Magician David Blaine has successfully completed his latest endurance challenge. For two days the 33-year-old has been locked into a spinning gyroscope suspended 50 feet in the air above Times Square, and his challenge was to free himself from the restraints holding him.

The event, which promoted value retailers Target’s Thanksgiving event, also saw Target giving 100 needy children a shopping trip, with each child getting a $500 gift card to spend at their stores.

Lucian Freud is the number one artist who other members of the UK artistic community most admire, according to a poll by The Great Art Fair.

Freud, the grandson of psychologist Sigmund Freud, was born in Berlin in 1922 and moved to the UK with his family in 1933 following the Nazi rise to power in Germany.

Legendary music star Bob Dylan, who turned to DJ-ing earlier this year, is to have his Theme Time Radio Hour broadcast on the BBC. The critically acclaimed 60 minute show offers an eclectic mix of 65-year-old Dylan’s favourite tunes, as well as his thoughts and perspectives on music and other subjects.

Since airing on XM Radio in the States in May this year, the weekly show has covered themes including whisky, dance, police and cars.

Funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen is tipped to triumph at next year’s Golden Globe awards.

The event, which hands out gongs for the best in TV and film over the past 12 months, is voted for by members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and is seen as an indication of who might get lucky at the even more prestigious Oscars, which are held in February.

After four series, Family Business, a reality show about a porn company run by a Jewish family, appears to have come to an end.

Seymore Butts, aka nice Jewish boy Adam Glasser, has revealed in his Myspace blog that makers Showtime are not looking to commission a fifth series of the popular programme.

According to his blog, the 42-year-old revealed, “Well, it’s almost official…Showtime will not be renewing Family Business for a series five.”

The Cowardly Lion costume from The Wizard Of Oz is set to be auctioned next month and is set to go for as much as $600,000.

The iconic costume, which was worn by Bert Lahr in the 1939 film, will go under the hammer during the Profiles in History’s Hollywood Memorabilia auction beginning 14 December.

Lahr, born Irving Lahrheim in 1895, was a successful vaudeville actor before getting the coveted role in the MGM classic film. He died in 1967.

Funnyman Jack Black missed out on a night of passion with movie beauty Jennifer Love Hewitt because he didn’t realise she was trying to seduce him.

The School of Rock and TenaciousD star still regrets blowing his chances with the actress, his co-star in 1998 horror flick I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. Despite appearing in the film, Black’s role was uncredited while Love Hewitt was the lead actress.

Magician David Blaine has begun his latest trick – being secured to a gyroscope and suspended 50 feet in the air above New York’s Times Square.

The event is part of a publicity stunt for value retailer Target, who will give 100 children selected by the Salvation Army a treat if Blaine manages to escape from the gyroscope in time for the retailers’ two-day sale, which starts on November 24.

He may play a poor TV reporter from Kazakhstan, but funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen is laughing all the way to the bank.

Having proven that he can make millions for Hollywood , the London-born entertainer is set to pocket more than £10m next year following advance fees for his planned Bruno film, as well as other payments for starring in other productions – plus royalties from Borat’s DVD release and other licensed products including birthday cards.

Former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss is to go ahead with plans to open the first male brothel in Nevada and hopes it will be ready in the next few months.

The 41-year-old, who was busted by police in 1993 for running an upscale prostitution service aimed at LA’s rich and famous.

Heidi’s Stud Farm will be built in Nye County, an hour’s drive from Las Vegas subject to getting approval for a brothel license from the local commissioners and sheriff.

Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, businessman Ronald Lauder and Little Britain’s Matt Lucas were recognised for their contribution to television at the 34th International Emmy Awards which took place last night in New York.

Spielberg picked up the The International Emmy Founders Award and commented on how his career started in TV. His early TV directing included Columbo and Marcus Welby, MD.

Funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen may soon be adding Austria to the list of countries he has upset with his comic creations.

Having won few friends in Kazakhstan for his portrayal of the country as backwards, he is set to cause upset to the Austrian nation with a film based on his gay fashion reporter character Bruno.

There’s been many versions of Hava Nagila, from classic shul to heavy metal but by far the strangest is an interpretation of the classic Jewish tune by a group of Thai performers.

The Pong Lang Sa Orn are known through Thailand for their mix of music and comedy and no doubt inspired by the huge influx of Israelis who travel to the Land of Smiles every year came across Hava Nagila as a song to perform.

If you’ve been wondering who is the voice behind the adverts trying to get the great British public to switch from analogue TV viewing to digital, well it’s none other than Little Britain’s Matt Lucas.

The ads featuring the 32-year-old tubby comic as Digit Al were created by Wallace and Gromit makers Aardman and are part of a multi-million pound campaign to educate people about the benefits of getting digital TV now.

Having proved to be a hit in the UK as well as USA, Sacha Baron Cohen is hoping his Borat movie will prove popular with Israelis when it is released on November 30.

Already one fan is his maternal grandmother who watched a midnight preview of the film in her home town of Haifa in October and then called her grandson at 4am to express her approval of it.

American Idol judge Paula Abdul is set to come to Israel for Chanukah and Israeli Tourist Minister Isaac Herzog has also offered to try and find her a potential Jewish husband.

Abdul, 44, who scored a worldwide hit with Opposites Attract in the late 1980s, also publically revealed her strong Jewish background according to Israeli website Ynet.

With just two months to go before Celebrity Big Brother airs on Channel 4, bookmakers are starting to take bets on which celebs will make it into the famous house.

Already Jewish personalities are being touted as possible housemates with quiz show host Dale Winton and TV presenter Ruby Wax leading the pack, according to The Mirror newspaper.

Illinois-born Wax is currently on TV fronting celebrity circus show Cirque de Celebrité on Sky One.

The London stage production of the smash 1980s movie Dirty Dancing has proved such a hit that producers are extending its run until at least March 2008.

The show, which opened in October at the Aldwych Theatre was set to finish in October 2007.

Such is the popularity of Dirty Dancing, the show was sold out for its first two months six months before it even opened.

For many years now, Jewish musician Craig Taubman has been on a drive to get more Jewish music out, from his own material through to compilation albums featuring other artists, Taubman has been one of the most widely recorded musicians around.

And now, through a deal with Fontana distribution, a division of Universal Music Group, Taubman’s latest album The Shabbat Lounge is gaining wide distribution across retailers in the States including Virgin Megastores and Borders.

Interviews with Sacha Baron Cohen talking about himself are rare and Rolling Stone has one of the most revealing interviews that Baron Cohen has done where he talks about his Jewish background as well as his yiddishe mama.

The magazine, which goes on sale at the end of the month provides a revealing insight into the 35-year-old former Habonim youth member.

Comic legend Mel Brooks has helped Leukaemia Research to raise £75,000 by being the guest in a one-off event at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End.

Wednesday night’s Special Audience With Mel Brooks featured the 80-year-old comic in conversation with BBC boss Alan Yentob as well as inviting questions from the audience which included Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

Troubled indie rocker Pete Doherty is said to be trying to arrange a date to discuss working with boozy jazz singer Amy Winehouse.

Doherty, who has been battling against drugs for a number of years and who has a maternal Jewish grandfather is reported as wanting to record a number of duets and Winehouse is high on his list of people the Babyshambles frontman wishes to collaborate with.

More than a decade after the BBC allowed Paul Kaye to spoof celebs with his alter ego Dennis Pennis, he’s back with a new character - foul mouth New Yorker Mike Strutter.

The man, who is said to have inspired Sacha Baron Cohen’s mock interviewing style, Kaye was responsible for such moments as asking Hollywood actor Steve Martin why he wasn’t funny any more, and asking singing siren Cher if anyone had ever told her she was beautiful and meant it.

A guidebook offering a comprehensive look at Jewish heritage across England has just been published by English Heritage.

Jewish Heritage in England is a full colour book showcasing over 300 Jewish buildings and landmarks and has been published to coincide with the 350th anniversary of the Jewish return back to England.

The book aims to highlight some of the regions national treasures that people may not be aware of.

Actor and part-time rock star Jack Black says he is losing a ton of money on his Tenacious D tour because ticket prices fail to cover the costs of the amazing stage show he puts on with bandmate Kyle Gass.

And he says people should stop moaning about the price tickets to see the band in action.

Hollywood veteran actor Dustin Hoffman is now more Jewish than ever. For years, The Hoff, who is currently onscreen with Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson in Stranger Than Fiction, would avoid being associated with Jewish things, but these days he’s more relaxed about his identity.

Hollywood AOJO Carrie Fisher has made her stage debut in an autobiographical play about her life.

Wishful Drinking is set to run until December 23 at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

Best known for her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars, Fisher has also made a name for herself with her books Surrender The Pink and Delusions Of Grandma as well as remaining in newspaper headlines.

Hollywood A-list couple, actress Rachel Weisz and director Darren Aronofsky have no immediate plans to get hitched under a synagogue chupah or indeed get married anywhere.

Despite getting engaged last year and having a baby boy Henry Chance in May this year, Weisz says she’s still dreaming of her ideal wedding and says they are too busy to arrange marriage formalities.