A+E

Comic Judah Friedlander is the World Champion, the bestest at everything. (See
www.judahfriedlander.com for proof). Catch him in Playboy's Hollywood Comedy Tour.

Of your fields of excellence, does one achievement stand out?

Probably when I played for the Brazilian national soccer team, scoring 40 goals in one game. And that was against Italy, so then I got to sleep with the princess of Italy after the game, right on the center of the field. Then there was a week-long party. And it was all for charity, too, 'cause ultimately it's about helping the children. If I can bang the princess of Italy in front of 200,000 Brazilian fans and raise money for starving children, I think that's great.

Any area you need practice in?

Not really. But I am gonna be on the Wheaties box. Yeah, the front's going to be a picture of me karate-kicking Michael Jordan and Brett Farve and Wayne Gretzsky in the balls, and the back cover's going to be me banging their wives. And it's all for charity.

Goldstein (NR) (3 stars)


$29.95

The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Two-Disc Special Edition (R) (4 stars)


$26.98

Philip Kaufman may not be the most prolific director, but few can match his ability to avoid pigeonholing. Released in 1965 and long unavailable in any video format, Goldstein was influenced by such indie pioneers as John Cassavetes, as well as the French New Wave. Overtly experimental, the film followed a free-spirited Hasidim as he blithely danced his way around Chicago, confounding everyone whose path he crossed.

The remarkable thing about the rerelease of Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being is that it trumps the 1999 Criterion Collection version. Usually, it's the other way around. Based on Milan Kundera's novel, the sexy drama described how the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia stifled the young people enjoying the fruits of "socialism with a human face." Their plight is mirrored in the romance shared by characters played by Daniel Day-Lewis, Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche. Few movies have depicted the narcotic joy of erotic love as enticingly. The commentary and making-of material elevate this edition above previous ones.

I Married My Mother-In-Law, edited by Ileana Silverman ($23.95). Okay, so the premise isn't grabby: essays about the in-laws. But Silverman has herded into her volume a nice selection of fiction writers (Amy Bloom, Darcy Steinke) and literate journalists (Tom Junod, Peter Richmond), as well as real-life couples like Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman. The results are probing, thoughtful, funny, moving.

Esquire, February. Snatch this from the newsstand before it's gone, both for the annual Dubious Achievement Awards (a reliably funny look back at 2005) and for Part 2 of Scott Raab's big, ongoing chronicle of the rebuilding of Ground Zero. (Part 1 is available at www.esquire.com.)