot of people, I just assumed she was Jewish.

ugh who gives a fuck

jews are so fuckin entitled

That's excellent casting. Wouldn't have thought of it myself.

She will be awesome in this.

Love Hahn but how the hell is she Joan Rivers?! She's way too tall, she looks nothing like her, she definitely has that 'hard' Jewish look to her that Joan didn't have, or have as much.

I'm not seeing this at all, can't picture it.

Do they want us to get into Jews’ history of doing blackface? That was exactly the reason John Landis had Eddie Murphy play a white Jewish man.

[quote]....but a NYT columnist is saying it's anti-Semitic to keep casting non-Jewish women in Jewish roles.

Oh, please. There have been tons of times where Jews were cast in "Christian" roles. I still can't believe Alan Arkin was cast as Greg Kinnear's dad.

Okay, I'm not one of those "Jews run the world" conspiracy people but I don't really think Jewish actors are underrepresented in Hollywood. And I'm surprised to learn from this that Kathryn Hahn isn't Jewish. She definitely "passed" with her looks and the German last name.

[quote] Hard to ignore that Jewish women are not getting cast for these roles.

Yes, Jews have it so hard making it in Hollywood. lmfao.

And while we're at, blacks are underrepresented in the NBA!

It’s like everyone now wants to have the same victimization POC have in Hollywood. Gays are doing this too - “How dare a non-gay person do a gay role!” Let’s not even get into trans.

[quote]....but a NYT columnist is saying it's anti-Semitic to keep casting non-Jewish women in Jewish roles

Yeah, I'll think about this as I wonder if this biopic will include the vile things that old, racist bitch said about Palestinians. Ya know, because as a Jew with no real connection to Israel, she thinks beyond horseshit fairy tales, people who've lived there for generations should have fewer rights than her Ashkenazi ass.

Everybody knows Italian actors make the best Jews.

They also make the best Native Americans.

Jews are the most under-represented minority in show business. It's time to reveal that dark secret. What ever happened to diversity?

From Rachel Brosnahan's Wikipedia:

[quote]Brosnahan was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the daughter of Carol and Earl Brosnahan, who worked in children's publishing. Her mother is British. Her father is American and of Irish descent. From the age of four, Brosnahan was raised in Highland Park, Illinois.

[quote]Though she is well-known for playing a Jewish character on television, Brosnahan herself is not of Jewish descent. However, she says she was "happily immersed" in the Jewish culture because of Highland Park's Jewish community; she attended many Passover seders, bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies, and Hanukkah observances in Chicago's North Shore.

This happens. When I went away to college, lots of people assumed I was Jewish, because I came from a town in NJ where there were lots of Jewish people. The closest house of worship to my house was a synagogue, Temple Sholom. I would walk past a Hebrew school to get to my Catholic school. My Catholic HS was across the street from a Jewish country club. My best friend would joke that I was "to the shtetl born."

Speaking of which, I knew lots of Yiddish words without knowing all of them were Yiddish.

I knew Brosnahan was an Irish name (I'm Irish, too), but I can believe in Rachel as someone Jewish. She loses herself in the role. I had no idea Kathryn Hahn wasn't Jewish, particularly after watching her on Transparent.

If you were casting based on looks, Melissa is the obvious choice. She took after her mother and once she had a few tweaks, they had basically the same face. As far as her being able to handle the acting part, well… I assume Melissa will be attached as an executive producer.

Sarah Silverman is the next obvious choice but I don’t think she is interested in acting much and this doesn’t seem like a project she’d pick if she were.

Hahn seems to be a reasonable mixture of looks and acting ability, though I’m not familiar with her work.

I wonder how much demand there is for this. She’s been dead for quite a while and the period the film covers is almost forty years ago. This is a niche production at best and the DL will be one of the main loci of interest online for this film.

I love her!

Cast Joy Behar.

Italian actors have been playing Jews for decades, and Jews also play Italians.

I played a Jewess in BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS, and that darling Judith Ivey played my sister!

But then, I married a Jew, and gave birth to Gwyneth.

I find her annoying and unfunny

I hated Rachel Brosnahans portrayal . She was trying so hard to be a “funny Jewish lady” and it didn’t work for me. I also found the anachronistic writing very lazy and annoying. She is so obviously a pretty shiksa therefore an easy sell to the hoi polloi who really for the most part don’t really enjoy authentic ,funny , Jewish women as evidenced by all the outright anti Semitic sentiment espoused so openly ( especially here on the DL) As for Katherine Hahn I adore her and I would watch her in anything.

As a gay Jew, I'm fine with non Jews and straights playing Jewish or gay people. I'm also in favor of gays playing straights and Jews playing non Jewish characters.

She played a rabbi for the entirety of Transparent (I was one of the 12 people that watched it and liked it apparently).

[quote]Italian actors have been playing Jews for decades, and Jews also play Italians.

No shit?

I'm shocked the hot multitalented and actual Jewish actress Beanie Feldstein wasn't cast.

Or that Melissa wasn't either, as Plan B.

^Joan knew how to take a two-finger sandwich, R31.

Please no more Beanie Feldman.

Who is Kathryn Hahn related to? She’s not funny or talented so she has to be related to someone in Hollywood or in politics.

I have nothing against Kathryn Hahn playing the role but will someone who thinks there are so many Jewish actresses around of the correct age who could realistically play Joan Rivers, please name a few? Even with the name recognition of Hahn?

I'm waiting....

And what's WRONG with allowing Jason Gould to audition for the part, too??!?

As I said (r35) there are no bankable Jewish actresses under 60 to play Joan. It's a myth about the preponderance Jewish actresses in Hollywood.

What's wrong with her face? She needs to get to Joan's plastic surgeon.

I’m not sure how this is any more “offensive” then Jewish actors playing non Jewish roles (which happens all the time). Although Felicity Jones playing uber-Jew RBG is just laughable.

Jews complaining about diversity in Hollywood?

LOLOLOLOLOL!

She seems to have everything necessary to recreate Joan's rise to the top. E 's True Hollywood Story should have given more attention to time s a stripper.

So can Jewish actors only play Jewish characters then? A lot of actors will become jobless then.

It's not enough to be white anymore, we have to dig even deeper into separation?

Will they repeat the CNN skit? “You wear leather shoes!” Or the Apprentice skit? “ None of them have last names. You're a poker player. A poker player!”

She's gonna play Joan Rivers? With that nose?

She's good in Mrs. Fletcher, very interested in seeing her transformation... and of course love Joan still.

I'm confusing her and Idina Menzel.

Was Mrs. Fletcher a one season and cancelled for her, like I Love Dick and Happyish?

R29 you beat me to it. I was going to mention her playing a rabbi in Transparent. (I also did enjoy the show).

I remembering seeing Hahn in Crossing Jordan, a specific episode in which there was an emergency, she had to get people quarantined in the offices, and she did this thing whereby she had to seem in control and reassuring, but she ducked out of the room full of scared people and she found a quiet doorway down the hall of the basement and she had a mini-meltdown, slumped down, and then rose up and got her shit together, waltzed back in the room and took charge again. A beautiful performance. She must have been in her 20s. I thought, Oh, she is very very fucking good! I have loved her ever since. I'll look for that clip and see if I've embellished.

idk but the son from Mrs. Fletcher can totally fuck me tonight.

I wonder if this got off the ground because of the recent success of Hacks?

There don’t seem to be many well-known Jewish actresses in this age range anymore. The movie industry also doesn’t make the kind of “everyday life” movies set in New York that had more of a Jewish flavor in the 80s and 90s (Crossing Delancey, the Nora Ephron movies, older Woody Allen films). I miss movies like that, or maybe I just miss the 80s/90s, who knows.

— another Catholic who grew up in a Jewish suburb and knows some Yiddish phrases, although I look like I just got off the boat from Ireland.

Sarah Silverman has more to say about the practice, which she calls "Jewface."

[quote]She then listed other examples, pointing out that Felicity Jones played Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Rachael Brosnahan plays fictional Jewish character Miriam Maisel, Margo Martindale portrayed Bella Abzug and Tracey Ullman was Betty Friedan.

I'm pretty sure that Tracey Ullman is actually a Jew. A British one.

Tracey Ullman is NOT Jewish, r54. Get real!

While I agree with everything Sarah Silverman says, who would be the Jewish actresses of any name recognition that might have been cast in those roles played by Rachel Brosnahan, Felicity Jones, Margo Martindale and Ullman? Maybe Winona Ryder or Sarah Silverman herself, but neither really look quintessentially Jewish. Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand are too old.

Clearly, Jewish women who "look Jewish" have been discouraged in recent decades from pursuing careers in acting. I know that sounds outrageous, but here we are.

How can there be any new stories in this? I can't believe that Joan left this earth without any stories or secrets about her life left untold

This from the woman who nosejobbed her way out of a Jewish nose.

She would have been great.

I get Hahn confused with Ana Gastayer.

She played a NY Jew in The Shrink Next Door and I didn't buy it for a minute. Paul Rudd's NY accent was also an abomination. It doesn't NEED to be a Jewish actress but NY Jews of a certain era had a specific energy (think Joan, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David). Hahn doesn't have it.

Wake me up when Ariana DeBose opens in Funny Girl. Silverman needs to slap her trap. Joan Rivers used cosmetic surgery to remove every trace of visual Jewishness. Like all the actresses, she acted as Jewish as the rest.

Joan would have loved to be played by a pretty shiksa.

Get Valerie Harper. Oh wait . . . she really did end up dying.

Jews head up the majority of the studios in Hollywood. A Jew bitching about representation in Hollywood is hilarious. This is the same woman who did black face.

At least it's not Nicole Kidman though her face is in Joan country. .

[quote]Tracey Ullman is NOT Jewish

Actually, there’s a chance she’s Jewish on her father’s side as she said it was rumored that her great-grandmother converted to Catholicism. Not unheard with Polish Jews.

Joan would hate this politically correct bullshit b

Tut, tut...and there are so many talented Jewish girls available!

(Call me!)

Bette Midler could pass for the older Joan.

Her husband is Jewish, and their son goes to Hebrew class. Plus, she's got the comedic chops, perfect timing, and is naturally very funny. She'll be great.

Joan would be horrified to be played by a fat girl. She would take a Muslim of color over a fat Jewess any day.

Does she look like Joan? Depends which of Joan's post surgery faces we are discussing.

Mae Whitman resembles Joan

It's been almost two years since the announcement and I'm not seeing any recent articles about it, is this project in the toilet or what?

R74- Its not even on her IMDB- I think it was cancelled

It was cancelled a long time ago

I heard Sherri Shepherd has taken over, and has been cast to play Joan. Octavia Spencer is to play her daughter, Melissa.

r76 Cancelled almost exactly a month after the announcement, that's amazing.

^ That Melissa Rivers is a greedy SOB !

Jews are so underrepresented in the world of entertainment!