Names and faces
■ Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” was partly improvised and scripted by nine writers, but it still walked away with one of the Writers Guild Awards’ top honors, best adapted screenplay. At the guild’s virtual, recorded 73rd annual awards ceremony Sunday, the biggest winners were a pair of awards-season dark horses. Best original screenplay went to the script for the feminist revenge thriller “Promising Young Woman,” by writer-director Emerald Fennell. The film, which is nominated for five Oscars including best picture, triumphed over Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” along with “Sound of Metal,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Palm Springs.” The “Borat” sequel win came over “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “News of the World,” “One Night in Miami” and “The White Tiger.” Best documentary screenplay went to the Jamal Khashoggi documentary “The Dissident,” written by Mark Monroe and director Bryan Fogel. Baron Cohen and his fellow writers accepted the award by Zoom. “Thank you for this incredible award, though I can’t help thinking we won it because 60% of the Writers Guild worked on this movie,” said Baron Cohen. “A film like this is extremely hard to write partly because it stars real people whose behavior is completely unpredictable. Well, apart from Rudy Giuliani, who did everything we hoped for.”
■ Jonathan Pollard, an American who served a 30-year sentence for spying for Israel, defended his actions in his first interview since arriving in Israel late last year, saying that America had “stabbed Israel in the back” by withholding intelligence from its ally. In excerpts from the interview with the Israel Hayom daily published Monday, Pollard describes his happiness at being a free man in Israel while expressing regret that he was not able to father children because of his incarceration. Pollard, now 66, sold military secrets to Israel while working as a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy in the 1980s. He was arrested in 1985 after trying unsuccessfully to gain asylum at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and pleaded guilty. The espionage affair embarrassed Israel and tarnished its relations with the United States for years. Pollard was given a life sentence. U.S. defense and intelligence officials said his spying caused great damage and strenuously argued against his release. But after serving 30 years in federal prison, he was released in 2015 and placed on a five-year parole period. Pollard arrived in Israel to a hero’s welcome in December. Israel Hayom was founded by the late casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who also provided a private plane to take Pollard and his wife to Israel. The newspaper said it would publish its full interview with Pollard on Friday.