Bradley Cooper's Jewish Nose Job Controversy

PeterRS · August 17, 2023

I suppose this could have been a continuation of the Bernstein Maestro movie thread, but it seems to merit a thread of its own. We've had the black face controversy in movies and on the stage. Now its Jewish men and women complaining about non-Jews playing Jews on film.

Bradley Cooper's movie about the love between Leonard Bernstein and his wife premieres at the Venice Film Fesitval on September 2. Given Bernstein's fame there is a great deal of interest in it, the more so considering he was very much a homosexual - something his wife acknowledged in a letter to him soon after their marriage - and little was publicised about his marriage during his lifetime. Cooper himself plays Bernstein and from early clips he seems to "be" Bernstein. Not being Jewish, though, he wears a prosthetic addtion to his nose. Certainly Bernstein had a largish nose, but it was more broad, shall I say, than long. Having watched a movie preview and compared the prosthesis with photos and videos of the maestro, I think the make-up artists have got the shape wrong. Compare the two -

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Berstein's children have come to the defence of the movie saying the "nose" is like their father's. Hmmm! I guess we have to wait to see the movie before we can make a definitive conclusion.

This is reminiscent of the other controversy concerning that wonderful actor Dame Helen Mirren whose portrayal of one of israel's great figures, Prime Minister Golda Meir, will be revealed on August 25 in the new movie Golda. Other non-Jewish actors have played Jewish characters but without the fuss that this is causing. Actor Maureen Lipmann told the Jewish Chronicle she disagreed with the casting of Helen Mirren "because the Jewishness of the character is so integral." To me this argument does not really hold up. Did anyone complain about Meryl Streep playing Margaret Thatcher because she was not quintissentially English? Again we'll have to wait for the movie to make up our minds.