Seth Rogen paints menorah on TV show to promote charity
Hollywood’s hardest-working pothead Seth Rogen and his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen, painted a Hanukkah menorah on a segment of KTLA Morning News in Los Angeles last week to promote an event for their Alzheimer’s charity, “Hilarity for Charity.”
Rogen, an actor, director and producer who has starred in dozens of hit comedies and voices Pumbaa in The Lion King, and Miller Rogen, an actress and director, are one of the highest-profile Jewish power couples in Hollywood. Although they are very upfront about their religion, they seemed taken aback by the strange demand by Sam Rubin, the program’s host, who suggested that they paint a ceramic menorah on the air, perhaps since Hanukkah is months away.
Rubin said he had gotten the menorah from Color Me Mine, a chain of paint-your-own pottery stores, because he had noticed that Rogen’s Instagram is filled with pictures of pottery he had created.
“If you weren’t Jewish, this would be wildly antisemitic. Did a non-Jewish P.A. come up with this?” Rogen asked, adding, “It’s technically a Hanukkiah.”
Rubin opened the interview by talking about Good Boys, a popular US comedy film produced by Rogen, but then inexplicably segued into a discussion of their charity by saying, “But it’s not all about the Benjamins,” a reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s condemnation of AIPAC and the US Congress.
Once they were handed the menorah, the Rogens gamely painted away, since they were there to promote the September 14 “Hilarity for Charity” County Fair event in Los Angeles. Miller Rogen came up with the idea for the charity, which has raised more
than $11 million for Alzheimer’s Disease research, support groups and care, after Miller Rogen’s mother was diagnosed with the condition at the age of 55. Miller Rogen said that after her mother’s diagnosis, “We spent the first while, of course, being very scared and sad and devastated. And then we realized – ‘Oh wait, we have a voice that we can use.’”
The HFC County Fair event will feature carnival games hosted by comedians including Adam Devine, Andrew Rannells, Ben Feldman, Casey Wilson, Ilana Glazer, Ike Barinholtz, Jeff Ross, Josh Gad, Kate Micucci, Nick Kroll, Regina Hall and Riki Lindhome.
The couple also spoke about their love of creating pottery and joked about how they call their kiln Brad Pitt, “because it gets so hot!” Miller Rogen joked.
Following the Brad Pitt reference, Rubin capped the occasionally odd interview by asking whether the couple had an open marriage, to which they responded in the negative. Rubin also asked Miller Rogen how she felt about Rogen kissing actress Charlize Theron, with whom he starred in the comedy Long Shot.
Miller Rogen replied that she would like to hear all about it, and that she would also like to kiss Theron herself.
“Either of us [are] allowed to sleep with Brad Pitt,” joked Rogen, and Miller Rogen added, “Or Charlize Theron.”