Each month, Adam brings you hot and current news on our past cover girls/guys, as well as the stars we feature in our PopLife interviews. Since JVibe gets the first scoop on young stars like our Jan/Feb cover guy Joe Trohman from Fall Out Boy and March/April’s Sara Paxton, we want to keep you updated on their success! Then, when they become as huge as past cover-celebs like Natalie Portman and Zach Braff (don’t worry, we’ve got them covered, too), you can say you saw it back in the day when JVibe got the story. In this corner of our Pop Culture section, Adam will always be here with Adam’s Vibe on the Jews you love most. (And if you’ve missed seeing them in print, subscribe now to JVibe magazine.)

As expected, Shia LaBeouf’s (Peace, May/June 2008) newest blockbuster flick Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has been a monster smash at the box office, raking in some astonishing dough since its May 22 release: $127 million on opening weekend, $277 million in the States and $634 million worldwide. When it’s all said and done, the movie should be in the top 15 to 20 of the highest-grossing movies of all time, even with somewhat tepid and nostalgic reviews from most critics. Shia is currently in post-production on a movie called New York, I Love You, a series of short, five-minute romantic tales directed by 12 different filmmakers in New York City. Costarring many noted actors and actresses, including JVibe favorite Natalie Portman (Love/Sex, June/July 2005 and Power of Speech, January/February 2008), New York, I Love You will be released in 2009. Click here for more information.     

Emmanuelle Chriqui (Remembrance, March/April 2006) has also enjoyed a nice month with her newest movie, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, grossing $68 million so far since its release on June 6. Costarring another friend of JVibe, Adam Sandler, Chriqui’s character in the movie is a Palestinian immigrant who runs a hair salon in New York. The place is about to go bottoms up until she hires Sandler—a former Israeli assassin—as a new hairdresser. He keeps the business afloat by offering “special services” to clients in the back room, with other Sandler-esque hilarity ensuing with goofy jokes, off-the-wall antics and phenomenally outrageous fight scenes with John Turturro, who plays Sandler’s Palestinian arch nemesis in the flick. Check out the official site of the movie here and then go see it, because it’s well worth the laughs!  

Also this month, the Shout! Factory debuted The Jewish Songbook: The Heart & Humor of a People, a 13-song album of classic Jewish songs, featuring Sandler on “Hine Ma Tov,” and other performances by Jason Alexander, Rob Schneider and Barbra Streisand. A portion of the album’s proceeds will benefit the Jewish Federation of New York and Los Angeles; each artist on the album has agreed to donate 50 percent of his or her royalties, and Shout! Factory will be making a matching contribution. Check out the album and purchase it online here. 

Season three of David Wain’s (Peace, May/June 2008) uproarious online series, Wainy Days, has started on MyDamnChannel.com. Wain’s show, which won him a 2008 Webby Award for Best Comedy Series, is a fictionalized tale of his bumbling romantic pursuits in New York City. New shows will be premiering every other Monday on the site. Wain was also a contributor/writer for the new book Camp Camp, a “love letter to summer camp and history of our generation, a chance to relive every Champion sweatshirt-wearing, accidental bed-wetting, sky-hook-wedgie-receiving, tie-dye-making golden moment via hundreds of photographs and stories….” This must-read is for anyone who has ever attended summer camp of any kind and is available for purchase here. 

As of June 17, Kevin Youkilis (Take Action, September/October 2005) is the runaway leader in all-star voting for American League First Baseman, trumping the Minnesota Twins’ Justin Morneau by almost 200,000 votes. You can vote for our favorite goateed Jewish ball player here to make sure the Tribe gets represented in July at Yankee Stadium.

Adam Marks is the marketing manager for JVibe's publisher, JFL Media. His Hollywood crush is Natalie Portman and he is an unabashed fan of Josh Schwartz's new TV sensation, Gossip Girl.