Don’t miss this meal
“When Do We Eat?” — a comedy-drama about a family’s very unusual Passover seder — plays the San Francisco World Film Festival at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, at the CineArts Theater, 85 West Portal Ave., San Francisco. First-time director/screenwriter Salvador Luria coaxed a great cast to appear in his modest budget film (Michael Lerner, Shiri Appleby, Ben Feldman, Adam Lamberg, Jack Klugman and Lesley Ann Warren).
The family’s major differences are resolved during a seder that includes the accidental ingestion of LSD by Lerner. Named the best comedy at the 2005 Napa/Sonoma Film Festival, Luria tells me that he expects to get a general release date for the film soon. He believes that Klugman and Lamberg will appear at the San Francisco screening.
Briefly noted
“Capote,” a bio-pic on the famously eccentric writer Truman Capote opens Friday, Sept. 30, and has great advance buzz. The screenplay is the first one written by actor Dan Futterman (“Judging Amy”) and Bob Balaban has a supporting role as legendary New Yorker magazine editor William Shawn, the father of actor/writer Wallace Shawn. (I suppose they could have cast Wallace to play his father. But William had a much more dour manner than his very ebullient son.)… Actor Liam Neeson (“Schindler’s List),” confirms that Steven Spielberg will begin a bio-pic on Abraham Lincoln this fall. Neeson will play “the Great Emancipator.”…. Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” has been picked up for daily broadcast in Great Britain. His wry humor is expected to appeal to British tastes.
Channel surfing
Here are some of the Jewish performers in the networks new TV shows.
“How I Met Your Mother” (began Monday, Sept. 19, CBS) is a rare “four Jew” show. In 2030, we hear the voice of Bob Saget (“Full House”) telling his children the tale of how he met their mother. In the present, Saget’s role (Ted) is played by young actor Josh Radnor. Ted’s best friends, in 2005, are played by Alyson Hannigan (whose mother is Jewish), Jason Segal and Neil Patrick Harris.
Radnor starred in the recent Broadway revival of “The Graduate.” His family belongs to an Ohio synagogue and Radnor’s sister has been active on behalf of Birthright Israel.
Brent Spiner (Data on “Star Trek: Next Generation”) returns to television in the sci-fi show “Threshold” (began Friday, Sept. 16, CBS). Space aliens invade the Earth and Spiner plays one of a group of three geniuses that assist the leader of the resistance.
Henry Winkler co-stars with Stockard Channing as just-divorced parents who head up a family of wacky doctors in “Out of Practice” (began Friday, Sept. 16, CBS).
Mandy Patinkin plays a top FBI criminal profiler in “Criminal Minds” (expected to begin Thursday, Sept. 22, CBS).
2005’s pigskin Jews
The following is a list of active Jewish NFL players, prepared with the help of “Jewish Sports Review” newsletter: Jay Fiedler, New York Jets; Lennie Friedman, Washington Redskins; Josh Miller, New England Patriots; Igor Olshansky, San Diego Chargers; Sage Rosenfels, Miami Dolphins; Mike Rosenthal, Minnesota Vikings; and Mike Seidman, Carolina Panthers. (Olshansky, who is playing in his second season, mostly grew up in San Francisco and attended the city’s Hebrew Academy.)
Columnist Nate Bloom, an Oaklander, can be reached at [email protected].