Celebrity Grapevine

He lost the woman he once called "the love of my life" to actor Yehuda Levy, but TV star Ran Danker may yet have the last laugh.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
yehuda levy 88 298 (photo credit: Hot Television)
yehuda levy 88 298
(photo credit: Hot Television)
HE LOST the woman he once called "the love of my life" to actor Yehuda Levy, but TV star Ran Danker may yet have the last laugh. Danker recently placed ahead of Levy in Motek magazine's vote for the most desirable man in Israel, with the 22-year-old voted into first place by a panel of 21 well-known women between the ages of 20 and 50. (One man, make-up artist Mickey Boganim, also participated in the voting.) Motek, the glossy celebrity magazine published by Ma'ariv, invited judges including actresses Hana Laszlo, Gilat Ankori and Michal Yanai, as well as fashion personalities such as Tovele Hasson, Sandra Ringler and Shirli Boganin, to take part in the vote. Levy, 27, didn't place in the top 10, ranking in at 57th. FANS OF American reality series The Apprentice will see two of Donald Trump's four children take the lead on their father's hit show during its upcoming season. Dad plans to take a back seat while Donald, Jr. and Ivanka take over many of the show's major duties, which until now have included the elder Trump's signature bark, "You're fired!" at the end of every episode. Trump described the change in the show during a video conference last week at the opening session of the Globes business conference in Tel Aviv. Ivanka, 25, did a lot of modeling as a teenager and is no stranger to celebrity, but Donald the Younger has assiduously avoided the spotlight as a way to establish his own identity. Now that both he and Ivanka are senior executives in the family business, and he and his wife Vanessa, 28, also a former model, are about to become first-time parents, he's relented. Israelis will be able to see the two Trump kids in the flesh once the family's 70-story real estate project on the seam of Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv gets underway. The younger Trumps plan to start coming to Israel on a regular basis in February. Donald, Sr., who already has a park named after him in Israel, said he'd like to see the project in person, though he hasn't yet pinned down a date. THOUGH THEY were estranged for 20 years, Israeli writer Israel Zamir and his famous father, Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, were reunited in the twilight of Bashevis Singer's life. Zamir, who has translated most of his father's works into Hebrew, recently attended a Yiddishpiel Theater production of Last Love, a play adapted from one of his father's poignant stories. AFTER LEAVING the Channel 2 news team to spend a couple of years at Channel 10, Emmanuel Rosen has returned to his former home with an investigative program show sandwiched between those of Ilana Dayan and Rafi Ginat. Between them, the three formidable reporters should be able to convince viewers there's nothing going on in Israel except cheating and corruption. IN A move that caught several Israel Broadcasting Authority journalists by surprise, Arye Shaked has been named acting head of the news division at Israel Radio. Shaked will replace Michael Miro, the head of Israel Radio's news department for the past 3 1/2 years. As chairman of the Israel Journalists Association, Shaked frequently crossed swords with the IBA management, with his own job at the IBA occasionally falling into jeopardy because of his union activities. Miro will continue at Israel Radio as a social affairs reporter and commentator, but he'll no longer have administrative concerns to worry about. Shaked's appointment fits nicely with the old Israeli adage: If you can't beat 'em, get them to join you. That's exactly what happened many years ago with Amnon Nadav, a fiery leader of the Journalists Association one day and the head of Israel Radio the next. A RECENT Grapevine column reported that the Israel Press Council is changing its stance on journalists who appear in commercials. A reader promptly wrote in to note that Haim Hecht, who's well-known for exposing cheaters in the business world, has now moved to the other side of the microphone and is touting the virtues of a certain bank. While the bank in question may be everything he says it is in the commercials, Hecht's participation in the commercials illustrates another old adage: "It may be kosher, but it still stinks."