jewish superheroes

Salon recently had an article about how Jewish men were no longer the kind of commanding masculine cultural presences as they have been in the past (see: Leonard Cohen). It has this throwaway line on how Hollywood's "Jewish women have never been better represented. Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Amanda Peet, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Selma Blair."

Leading to the "!!" moment of "Scarlett Johansson is Jewish!" (yup.)

Salon's sidebar article was on the 10 Jewish leading men who could break through and return Jewish leading men to masculine prominence.
Let me just say: I'm often compared to #1 on looks, #5 on style, and I lost the lead in Rushmore to #4.

Michael Chabon (Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) nearly wrote a script for the Fantastic Four movie. here's his pitch.
He also made a pitch for the 1st X-Men movie. I haven't read this yet but I'm imagining a "wow" moment on par with the Scarlett Johansson revelation above.
Thanks Cinematical.

Amanda Congdon, formerly host of Rocketboom, was pushed out the other week. She put up an explanation at Amanda UnBoomed (further details here). The new girl is just OK as her replacement - which is overwhelmingly disappointing. Amanda, you're too smart to go away for long.

Since by now I'm completely off topic, Michael Bay is directing a movie version of the Transformers and the website has a teaser trailer with what looks like some stock footage, 12 frames from the film, and the name Michael Bay at the end.