Sharon Waxman: Hollywood is horny and white. But is it still Jewish?

There has been a vibe shift in Hollywood over the last couple years. Conventionally attractive white people having sex have come back in favour (see: HBO's White Lotus and Netflix's The Hunting Wives); Caucasian celebrities are embracing their genetics (Sydney Sweeney's genes); and studios continue capitalizing on 1990s nostalgia, bringing back classics like Basic Instinct and Sex and the City.

It all comes at the expense of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives of the last decade, especially in film and television, which have staunchly embraced minority groups' stories. Many Disney/Pixar, Marvel, Netflix, HBO and Amazon projects have since platformed Black, Indigenous and Asian heroes. (Jews were early beneficiaries of this trend, but that fizzled out in the 2020s.)

Now, in keeping with the political return of Donald Trump, studios are swinging back in the opposite direction, focusing on white-centric stories. Creators like Mike White and the South Park team are openly rejecting "wokeism". And Jewish stories—never fully a minority group, neither fully white—are, as usual, caught in the middle.

Sharon Waxman, the founder and CEO of TheWrap, recently wrote about the broader trend for the New York Times, and joins Phoebe on The Jewish Angle to discuss her piece and the ongoing changes happening in pop culture and politics.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: "Gypsy Waltz" by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

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