L.A. Jewish Film Festival: Celebrating Jewish Humor in Film

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Opening Night Gala
Saturday, June 1
Writer's Guild Theater, Beverly Hills
7:30p.m. Red Carpet, 8:30p.m. Showtime
"Putzel" Los Angeles Premiere

Sunday, June 2, 3:00 p.m.
Laemmle's Music Hall, Beverly Hills
"Lunch" Los Angeles Premiere

Have lunch with the Hollywood legends that made America funny.

Closing Night
Thursday, June 6, 7:30 p.m.
Laemmle's Town Center, Encino
"When Comedy Went to School"

A portrait of this country's greatest generation of comedians.

Ticket hotline: 1-800-838-3006
LAJFilmFest.org

"A Night celebrating our Swiss Diplomat, the LA Sheriff and the Son of the Rat Pack"

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Diplomatic Circles

This sounds like a fun Swiss-themed event at the Beverly Hills Hotel.  Bruno Ryff, the Consul General of Switzerland to LA,  Sheriff Lee Baca and a Rat Pack crooner (who looks a lot like a young Sinatra), will be honored by the Swiss Chamber of Commerce.

Brun Ryff was born and raised in Berne, Switzerland. Having earned a Federal Diploma in Trade and Commerce he first occupied a position in a Swiss trading company before working at the Swiss Federal Office for Statistics on a pension plan project. In 1980, he joined the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

After consular training in Berne and Montreal, Mr. Ryff's consular career took him to the Swiss consular and diplomatic reps in Rome, Florence and Istanbul. From 1988 to 1996, he was heading the consular and admin. sections of the Consul General of Switzerland in Chicago and the Swiss Embassy in Santiago, Chile before serving as consul at the Swiss Embassy in Lima and Tokyo.

In Feb. 2007, Mr. Ryff was named Consul General of Switzerland to Toronto, where he focused strongly on trade and investment promotion, established a forum for bilateral dialogue on financial issues and promoted academic exchanges between Switzerland and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

In 2009, Mr. Ryff was appointed Consul General of Switzerland to Los Angeles.

Date: Thursday, May 23, 2013
The Beverly Hills Hotel
9641 Sunset Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA. 90210

6:15p.m. reception
7:00p.m. dinner

RSVP: 626-974-5429 for prices and further information.
e mail Saccla@aol.com

A Grand Souk Festival: Features Bazaar, works by Gibran and Mahfouz

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

This open air Middle Eastern bazaar of arts and culture sounds like a lot of fun and Nobel Prize winner Maguib Mahfouz is one of my favorite authors, ("Palace Walk").

"Palace Walk" is the first novel in Mahfouz's magnificent Cairo Trilogy, an epic family saga of colonial Egypt that is considered his masterwork. I still have to read his two other books in the collection. There will be readings from both Gibran and Mahfouz's books at the event.

Naguib Mahfouz was one of the most prominent writers of Arabic fiction in the 20th century. He was born in 1911 in Cairo and began writing at the age of seventeen. His first novel was published in 1939. In 1988 Mafhouz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 2006.

When: Sunday, May 19 11:30 - 5 p.m.
Place: El Rancho Cordillera del Norte
9015 Wilbur Ave.
Northridge, California
91324

Free, but donations welcome. Sponsored by the Levantine Cultural Center.

Skirball Cultural Center L.A. celebrates life of Allan Sherman

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

"The Hits, the Life and the Lost Lyrics of Allan Sherman." Mark Cohen and movie producer Tom Teicholtz discuss Sherman's comedy and song parodies at 2p.m. on Sunday.

Author Mark Cohen, whose book "Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman," is the first bio of Sherman, discusses the song parodist and comedian with Jewish Journal writer and film producer Tom Teicholtz. A Q and A and book signing follow the program, which includes a sampling of Sherman's well-known and lost recordings.

Allan Sherman was a Jewish comedy writer  (from Chicago), and television producer who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s.

His first album, "My Son, the Folk Singer" (1962), became the fastest-selling record album up to that time. His biggest hit single was "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh," a comic novelty in which a boy describes his summer camp experiences to the tune of Ponchiellie's "Dance of the Hours."

Skirball Cultural Center
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA.

(310) 440-4500

Fee: $8. general admission

Cannes: New Europe Sells "I Used to be Darker" to Germany and Austria

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Warsaw-based boutique sales company New Europe Film Sales has sold Matt Porterfield's drama "I used to be Darker" to Germany (Arsenal) and Austria (Stadtkino).

The film--which has a Cannes market screening next Wednesday was a hit with critics at Sundance and Berlin.

Austria will release the film later this year and Germany, early next year.

KFC delivery takes up to four hours, but Gaza customers don't mind

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

In Gaza, a takeaway meal from Kentucky Fried Chicken, can hardly be termed 'fast food.'

Israel's blockade of the strip hasn't stopped residents ordering their favorite fried chicken from Col. Sanders.

But delivery, via underground tunnels from neighboring Egypt, takes around four hours.

There are no branches of KFC in the Palestinian territory--spelling a good business opportunity for some.

The Al-Yamama delivery firm charges about $30. for a family meal costing $11 in Egypt, Xinhua reported.

But Palestinians craving the infamous fried chicken don't mind paying more than double the price for the meals.

The delivery company says the higher price is due to the transportation and smuggling fees--and said that many factor can lead to a delay.

"Sometimes Hamas checks meals, sometimes the taxi picking up Sinai orders is late," an accountant said.

Israel's blockade of Gaza, imposed in 2006, placed harsh restrictions on the coastal enclave.

Yet a wide variety of smuggled goods find their way to the territory via a network of underground tunnels.

These include weapons, cigarettes and even "the occasional lion,' according to NPR.

German diplomat's dog bites wife of Korean fat cat

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Diplomatic Circles

A German diplomat's small dog has sparked a diplomatic kerfuffle after his dachshund bit the elderly wife of the head of one of Korea's biggest companies.

The German Foreign Ministry confirmed a report by a Korean newspaper that the diplomat's dog had attacked the 72-year-old Mrs. Lee, spouse of an unnamed Korean conglomerate president, during a stroll around Seoul's popular Namsan Park.

"The German embassy in Seoul is in contact with all involved parties in order to find a constructive solution," a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

The diplomat was strolling around Mt. Namsan with his dachshund when he ran into the mother and son. The victims claim the dog suddenly bit the woman's thumb and when the son tried to stop it with an umbrella, the diplomat kicked his right leg and shoved both him and his mother.

The daily paper Chosun Ilbo reported that the police booked and released the German diplomat, ID'd only as "Mr. H," for assault after he allegedly kicked and pushed his adult son as he was trying to fend off the wiener dog.