Yossi Melman

Yossi Melman (Hebrew: יוסי מלמן) is an Israeli writer and journalist. He is an intelligence and military affairs correspondent for Haaretz newspaper.

Biography[link]

Yosef (Yossi) Melman was born in Poland. The family immigrated to Israel in 1957, when he was six years old. ^[1]He graduated from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

Views and opinions[link]

Melman has stated that he considers himself a left-wing Israeli, and that Israel must abandon the occupied territories to live in peace with a Palestinian state. However, he has also said that the Palestinians should not be given the right of return, as that would defeat the idea of a two-state solution in Israeli minds.^[2]

Of a 2008 deal between Austrian energy company OMV and Iran, Melman told Austrian newspaper Der Standard "While I understand the Austrian dilemma regarding energy interests, the gas deal of the OMV should have been postponed, or at least negotiated. Austria should have been much more adamant and should have demanded concessions. Overall, they are far too yielding towards Iran - one only has to remind himself of the Swiss president Micheline Calmy-Rey who ran around in Teheran with a hijab. The signal is: We respect you, but we don't expect the same in return. Austria should follow the German example: Germany is the best ally of Israel, better than the USA, since the German support is not tied to interests."^[3]

Melman was described by Wikileaks in February 2012 as an "information mule" who had "channeled tips to the Mossad", assertions that were contested by Melman in his review of his relationship with Julian Assange, whom he believes has made antisemitic statements.^[4]

Awards[link]

In 2008, Melman won an award from the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association (IRE) for his report on a Jordanian Palestinian held illegally by American, Israeli and Jordanian security services.^[5]

Published work[link]

• The Master Terrorist: The True Story of Abu-Nidal translated by Shmuel Himmelstein. (Adama Books, 1986) ISBN 0-915361-52-3
• The Imperfect Spies: The History of Israeli Intelligence. (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1989) ASIN B0007BR81Q
• Behind the Uprising : Israelis, Jordanians, and Palestinians written with Dan Raviv. (Greenwood Press, 1989) ISBN 0-313-26787-1
• The New Israelis: An Intimate View of a Changing People. (Carol Publishing Corporation, 1992) ISBN 1-55972-129-4
• Friends in Deed: Inside the U.S.-Israel Alliance written with Dan Raviv. (Hyperion Books, 1994) ISBN 0-7868-6006-5
• Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community written with Dan Raviv. (Houghton Mifflin, 1990) ISBN 0-395-47102-8

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Washington Post, PostGlobal Panelist

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2008)

Dan Raviv (born 1954) is an American journalist. He is a national correspondent for CBS News, heard regularly on the CBS Radio Network. He has also done TV reports from Washington, D.C. on the CBS Evening News.

Raviv is host of a weekly radio magazine show, the CBS News Weekend Roundup.^[1]

A Great Neck, New York native and graduate of Harvard, Raviv joined CBS at its all-news radio station in Boston (WEEI) in 1974, moving to WCBS Newsradio in New York in 1976, then to the network radio newsdesk in New York. The start of his on-air career was his assignment in the Tel Aviv bureau, from 1978 to 1980, followed by twelve years as radio correspondent in the London bureau. There, he began making occasional appearances on CBS TV. He worked in the Miami bureau from 1993 to 1997, and then was named National Correspondent in the radio unit at CBS News in Washington.

He is also the author of several books, including the 1990 best seller Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community and Friends In Deed: Inside the U.S.-Israel Alliance, both co-authored with journalist Yossi Melman, and Comic Wars: How Two Tycoons Battled Over the Marvel Comics Empire—and Both Lost.^[2][3]

Raviv is married, with two children.

See also[link]

• Ronald Perelman
• Carl Icahn
• Avi Arad
• Marvel Comics
• Toy Biz

References[link]

1. ^ CBS News Weekend Roundup Archive
2. ^ Comic Wars by Dan Raviv, Broadway Books, April 2002
3. ^ Toy Biz

External links[link]

• Booknotes interview with Raviv and Yossi Melman on Every Spy a Prince, August 5, 1990

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Charles Grodin
Grodin at the Book Expo 2007 at the Javits Center
Born	(1935-04-21) April 21, 1935 (age 77) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, author, comedian
Years active	1958–present

Charles Grodin (born April 21, 1935) is an American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968. In the 1970s he moved into film acting, including playing the lead in The Heartbreak Kid and a supporting role in Catch-22. He became a familiar face as a supporting actor in many 1980s Hollywood comedies, including Midnight Run, Taking Care of Business, Seems Like Old Times, The Great Muppet Caper, The Woman in Red, The Lonely Guy, Ishtar and The Couch Trip. He is probably best known for his role as George Newton in the 1990s John Hughes comedy franchise Beethoven.

Grodin has won several acting awards, including American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for 1993's Dave, Best Actor at the 1988 Valladolid International Film Festival (for Midnight Run). He was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for The Heartbreak Kid in 1972. He also shared a 1978 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program for his work on The Paul Simon Special.

In the mid 1990s, Grodin became a talk show host on CNBC and in 2000 a political commentator for 60 Minutes II. He has written several autobiographical and acting related works, including 1990's It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business and 1994's We're Ready for You, Mr. Grodin.

Early life[link]

Grodin was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Orthodox Jewish parents^[1][2] Lena, who worked as an assistant in the family's store and was a volunteer for disabled veterans, and Theodore Grodin, who sold wholesale supplies.^[3] His maternal grandfather was a Russian Jewish immigrant who came from a long line of Rabbis and moved to Pittsburgh at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. Grodin has an older brother, Jack.^{[citation needed]}

Grodin attended the University of Miami from September 1953 to April 1954 but left without graduating to pursue acting.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Early career-1950s/1960s[link]

Grodin's film debut was an uncredited bit-part in Disney's 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A student of Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen, He made his Broadway debut in a production of Tchin-Tchin, opposite Anthony Quinn.^[4] In 1965, he began working as an assistant to director Gene Saks and began appearing on several television series during the 1960s including The Virginian.^{[citation needed]}

Grodin had a small part playing an obstetrician in the 1968 horror film, Rosemary's Baby. In 1964 he played Matt Stevens on the ABC soap opera the Young Marrieds.^[5] During the late 1960s, he also co-wrote and directed Hooray! It's a Glorious Day...and All That, a Broadway play, and directed Lovers and Other Strangers and Thieves, also on Broadway.^{[citation needed]} He also directed Simon and Garfunkel's television special Songs of America in 1969.

1970s & 1980s film work[link]

After a supporting role in the 1970 comedy film Catch-22, Grodin gained recognition as a comedy actor when he played the lead role in the 1972 film The Heartbreak Kid. Grodin subsequently appeared in several notable 1970s films, including 11 Harrowhouse in 1974, the 1976 version of King Kong and the hit 1978 comedy Heaven Can Wait. During this period, he also frequently appeared on Broadway and was involved in producing several plays. One of these, Thieves, he also directed.^{[citation needed]}

In 1981, he landed in a role in The Great Muppet Caper playing Nicky Holiday, a jewel thief who falls in love with Miss Piggy. His 1980s roles included Neil Simon's Seems Like Old Times (opposite Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn) and 1988's well-reviewed comedy Midnight Run, a buddy movie co-starring Robert De Niro. Grodin also appeared in the 1986 CBS mini-series sendup Fresno, playing the evil son of a raisin matriarch (Carol Burnett).

His Hollywood film roles of the 1980s usually saw him cast as uptight, bland and world-weary white collar professionals, such as a psychiatrist having a nervous breakdown (The Couch Trip), a health conscious accountant (Midnight Run), an ineffectual advertising executive (Taking Care of Business) and a lonely socially awkward nerd The Lonely Guy. He was cast against this type as a scheming CIA agent in Ishtar. Commenting on his work with regard to Ishtar, Hal Hinson in the Washington Post observed: "Grodin has a one-of-a-kind quality on the screen, a sort of inspired spinelessness. And with his cat-burglar rhythms -- he seems to play all his scenes as if someone were asleep in the next room -- he's become a very sly scene-stealer."^[6] Sandra Brennan at Rovi noted that: "Whereas many funnymen have been popular for their ability to overreact and mug their way around everyday obstacles, Grodin belonged, from the beginning, to the Bob Newhart school of wry comedy that values understatement and subtlety."^[4]

Aside from his film work, In 1977, Grodin hosted an episode of the NBC sketch show, Saturday Night Live.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1990s - Beethoven

Grodin's career took a turn in 1992, when he played the nervous family man George Newton in the kids' comedy Beethoven, opposite Bonnie Hunt. The film was a surprise box-office hit, and he reprised the role in the 1993 sequel. His next film role was in 1994's It Runs in the Family (a.k.a. My Summer Story), which received only a limited release and was a sequel to the film A Christmas Story. Grodin portrayed the frustrated uncle, alongside Martin Short in the 1994 comedy Clifford. After a 13-year long hiatus from film, Grodin returned to acting in the Zach Braff comedy The Ex (2007).^{[citation needed]}

Radio talk show host[link]

From 1995 to 1998, Grodin hosted his own issues-oriented talk show, The Charles Grodin Show, on CNBC and, starting in 2000, became a political commentator for 60 Minutes II. In 2004, Grodin wrote The Right Kind of People, an Off-Broadway play about Co-op boards in certain buildings in Manhattan. Grodin's commentaries continue to be heard on New York City radio station WCBS and other affiliates of the CBS Radio Network, as well as on the CBS Radio Network's Weekend Roundup He is also a best-selling author; his works include It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here, Spilled Milk and Other Clichés and How I Get Through Life. His book, If I Only Knew Then...Learning from Our Mistakes was released in November 2007 by Springboard Press. It is a collection of essays from his famous friends (and friends of friends), with all author proceeds going to the Help USA charity. His book How I Got To Be Whoever It Is I Am came out in April 2009.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Grodin has two children: daughter Marion from his marriage to Julie Ferguson, and son Nicky from his marriage to Elissa Durwood.^[7] For a while in the 2000s Grodin gave up show business to be a stay-at-home dad to his children.^[8]

Awards[link]

In 2006, Grodin received the William Kunstler Award for Racial Justice.^[8]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Charles Grodin at the Internet Movie Database
• Charles Grodin at the Internet Broadway Database
• Charles Grodin at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Charles Grodin profile in The New York Observer
• Charles Grodin's radio commentaries at WCBS880.com
• "The Heartfelt Kid: Actor/Playwright Charles Grodin Premiers New Play in San Francisco", Jewish News Weekly, November 26, 2004.
• Charles Grodin Urges New Yorkers To Mentor Kids
• Interview with Charles Grodin