From Jan ’11 Spotlight: The 2011 awards season is heating up! Three actors playing Jewish characters have been nominated for Golden Globes: Jesse Eisenberg as “Mark Zuckerberg” in The Social Network (a loose adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s non-fiction best seller The Accidental Billionaires); Paul Giamatti as “Barney Panofsky” in Barney’s Version (based on Mordecai Richler’s last novel); and Kevin Spacey as “Jack Abramoff” in Casino Jack (a comic riff on America’s most infamous lobbyist)… As I write, several critics groups have already named The Social Network as their Top Pick for 2010, but I’m frankly not sure why—the depiction of Zuckerberg as a pushy Jewish geek reaching for the next rung isn’t exactly groundbreaking.
