It’s typically the custom on Passover to leave a cup of wine and seat open for Elijah, the Jewish prophet who will bring forth messianic times. However, at one Passover seder last year, a few chairs were also reserved for some serious It Girls.
In a recent interview with Nylon Magazine, Jewish actress Pauline Chalamet, who is a star as Kimberly Finkel in “Sex Lives of College Girls” and Timothée’s older sister in real life, revealed that she spent Passover last year with Jennette McCurdy. As the conversation in Nylon revealed, Pauline is a bibliophile and has forged a friendship Jennette, who authored “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” over their love of books. (Books have also apparently brought together Pauline and Jewish actress Kaia Gerber. According to the article, the pair DM back and forth about book suggestions.)
“[Jennette and I] were at a Passover seder last year [with writer Alice Carrière], and the three of us didn’t talk to anyone else: All we did was shoot books back and forth,” Pauline recalled to Nylon. Sadly for us, the article didn’t further expound on the seder and the Hey Alma staff has so many questions. Who was hosting this literary It Girl Passover seder? Who sang the Ma Nishtana, or Four Questions? Is Jennette, who grew up Mormon, exploring Jewishness or was she just along for the ride? And most importantly: Why weren’t we invited?!!
Though neither Pauline nor Timothée have spoken at length about their own Jewish identities, Passover was clearly a part of their Jewish practice growing up. As evidenced by this photo their mother shared in 2014 captioned “Timmy finds the afikomen”:
Where the article is lacking in It Girl seder intel, it does give us some insight into other important pop culture moments. For example, Pauline shared how she felt about her daughter’s birth announcement. Pauline gave birth sometime in either late August or early September and inadvertently made this public knowledge when a paparazzi captured a private conversation between her and director Greta Gerwig at a Stella McCartney show at Paris Fashion Week. “I was like, ‘You want to film that and sell it to someone? I hope you got good money for that, at least,'” she relayed. “None of my friends had any empathy for me. They were like, ‘You were at a social event.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but what?’”
Pauline also commented on the Timothée look alike contest saying, “I thought the whole thing was great. I love that it got shut down because they didn’t have a permit and the event got bigger than they thought it was going to be.”
Even so, we’d still appreciate more information about the presumably fabulous Passover seder and for Pauline Chalamet, Kaia Gerber and Jennette McCurdy to start their own book club ASAP.
