http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... movie.html

Hasidic actor walks off Portman movie

First he couldn't hold Natalie Portman's hand - and now a Williamsburg Hasidic Jew-turned-actor has to give up his chance to hit it big in a Hollywood movie.

Abe Karpen, 25, a married father of three, was cast as Portman's husband in "New York I Love You," a film composed of 12 short stories about love in the five boroughs.

"I am backing out of the movie," said Karpen, a kitchen cabinet salesman. "It's not acceptable in my community. It's a lot of pressure I am getting. They [the rabbis] didn't like the idea of a Hasidic guy playing in Hollywood.

"I have my kids in religious schools and the rabbi called me over yesterday and said in order for me to keep my kids in the school I have to do what they tell me and back out," Karpen said.

While news of Karpen's withdrawal sent waves of disappointment through the movie set, the Hasidic community was up in arms over Karpen's acting gig - forcing him to flee for the weekend, a friend said.

"We are very sorry that this has created a problem for him personally and for the community," said the film's executive producer, Jan Korbelin.

"He's a great ambassador of his faith and it came out of the left field. ... This is the last thing this picture should be doing," Korbelin said. "This film is about love and understanding between different people and communities."

Just Wednesday, Karpen was strolling along the Fulton Ferry State Park under the Brooklyn Bridge alongside Portman, 26, who sported a dark head-covering and a coat.

"They wanted me to hold her hand, but I said 'no way,'" said Karpen, who proudly stood his ground. "It's against our religion. You can't even hold your wife's hand on the street."

Then came the howls of protest about his unorthodox job.

"This is when I woke up and saw that I made a big mistake. My kids mean everything to me and my community where I live means everything to me," said Karpen, who comes from a prominent Williamsburg, Brooklyn, family.

His longtime friend Levi Okunov said the Karpens had to flee the city for the weekend. "The community wants to kill him," he said.

Hasidic community activist Isaac Weinberger said Karpen should have known better.

"We don't watch television. We don't go to the movies, so to be in a movie is the worst thing. It's a shame for any Hasid," he said.

Still, despite his troubles, Karpen had nothing but kind words for the film and Portman.

"She's the only one I was willing to work with," Karpen said. "I was shocked that she's a Hollywood big shot. We talked in Hebrew. ... She wants to become more religious."

Those fucking jews!

What a strange career choice. It's like a vegetarian taking a job at a meat packing plant.

clearly Jewish people are ruining the film industry.

when did you become such a terrible poster?

the day you became a self righteous jerk that thinks everything you post is worth the time to respond to thoughtfully and sincerely?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZING!

ceebs found god around post 32,402.

i suppose you could have just not posted in this thread, no? not an option, right? have to be a jerk and post pointless shit? this has become a common occurrence here. way to be a constructive member of the forum.

How is he going to be exploited by the Hollywood machine now? Won't somebody think of the CHILDREN?!?

that's what i was thinking of. why the hell did he even take this to begin with? didn't he read the script?

I know how this guy feels. When I agreed to do Cheerleader Sluts 19, I had no idea I would be asked to work on a Sunday.

shut up mike, it was meant for a laugh and it at least got that out of me

i love you bart

and your point to posting this retarded article has nothing to do with your desire to point out the varied and numerous flaws in religion and the evils it foists upon the society at large, right?

Get a grip for one thing, everything you post now has some lesson to be learned for everyone other than you, and frankly, it's boring, arrogant, and is largley indicative of your lack of confidence in your own beliefs.
you need some way to validate what you think is correct, so you go out of your way to find and cite specific examples of these ideas, post them on a message board, and wait for everyone else to line up to agree, or marvel in awe of the profundity of your discovery.
Sorry, babe, but I'm not going to help this tremendous wank fest you and what's his face are having comparing notes about the evils of relgious belief anymore than I'd help someone out who expounds constantly on the evils of liberal presidential cadidates.

It's fear. plain and simple. fear of what you don't know, fear of submitting to something that you've yet to experience, and fear of being wrong.
You're no better than these people who follow specific religious custom and in fact are worse on some level for the obnoxious way in which you attempt to mollify your own fears.

The hasidic Jew makes no one pay attention to his beliefs and customs other than himself, and is content in following them for the benefit of his own soul.
you, on the other hand, make active attempts to show how damaging you feel him to be, and further your own agenda of taking down religion.

seems to me there were some children mentioned somewhere.

this must be why i see at least one of them yell at a car or slap the hood of one while crossing a cross walk every time they are out when i'm driving down la brea. so they may not pay attention to others beliefs but they secretly hate people in cars. if the guy had a role to act like an asshole and not to love, he probably would have knocked it out of the park.

wait, this is a retarded article? the rabbi was going to force the actor's kids out of school and the community apparently wants to kill him so badly that he had to skip town, all because he was in a movie. this makes tons of sense.





the arrogant argument is really tired, malice. put it to bed.

i'm also not sure how my posting indicates a lack of confidence in my own beliefs, or fear. enlighten me, please.



wrong.



what if the liberal presidential candidate had evils to be expounded?



fear of submitting to something i've yet to experience? you mean being religious? belief in god? you apparently know nothing about me.



he makes a heap of people pay attention to his beliefs, actually. do you know what hasidic jewish people believe in? are you fine with children growing up in this?



i don't really feel him to be damaging to me. i find the religion he follows to be damaging to all people.

more importantly,

is portman naked in this one??

bugs, have I mentioned I like the way your brain works?