Celebrity Grapevine

Media mogul Haim Saban was one of the many guests from abroad who came to Israel especially for the bar mitzvah of public relations guru Ran Rahav's son.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
haim saban 88 (photo credit: )
haim saban 88
(photo credit: )
Media mogul Haim Saban was one of the many guests from abroad who came to Israel especially for the bar mitzvah of public relations guru Ran Rahav's son. While in Israel, Saban reviewed the operations of his various enterprises here and invited the executive members of the companies he's invested in to a private concert at the Jaffa Theater Club. A big fan of Pablo Rosenberg and Shlomi Shabat, Saban decided to organize a private concert with the two singers as the star attraction. Long before he acquired his wealth, Saban worked as a concert organizer, but this time he left the arrangements to his sister-in-law Varda Saban, wife of his brother Arye. Also on the program was stand-up comic Shalom Assayag, who set the tone for a relaxed atmosphere. Among the approximately 200 guests were Yaacov Gelbard, Dov Weisglass, Moshe Wertheim, Alex Giladi, Galia Maor, and other leading figures in business and banking. FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS of the Israeli soap opera Our Song, starring Ninette Tayeb and Ran Danker, should be aware of the fact that this is Danker's fourth and last season with the show. Danker and Tayeb split up in real life quite some time ago, and now Danker has no intention of shooting a fifth season. He wants to focus more on music than acting. Of course it's possible that someone may make him an offer that he can't refuse, but at 23, Danker is still young enough to follow his own inclinations without paying too heavy a price. Meanwhile he's doing nicely modeling Gravity sports shoes for Diadora. THERE'S LOTS of talent among Israeli youth as evidenced by the number of teens and pre-teens appearing in local stage and screen productions. Some of the yet-to-be discovered young talent will have a moment of glory and a chance to enter the world of showbiz through a competition mounted by YES and the Children's Channel. Beginning at 7:45pm. on Thursday, February 22, YES will launch a new show that aims bring these youngsters to the attention of the wider public. Reruns of the show presented by Michael Lewis, who plays Liran in Rosh Gadol, and Hadar Levi, a presenter on the Children's Channel, will be screened at 1:25pm. on Friday and at 9:30am. on Saturday. The idea is for soloists and/or groups of kids to send song clips of themselves to www.yes.co.il. Surfers on the net will vote for their favorite clips in order to narrow down the competition to 10 finalists. The final 10 will be screened on YES and the Children's Channel over a four week period. The contest is being run in conjunction with the third season of Rosh Gadol and the fourth season of Our Song. The shows' casts will attend an end-of-school- year party at the winner's school. TEAPACKS HAS yet to decide on the song that will represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki in three months time. But the band's soloist Kobi Oz has been busy with other things. He's paired up with animator Alex Orel to produce a five minute animated film. The script, written by Oz, is about herds of cattle roaming the earth and the hunter who succeeds in stopping them. Former Eurovision winner Izhar Cohen doesn't sing as often as he used to and is giving more attention to his second career as a jewelry designer and craftsman. Jewelry making is almost as much in his genes as singing. Cohen comes from Yemenite stock. He's departed somewhat from the Yemenite tradition in his designs, but not entirely. As for singing, most of the members of his immediate family are professional singers. AFTER TWO years of togetherness, it looks as if Zvika Hadar and Liat Ganon are ready to make their relationship official. It will be a second time for each under the bridal canopy. Hadar divorced Kochavit, his first wife and the mother of his three children, close to three years ago. Ganon has two children from her previous marriage. Hadar and Ganon owe their romance to Teddy Productions. Gonen manages the company's accounts, while Hadar has worked as an associate producer for certain episodes of Our Song and as program host of A Star is Born and Born to Dance, all of which were born of the Teddy stable.