Spielberg group gives $1M to Jewish museum

Spielberg group gives $1M to Jewish museum

PHILADELPHIA — A foundation created by Stephen Spielberg is giving $1 million to the National Museum of American Jewish History.

The money from the Righteous Persons Foundation will go toward a new, five-story museum building being built in Philadelphia.

With the donation, officials say the museum’s capital campaign has raised $111 million toward its $150 million goal. The new museum is set to open in 2010.

Spielberg helped establish the Righteous Persons Foundation in 1994 after directing his Oscar-winning Holocaust film “Schindler’s List.”

The museum was established in 1976 and is dedicated to telling the story of the American Jewish experience.

Family is OK with role

LOS ANGELES — Will Smith usually plays the hero in his summer blockbusters. But in “Hancock,” he drinks, swears, mouths off — and goes to prison.

Smith’s role as a superhero-gone-bad could be jarring to some moviegoers — but not his children and wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

“Fortunately, our kids are in the business so they kind of understand,” the 39-year-old actor told Associated Press Television News at the red-carpet premiere of the film.

The Hollywood couple’s son Jaden co-starred with Smith in 2006’s “The Pursuit of Happyness”; daughter Willow can now be seen in the family flick “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.”

Today’s birthdays

Actress Katherine Helmond (“Who’s The Boss,” “Soap”) is 79. Actress Shirley Knight is 72. Musician Robbie Robertson is 65. Singer Huey Lewis is 58. Singer Marc Cohn is 49. Actress Edie Falco (“The Sopranos”) is 45. Rapper RZA is 39. Singer Joe is 35. Rapper Bizarre of D12 is 32. Singer Jason Wade of Lifehouse is 28. Bassist Nick O’Malley of Arctic Monkeys is 23.