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Playboy condoms to be sold in Israel
After launching TV channel, lingerie line, Playboy to bring its line of condoms to Israel
The aging playboy Hugh Hefner is not giving up on the Israeli market: After attempting to get the attention of Israel’s consumers with a lingerie line and a TV channel, the porn giant Playboy is set to launch its line of condoms in the Jewish state.
The product’s distributor in Israel is Captain Dalia Mishaeli, who retired from the IDF four years ago after 25 year in service.
Mishaeli was first introduced to the product during its launch in Venezuela, where her brother, businessman Simo Mishaeli, conducts business. The two partnered to form a company that makes and markets hair products and cosmetics called Purissima de Venezuela.
Sami and Playboy’s management examined a partnership wherein Purissima would manufacture Playboy’s line of lubricants, a move that led to the idea of marketing Playboy condoms in Israel. Dalia, who is the CEO of Purissima Israel, received the license to sell Playboy condoms in Israel.
The product is scheduled to be launched in July and the event will feature Playboy bunnies from Hefner’s mansion in the US and will be attended by Playboy senior executives.
Currently, negotiations for distribution agreements are underway with Israel’s major drugstore chains and several distribution companies.
Story originally published by Calcalist
Israeli actors cast in Homeland season 2
Israeli actors Clara Khoury, Gal Amitay and Jonah Lotan have been cast for season 2 of Showtime’s Golden Globe winning adaptation of Israeli series, “Homeland”, it was confirmed today. Details about their characters were not disclosed but all will be shot during the production’s upcoming visit to the holy land in the coming days, where they will be doing extensive shootings for the sophomore season set to air this fall.
Clara Khoury, the daughter of veteran Arab Israeli film & stage actor Makram Khoury, is best known internationally for her lead in the 2005 film “The Syrian Bride”, and has also appeared in Ridley Scott’s “Body of Lies” in 2008, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe and fellow Israeli Alon Aboutboul. In Israel she is most notably known for her comedic role on the successful prime time sitcom “Arab Labor (Avoda Aravit)”.
The 38yo Jonah Lotan has been living and working as an actor in the US for over a decade now, having made appearance on “24″, “CSI: NY” and HBO’s “Generation Kill”. Meanwhile the unknown newcomer 26yo Gal Amitay is a student at Yoram Levinstein School of Acting, which is the same place to generate such Israeli stars on the Hollywood horizon Ayelet Zurer and latest arrival Oz Zehavi, who is also rumored to guest on “Homeland”.
The news comes following another award winning weekend for creators Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon & Gideon Raff who all won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for the pilot episode of the series, which originally aired last fall. Next up on the crew’s social calendar is a special event to be held upon their arrival in Israel by Keshet Broadcasting, which produced the original “Prisoner of War” series three years ago. No Word if die-hard-fan president Barack Obama will be in attendance.
HOT launches Israel’s first fashion channel
Programs will give viewers behind-the-scenes glimpse into Israeli fashion industry
Israel’s first fashion channel, dedicated exclusively to Israeli fashion has started airing on HOT.
The channel will offer viewers programs featuring Israeli designers, stylists and celebrities discussing all the latest trends in Israeli fashion and giving a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the local fashion industry.
Viewers will also be introduced to the lives of renowned fashion designers and senior executives as well as young and up-and-coming designers making their first steps in the glamorous but brutal business.
The channel will be broadcast free on HOT and its programs will also be accessible on Xnet, Yedioth Ahronoth’s lifestyle site.
Source: Ynetnews.com
VIDEO: Israeli Actor/Model Oz Zehavi’s ‘Southland’ debut
Last night was exciting for actor Oz Zehavi. He had his American prime-time-TV-debut in ‘Southland’ playing Eric Hanson, while walking the runaway for Renuar fashion brand in Tel Aviv
Source: AbbaNibi.com
Showtime Announces Fall Premiere Dates for “Dexter” and “Homeland”
LOS ANGELES, CA – (March 12, 2012) SHOWTIME has put together a powerful one-two punch on Sundays this fall with the premieres of its top-rated drama series’ DEXTER and Homeland. On Sunday, September 30th, DEXTER will make its seventh season premiere at 9:00 PM ET/PT, followed by the highly-anticipated second season of the Golden Globe®-winning drama series Homeland at 10:00 PM ET/PT. The announcement was made today by David Nevins, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.
Homeland ranks as the network’s highest-rated freshman drama series ever, and was recently awarded the Golden Globe for Best Television Drama, as well as being named one of AFI’s Top Ten Television Programs of 2011. The series averaged 4.4 million weekly viewers across platforms in its first season, and its season one finale was the highest-rated finale for a freshman series in SHOWTIME history, with five million viewers across platforms. The network’s No. 1 rated series, DEXTER averaged 5.5 million weekly viewers across platforms in its sixth season, its highest rated ever. Both series will begin production this spring. Homeland will shoot on location in Israel and in North Carolina, and DEXTER will continue to shoot in Los Angeles.
Homeland is a one-hour drama series that tells the story of Carrie Mathison (Golden Globe winner Claire Danes), a CIA officer dealing with bi-polar disorder, who becomes convinced that the intelligence that led to the rescue of Nicholas Brody (Golden Globe nominee Damian Lewis), a U.S. soldier who had been missing and presumed dead for eight years, was a setup and may be connected to an Al-Qaeda plot to be carried out on American soil. The series also stars Morena Baccarin, David Harewood, Diego Klattenhoff, David Marciano, Navid Negahban, Jamey Sheridan, Morgan Saylor, Jackson Pace and Mandy Patinkin.Homeland is based on the original Israeli series “Prisoners of War,” by Gideon Raff, developed for American television by Howard Gordon & Alex Gansa. Along with Gordon, Gansa and Raff, the executive producers for season one are Avi Nir, Ran Telem and Michael Cuesta. The series is produced by FOX 21.
One of the most acclaimed shows on television, DEXTER stars Michael C. Hall, who has earned multiple Emmy® nominations as well as a Golden Globe award for his role as a complicated and conflicted blood-spatter expert for the Miami police department who moonlights as a serial killer. The show has received multiple Emmyand Golden Globenominations for best television drama series, as well as a prestigious Peabody Award in 2008, and was twice named one of AFI’s Top Ten television series. The series also stars Jennifer Carpenter, Desmond Harrington, C.S. Lee, Lauren Vélez, David Zayas and James Remar. John Goldwyn, Sara Colleton, Scott Buck, Manny Coto, Tim Schlattmann, Wendy West and Michael C. Hall are the executive producers of the series for season seven.
Source: TVPressFeed.com
Homeland’s debt to Israeli TV
Channel 4′s latest US hit is based on one of the many TV success stories produced by Israel. Would you watch both?
Last Sunday Homeland debuted on Channel 4, attracting overnight ratings figures of more than 2 million and a clutch of impressive reviews. Much has been written about the latest US import, a labyrinthine terrorism drama from the writers of 24. But while you will have read all about Homeland’s awards haul and Claire Danes’ triumphant return to the small screen, that the show is based on an Israeli series called Hatufim (Prisoners of War) has been less well reported.
Now UK audiences will be able to judge for themselves just how good the Israeli original is when it comes to Sky Arts in May. The series will follow hot on the heels of another Israeli drama In Treatment (BeTipul), the original Hebrew version of the hit HBO series of the same name, which gets underway on Sky Arts on Monday.
Hatufim and BeTipul are Israeli TV’s big international success stories – but they’re far from the only Israeli shows finding an international audience either in their original form or as an English language remake. There are a slew of Israeli shows being adapted by major US networks including sitcoms such as Life Isn’t Everything, police procedurals in the form of HBO’s The Naked Truth and the much-touted NBC murder-mystery Pillars of Smoke, while in Britain, David Mitchell’s topical quiz show The Bubble was adapted from an Israeli idea.
It’s part of the unlikely rise of Israeli television; an industry that only got its first commercial channel in 1993. “Israeli dramas are very much driven by auteurs, by people who have their own unique story and own unique voice to tell it,” says Avi Nir chief executive of Keshet Broadcasting, the programme makers behind Hatufim. “They provide an antidote to American television, which is usually more commercial … It’s a different way of making a show. Hollywood is much more of an industry, but in Israel our shows are slowly, carefully and originally tailor made.”
The shoestring budgets that Israeli programme makers work with have also played their part in this surge of creativity. Hatufim for example, was shot for $200,000 an episode, a fraction of the budget its US counterpart. The result is that Israeli producers put a stronger emphasis on storytelling, while financial constraints have seen programme makers work in more creative ways. The effects can be seen in the stripped-back settings of shows such as In Treatment, which like police procedural The Naked Truth, stages almost all of its action in a solitary room.
While fuelling creativity, the lack of financial investment has also taken away an element of risk. Without massive financial outlay there is arguably more freedom for writers to experiment with what is conventionally expected from small screen dramas.
At its heart however, the boom in Israeli broadcasting comes down to the quality of the programmes that are being produced. Lucy Criddle, the Sky Arts acquisitions manager, says: “It wasn’t our intention that we were looking at Israeli drama, it was really that the quality of the drama stood out for us. We watched BeTipul and Hatufim and we just loved them. They’re both powerful pieces that are utterly compelling and most importantly they’re high quality TV.”
It has been difficult to miss the recent boom in Scandinavian drama on British screens – but it appears that Denmark may not have cornered the market in classy subtitled imports. BeTipul in particular will offer a strange viewing experience for fans of In Treatment. Unlike Hatufim, which was more of an inspiration for Homeland, the HBO drama is an almost like-for-like remake of the Israeli original. As a result it’s impossible to watch either show without comparing and contrasting it with the other.
With the rise of foreign language remakes and imports, watching a show twice is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly common – and at times original shows can end up overshadowed by a strange sense of deja vu when watched after their English language remakes. But what’s striking about these Israeli series is the quality of the storytelling which has translated seamlessly from original to adaptation. For viewers that means they are essential companion pieces – testament to the quality of programming that the country is currently producing.
Source: The Guardian