What Do Bibi and Chelsea Handler Have In Common?

This post first appeared on The Shmooze blog at the Forward.

Has Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu been reading that classic self-help book by Dale Carnegie? It would appear, at least according to Time magazine’s latest list, that he has indeed been winning friends and influencing people. For the second year and a row, Bibi has been named by Time as one of “The100 Most Influential People in the World.”

The magazine calls Netanyahu a “transformational leader.” Ranking Bibi among the world’s great leaders, Eric Cantor, who wrote a short article about the Prime Minister for the list, described him as “one of these iconic Israelis, a strong, determined leader who has excelled during a lifetime of service to the state of Israel.” Cantor further noted that Netanyahu “deserves credit for drawing attention to the threat Iran poses to Israel, to America, to the region, to its own people and to the free world.”

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© 2012 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

Harvey Weinstein Awarded French Legion of Honor

This post first appeared on The Shmooze blog at the Forward.

Harvey Weinstein will be joining Steven Spielberg and Jerry Lewis in the rarified and very small club of Jewish American filmmakers awarded France’s highest cultural distinction, the Legion of Honor.

Although Weinstein’s big push of the French-made film “The Artist” to Oscar glory late last month has him in the headlines lately, it was already on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s mind to honor the producer in July of last year. The Weinstein Co. reported that it delayed until late last week the release of a letter to Weinstein from Sarkozy dated July 22, 2011 in order to avoid any conflict of interest.

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© 2012 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.