of ourselves as being really
cool."
Steve: "We're actually
wearing very expensive
Italian designer clothes, so
e [the nerdiness] is kind of
in the eye of the behold-

er.

gum company.
Meanwhile, 'Ally McBeal" is a criti-
cal success, and the secondary charac-
ters are gaining notoriety. The Danc-
ing Twins even have their own Web
site:

(http://members.aol.com/allytwins).
On "Ally," they started as one-
time extras dancing in the local
watering-hole. They have become
regulars, known only as the "Danc-
ing Twins," playing a nerdy stereo-

type, complete with thick, black-
framed glasses and matching pat-
terned clothes (high-waisted pants
with thick belts).
"We don't really think of them as
nerdy characters," says Eric. "We think

Eric: "They're actually
very trendy clothes."
Steve: "They buy them at
the hippest clothes stores in
L.A. We think we're cutting-edge
fashion."
Eric: "The glasses we were wearing
on the show we didn't like — stan-
dard nerd-type glasses — so we
bought designer Jean-Paul Gaultier
sunglasses and modified them with
standard lenses." The new frames
debuted in the Dec. 15 episode.
On the set, they usually dress
alike "just because we own a lot of
the same clothes. We go shopping
together," says Steve.
They live in separate houses
near each other in the Hollywood
Hills. And, both single ("any twin
girls in Detroit?"), they're thinking
of buying a house together.
Growing up in a secular Jewish
household, the Cohens identify as
Jews.
"We're aware of other people who
are Jewish in the- entertainment
industry because so many people
are," says Steve. "And there's a lot of
people that we admire who are
entertainers — Peter Sellers, Woody
Allen, Howard Stern — [he says
he's] half-Jewish, too."
So how did they feel about the
Ally episode where the Conserva-
tive rabbi asks out "Methodist
McBeal," even after she puts
down his "pointy hat"?
"I guess if the actors played it
believably — I hadn't thought
about it being unrealistic," says
Steve.
"Having the name Cohen, a lot
of people know that you're Jewish,"
says Eric. "In the old days, having a
Jewish name, maybe people would
change [it], but today I think it
could even help you. It hasn't really
affected us."
Steve: "There's the other Coen
brothers, Joel and Ethan Coen [of
Fargo acclaim]. Are they Jewish?"
"We want to try and meet them,
get in one of their films, because we
like them a lot, too." Oh, brother.

❑

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1998

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