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Friday January 14, 2005

Celebrity Jews

by nate bloom

Midseason TV notes

Rob Morrow (Dr. Fleischman from “Northern Exposure”) and David Krumholtz (“The Lyon’s Den”) play brothers who team up to solve crimes in the new series “Numb3rs” (Jan. 23, CBS). Morrow plays an FBI agent who calls on math genius Krumholtz for help. Veteran Judd Hirsch plays their father. (By the way, we recently discovered that —no kidding — Morrow named his now 3-year-old daughter Tu.)

Patricia Arquette’s series, “Medium,” about a crime-solving psychic, started Jan. 3 on NBC. While it got mixed reviews, Arquette was singled out for praise by critics.

Also already airing is the reality series “Wickedly Perfect,” (CBS, Thursdays) hosted by Joan Lunden, the Sacramento native who formerly anchored “Good Morning, America.” The show is a “domestic diva” competition in which contestants try to be best in the areas that Martha Stewart legally excels in: cooking, decorating, etc.

Worth taking a look at is “Committed,” a new NBC sitcom (started Jan. 4) about a wacky Jewish guy from a family of Jewish geniuses who hooks up with a wacky non-Jewish girl. (Josh Cooke, who plays the Jewish guy, isn’t Jewish in real life.)

Returning mid-season is ABC’s “Alias,” a so-so show that may end this year. The writing has never matched a talented cast that includes four good Jewish actors: Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin, Kevin Wiseman and Greg Grunberg.

Mazel tov

Sara Gilbert, best known as co-star of the “Roseanne” show, was in the gossip pages recently as news leaked out that she became a mother in late October. Her long-term partner, Alison Adler (probably a nice Jewish woman) had the couple’s child after being artificially inseminated. It’s hard to know how much to credit tabloid reports that Sara’s sister, actress Melissa “Little House” Gilbert was “thrilled,” or that Roseanne Barr sent over a “boatload of gifts.”

Local angles

The Scissor Sisters, who just scored a Grammy nomination, appear Jan. 30 at the Fox Warfield. The music group’s co-head is Scott Hoffman, aka “Baby Face.” ... The City Arts and Lectures series at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco has quite a line-up of Jewish celebs: magician Ricky Jay (Jan. 20), Gloria Steinem (Feb. 9), Gene Wilder (April 12) documentary maker Frederick Wiseman (June 13), and best-selling writers Ruth Reichl (April 13) and Jonathan Safran Foer (April 19).

Meanwhile, production just finished up on “The Bee Season,” from Myla Goldberg’s acclaimed novel about a Jewish family. The flick was filmed last year in San Francisco and Berkeley. Somewhat oddly, Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche play the Jewish parents. The screenplay is by Naomi Foner, the mother of Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Columnist Nate Bloom, an Oaklander, can be reached at middleoftheroad1@aol.com.

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