Well-known Jewish American comedian Sandra Bernhard will be starring in the new season of television’s hottest show, The White Lotus, according to a report earlier this week on Deadline.
Bernhard can currently be seen in Marty Supreme and is also in Percy Jackson and The Olympians on Disney+, Severance on Apple TV+, and in the film, Babes, by Pamela Adlon. Bernhard made a name for herself in comedy in the late 80s with the off-Broadway show, Without You, I’m Nothing, With You, I’m Not Much Better. She appeared in Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film, The King of Comedy, with Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis. In the 70s, she spent time in Israel, working on a kibbutz.
Paradise and murder
Each season of The White Lotus is set in an upscale resort, where a murder takes place, and it follows the troubled but entertaining lives of the guests and staff for a week leading up to the killing. Until the very last episode, viewers never know who the victim and the murderer are, and pretty much everyone seems to have a motive for offing someone else. Previous seasons of the show have taken place in Hawaii, Sicily, and Thailand. The next season will be set in Château de La Messardière in Saint-Tropez on the Côte d’Azur, a five-star resort with its own private beach on the Mediterranean.
In the first two seasons, Jennifer Coolidge played an entertainingly unhinged heiress, and Parker Posey had a similar role in the past season. It seems likely that Bernhard, who wears her neuroses front and center in her comedy and her acting, will play a similar part in the upcoming season, although she might have some competition from another cast member, Jewish-British actress Helena Bonham Carter, who appeared in The Crown and Agatha Christie’s 7 Dials.
Bernhard posted the news of the casting on her Instagram account, saying, “Heading to France this summer. What a delight!”
Jason Isaacs - British-Jewish actor
In the previous season, Jason Isaacs, a British-Jewish actor with family in Israel, played the key role of a suicidal businessman about to lose everything, and he wore the yellow-ribbon pin to support the hostages at various awards shows. Isaacs was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance on The White Lotus.
The third season of the series was also notable because one episode featured a cover of the Israeli Eurovision-winning song, “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” performed in Thai.