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Oscar-nominee Portman infuriates religious Jews over kiss scene

posted 19 years ago by blackchick89
45 replies | jump to latest

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Hollywood star Natalie Portman, nominated for a best supporting actress award at this month's Academy Awards (news - web sites), stirred a scandal over a kissing scene by Jerusalem's Wailing Wall -- the most sacred spot in Judaism.The Israeli-born 23-year-old, who may be awarded a golden statuette next Sunday for her role in the film "Closer," was on location in Jerusalem for the shooting of "Free Zone", an Israeli-directed film, Yediot Aharonot reported Wednesday. But a kissing scene with co-actor Aki Avni in a car park next to the Wailing Wall infuriated religious Jews praying at the site, who slammed the smooch as an act of "lewdness" before chasing the pair and the crew off the set.The paper said director Amos Gitai had not asked for permission prior to shooting the scene, but reached a compromise after the incident that he and his crew could come back to the site at a later hour.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050223/en_afp/afplifestylefilmportmanisraelreligionpeople_050223171125

Come and rest your bones with me
Driving slow on Sunday morning
And I never want to leave

[–] razorblade-dude 19 years ago

yeah.... and??

[–] mrs_strock 19 years ago

Why couldn't they use some CGI or something? What did the filmmakers have to prove? I know most people are going to say, what's the big deal? But if that's how the Jews there want things, so be it. Let's have *some* respect for people.
But, why worry about something like that when there are children starving in the world?
Interesting article.

[–] bio1716 19 years ago

CGI costs money.
money that could be used to help starving children in the world.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] uniprez-1 19 years ago

or just lay one ON her ..

[–] irishinvenice 19 years ago

So she kissed someone? My God the fundamentalist jews are as bad as the fundamentalist muslims! Both hate bacon, both chop bits of themselves, both split up men and women for worship, both force beards/hair dos/head dress.

Pagans rule!!!

[–] the_crazy_dead 19 years ago

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!!!!
HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!!!!!!

This article had me on the floor.
Only in Israel is such insanity considered normal (and yes I do live in Israel, Jerusalem, in fact).

I'm willing to bet vital parts of my anatomy that half of the people shouting 'immoral, immoral!!' or whatever at Portman drive on Sabbath, were wearing Jeans and T-shirts, and while waving one hand in outrage, had one stuck in their pockets looking for the (what do you call 'em in English?) yamulka or skull cap they hadn't worn since their bar-mitzvah.
People will do ANYTHING to get their faces on television. Just look at reality TV.

Poor Natalie Portman. I guess now she knows why her parents left.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAhahahaaaaaaaa...

WHY, WHY couldn't they have taken me with them?

This place has me laughing at intolerance and people being A-holes.
And I'm being drafted on Wednesday.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA................

[–] smile4free 19 years ago

your fighting for the land in which natalie portman kissed aki avni!
which means sendi bar (aki's role model wife, for all the non israelies who might read this board for no good known reason) might want to get back at him.
do u feel lucky, punk? :P

good luck, achi!

[–] marianp1 19 years ago

As an America living in Israel I say -- America beware! See where Bush is heading? You give fundamentalists an inch and they take over the whole country, take away your basic rights, and make you foot their bills!

[–] BertramWilberforceWooster 19 years ago

Well, for starters, let me say that I'm Jewish, and I feel that Portman should have known about the reaction. Secondly, Fundamentalists, as a rule, are off their rocker, be they Jewish, Muslim, or Christian: they take sh!t way too seriously. Third, I'm not sure that Muslims do circumsize their males. Fourth: the beard, hair, and dress are worn because they are still mourning the loss of the Temple of Solomon. Fifth, I'd rather spend eternity in Gehenna than give up my bacon!

EDIT: My wife is a Pagan (she practices Wicca), and I can tell you that even Pagans have their fundies.

"I cut my finger. That's tragedy. A man walks into an open sewer and dies. That's comedy."

[–] winddancer36 19 years ago

Wow, you're Jewish with a Pagan wife!? That's totally awesome, but isn't that against your religion or something? I'm not really familiar with Judaism, but this caught my interest because I am Wiccan also.

As for Natalie, she is too hot for me to care what fundamentalists think. I do think that the director should have gotten permission to do the scene though. All religious wishes should be respected.

[–] THE_Tetsuo 19 years ago

I'm of an Islamic heritage and AFAIK, Muslims get circumcised.

[–] balwer 19 years ago

At least the Jews do it when you are infant. Muslims chop it when you are 13 :-[
And the reason for this is:

Abraham had a wife (Sara) which didn't give him any children, so he had a second
wife -Hagar. Hagar gave him a child -Ishmael. When Ishmael was 13, Sara gave
Abraham his child -Itzhak.

Then after 8 days god made an Alliance with Abraham, and to proove it he asked him
to chop the edge of each male in his house (including Ishmael, and the slaves).
Ishmael was 13, and Itzhak was 8 days old.

And as you probably know\guess, Ishmael, is the ancestor of the Muslims, and
Itzhak -of the Jews.
Im almost sure it's different in the Kuran, but that's how it goes in the old testament.

BTW Circustamcence wasn't invented by the jews, nor the muslims (which came ALOT
later), But was used in the ancienet world, as a tribal marking. It was abandoned
later on because of the roman\pagan influence.

(Yeah.. that's what the Bible Bagrut does to you ;-))

That's the end of the History leson for today, hope you enjoyed it :]

[–] xtina4eva 19 years ago

so i dono how ur pointless post explains that muslims(overall) get circimstized when their 13, ( i dont fink tis legal at this age n e way), ur piece of history was a piece of bullsh*t.

n how stupid cna u be

how wud there be a rule made by god as riduclouse as this 1, i wud no as i am part muslim

[–] chivas314159 18 years ago

"as i am part muslim" ... and the other part(s)? Did you figure if you try all religions you have more chances of getting it right?

[–] barbaryloki 18 years ago

According to the Islamic scholar Al-Mawardi, the chosen time is the 7th day after birth, but it can be carried out up to 40 days after birth or thereafter until the age of 7 years, depending upon the health of the infant or child at the time. Abraham, according to text, was circumcised at the age of eighty.
Today, many circumcisions (esp. in urban areas such as Istanbul) occur between the ages of 9 and 11.

The Prophet himself said, as I'm sure you know from your devout practice, "Sound human nature is in five things: circumcision, removal of public hair, plucking of armpit hair, trimming of the moustache, and cutting of the nails."

[–] THE_Tetsuo 19 years ago

Thank you for your BS post. Now I simply know that you're full of it.

When you decide to make a post that's not bigoted and full of lies, please feel free to do so.

[–] qwertee 19 years ago

what exactly do you want from him? the jewish religion is based on the old testament, where he took this information from. In the islamic "Kuran", the explanation for this ritual is not very different, and in general you can clearly see that the "Tanach" (the old testament) and the "kuran" are very close. 'balwer' never stated that it is a fact that all this actually happened, he simply said that that is the jewish-religious refference to circumcision.
Since this ritual (both in Judaism and Islaam) is religion-based (again I remind you, religion IS based on these books) i dont think you can say any of this is bullsh*t.
Although personally I couldn't care less for religion, I cant stand people making pointless criticism.

[–] THE_Tetsuo 19 years ago

Really? Where does it say in the Koran that you're circumcised at 13 as opposed to when you're an infant?

Is that right after the part about the 72 virgins in Paradise?

[–] GerFalcon 18 years ago

Keep up the good work in educating people and ignore those who haven't got any brain cells left to hold new info, not that it really is new, but it is always refreshing to see someone try (makes you read along despite the sometimes headless crap that surrounds it).

[–] gabrielh-1 18 years ago

not as bad, since they dont rely on suicide bombings and kill innocents to make a point.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] gabrielh-1 17 years ago

So you think the killing of innocents with a suicide terrorist attack is the correct approach to fight for anything?

"I wonder how the world is going to get better when adults can't even grow up."

Well, I assure you that by blowing up innocents the world aint getting much cozy either.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] gabrielh-1 17 years ago

I dont "think" muslims do that, is just the extremists that in fact do it.

But now Im not really sure what you are talking about.

Anyhow, if you think Im wrong, maybe you should use arguments to make your point instead of just kind of complaining about other peoples attitudes and then shutting up any possibility of debate or argument.
Talking about "growing up".

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] Kentaura-1 17 years ago

Don't be disgusting!!! You obviously know nothing of Orthodox Judaism, so just shut up. You are being very rude.

[–] brewsterlewster-1 17 years ago

And why did you forget fundamentalist Christians, Hindi, etc........?

[–] trekkiedaw 19 years ago

"The Jews there." An interesting phrase. Most Jews would tell you that the Western Wall is a very sacred place. Most would also tell you that an assertion "The Jews" completely lacks an understanding of the wide range of Jews present in Jerusalem. They go from the Jews who celebrate a couple major holidays in a pretty minor way to the ultra-orthodox spoken of here.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] misanthrone 19 years ago

we're all gonna die because of the *beep* religion..it's the cancer of humanity, no matter if is christianity, islam, hebrew..ignorance towards religion, that's the best way..and I love Natalie!

[–] themuffinman01 19 years ago

omg... it was a parking lot... that is a million times less natural and good then two people kissing...

[–] the_crazy_dead 19 years ago

Nobody read my post, right?

They didn't storm Portman because they were fundamentalists. They stormed her because they saw cameras and a chance to get on the news. It is that simple. Really. I live in Jerusalem.

And all you posters who start off with: "Well, I'm Jewish so I know EVERYTHING about Israeli Jews..." just... go away, alright?

Besides, the newspaper that IMDB is quoting is 99% *beep* TABLOID. The only thing keeping it from becoming 100% tabloid is that it is the biggest in the country, which explains a lot about Israelis.

I wanna hide in Portmans suit case next time she comes visiting. The army sucks.

Stupid 'feeling of moral obligation'. I should have used my US passport when I had the chance.

[–] marianp1 19 years ago

I know what you're saying (regarding your last sentence)

[–] bzion 19 years ago

People praying at Judaism's holiest site have every right to defend the atmosphere from being cheapened by filming movies, with or without kissing.

In addition, it is not even remotely fundamentalist to think that romantic kissing is a private act, best done discretely.

Therefore between the frivolousness of filming a movie at a holy site and the intimacy which religious people feel is a private matter, and the fact that we are not even talking about a real couple nonchalantly kissing because of actual affection for each other but movie actors --- is it so difficult to understand that religios people felt offended?

I pray at the Wall often and can tell you that the people and feelings were surely genuine and heartfelt, contrary to what some people who do not relate to the situation have implied.

B Zion

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] jerryrip54 19 years ago

Well, misanthrone, you can go to your version of hell while I go to heaven. How's that?

[–] Potty-Man 19 years ago

Should Sandy be jealous?

- I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul!
- Swallow this.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] iggy_hates_spam 18 years ago

interesting. what is your interpretation of this? some sort of criticism of christians being christians in name only? sorry i'm nowhere even close to jewish but very much interested in the culture.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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