RICHARD JOHNSON: Caroline Aaron has no clue how ‘Mrs. Maisel’ will end, finds COVID czar on set annoying

Caroline Aaron has no idea how “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” will end, though she is filming the final fifth season with four more episodes left.

“I think they are writing it as they go,” Aaron told me.

Aaron plays Shirley Maisel opposite Rachel Brosnahan, Tony Shalhoub and Alex Borstein in the award-winning comedy on Prime Video.

After 25 years in Los Angeles, she’s glad to be back in New York, although the “COVID czar” on set can be annoying.

“We had no shutdowns,” Aaron said, but everyone still wears a mask between scenes. “We use plastic umbrellas that go down to our knees.”

Instead of sitting down together for lunch, “they knock on our door with little brown paper bags.”

Social justice is deeply rooted in Aaron’s soul, having grown up Jewish in southern Richmond, Va. Her late mother was Nina Friedman Abady, a Selma, Ala., civil rights activist who walked with Martin Luther King Jr. Aaron endured cross-burnings on her front lawn.

Aaron has acted in more than 100 movies, including four films by Woody Allen. One was “Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Allen wasn’t a stickler to his scripts. “Woody would tell me, ‘Just say anything you want.’ He wants it comfortable in your mouth.”

****

Ben Affleck was shocked by the crowd of paparazzi following him and his new wife Jennifer Lopez in Paris. While he is used to the paps and their flashing lights, he felt this was a tsunami.

Having returned to L.A. from his honeymoon in Paris to film “Aquaman 2″ on the Warner Bros lot, Affleck told a pal, “I don’t know how Jen does it — it’s like they are invisible in her eyes.”

****

George Clooney and his glamorous wife Amal arrived by their private speed boat at the Grand Hotel on Lake Como to have a romantic dinner at the Tremezzo restaurant.

The photogenic couple left holding hands and told fellow diners they were staying at their house there for most of August.

****

George Soros has never been more unpopular with law-and-order rednecks than he is now amid a crime wave, but the billionaire can rest more easily with the protection of Tony Schiena.

Schiena is the South African martial artist who could replace Steven Seagal in action movies, and who runs MOSAIC, Multi Operational Security Agency Intelligence Company.

Soros, who supported the election and reelection of prosecutors who backed criminal-justice reform, needs more protection now. Schiena will help keep him safe from the psychos.

When contacted, Schiena wrote: “Thanks for the message but as a policy, MOSAIC doesn’t disclose its clients.”

****

Actor James Francis Ginty, who just won Best Short at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival for his movie “Created Sleep Transmissions,” which he directed and produced, has turned down an invitation to show his work at the Moscow International Film Festival because of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Ginty, who co-starred with Harrison Ford in “K-19: The Widowmaker,” and his film’s co-stars unanimously turned down the all-expenses-paid trip to Russia.

Rosamund Pike, who co-starred with Bruce Willis and Ginty in “Surrogates,” received a special thanks in the credits for her support.

****

Anthony Hopkins has been sending boxes of food and toys to homeless dogs in the care of Jeffrey Beri’s animal rescue mission, No Dogs Left Behind.

Beri just hosted a fund-raiser in Southampton that was also supported by socialite Tinsley Mortimer and divorce attorney Ken Jewell.

****

The primary victory of J.D. Vance in Ohio should encourage other authors to run for office.

Vance wrote “Hillbilly Elegy,” a bestseller in 2016 in which he explains how he grew up poor, joined the Marines, then went to Ohio State and Yale Law School.

Now married and the father of three, Vance is the Republican nominee to succeed retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman. He will face Democrat Tim Ryan in November.

Vance, whose ancestors hail from Kentucky, ends the first chapter: “I am a hill person. So is much of America’s white working class. And we hill people aren’t doing very well.”

*****

Suraj Patel, who is running for Congress against Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, just got engaged.

Patel, 38, popped the question to Emily Bina, a producer at “The Atlantic,” and she said “Yes!”

The couple met in Dumbo in late 2018 after Patel lost a previous election.

“This beautiful woman comes up to me and says, ‘I just want to let you know, I voted for you and I live on your block. I like your politics.”

Three and a half years later, as friends hid in the bushes filming, Patel tapped her on the shoulder and said, “You live on my block, and I’m voting for you.”

Nadler represents the Upper West Side and Maloney the Upper East Side but now their districts are being merged.

“Lots of people are trying to figure out if they can afford to live here and raise a family” said Patel, a lawyer. “It’s a generational issue for our district.”

Suraj and Emily live in the same building with his two brothers, sister-in-law, toddler nephew and twin dogs, Peyton and Eli. Sounds like a sitcom.