Props to Best New Artist Grammy winners Maroon 5 (fronted by oh-so-hot Adam Levine) for snagging the award from expected winner Kanye West. Levine was so surprised and humbled that the first sputtering words of his acceptance speech were “Kanye West, I want to thank you so much for being wonderful.” We hereby present Levine with a “Jmerica Mensch Award”, an invisible statuette made of pure air so it won’t crowd out that shiny new Grammy.

Benny Friedman, once called the

We were quite bitter last week when we went to buy our usual tube of kosher salami and found the shelf empty, only to find out from JTA that we’re in the midst of an actual salami shortage: It seems those who “answer to a higher authority” can’t keep up with the demand for their delish kosher products, leading to a countrywide deficit in hot dogs, salami and deli meats.

The son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, Miller defined the hopelessness of the American Dream in Death of A Salesman, won a Tony for pointing a finger back at the Communist-witch hunters in The Crucible and wrote about family, morality and other uncomfortable issues all the way into his last years. He was married to Marilyn Monroe for five years (she converted; her idea!) but we all know how that turned out. We are sorry to see such a wise man shed his mortal coil, but we’d think he’d say it eventually happens to all of us.

Those of us who secretly love puppets but might feel weird renting Sesame Street for the evening’s entertainment have found a gem in Greg The Bunny, an ill-fated FOX series just out on DVD. Though we haven’t been able to ascertain the ethnic background of lovable, furry Greg, the rest of the cast reads like a Hollywood synagogue membership directory: Seth Green stars as the puppet’s (he prefers “fabricated American”) slacker roommate whose father (the always delightfully nerdy Eugene Levy) directs a children’s show peopled (and puppeted) by the crassest, most inappropriate fuzz pelts since Meet The Feebles. Comedienne Sarah Silverman does a turn as a sexy, sarcastic TV exec, though the funniest lines belong to the puppets: “Did you hear about Snuffalupagus? Bankrupt.” “No! He was making big money!” “Yeah, it all went up his nose…”
Hilarious stuff, though obviously not ready for primetime, since FOX canceled Greg and his friends after only one season to much protest from sock lovers like us.

The Michael Jackson pedophile extravaganza takes on a Jewish twist as 80’s prince Corey Feldman is subpoenaed to testify that Mike showed him some porn once. (Specifically, a book about venereal diseases. Gross. But maybe not quite as gross as what Emmanuel Lewis‘s testimony might be.) If Corey had been studying for his bar mitzvah instead of snorting coke with his buddy Corey Haim, maybe it all could have been avoided.

Good Shabbos, Jmerica.

From MSNBC: The founders of the Jewish Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, a planned online museum celebrating Jewish contributions to rock music, have been slapped in their punims by a lawsuit, even though their won’t launch until next month. The Cleveland-based Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame wants the Jewish site to stop using their title, claiming that it infringes on their branding rights.
Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for The New Yorker magazine and one of the Jewish rock hall founders says