Excellent Thai Food As You Like It ... Extra Mild, Mild, Medium, Spicy and Extra Spicy

HAPPY
NEW
YEAR

Rated *** by Detroit News

Lunch Specials

from $

495

includes
soup &
rice

I 1:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

egttout

5

eiltetilig evadable • eocktaiLs eetvecl

Hours: Mon.-Thurs., I I a.m.- I 0 p.m., Fri & Sat. I I a.m.- I I p.m., Sun. I 2-9 p.m.

6635 Orchard Lake Road at Maple • Old Orchard Shopping Center • 626.6313

Peter Bershaj and Employees Wish Their Customers
and Friends A Happy & Healthy New Year

We Will Close at 3 p.m., Monday, Sept. 21 and Reopen Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 7 a.m.
We Will Close at 3 p.m., Monday, Sept. 28 and Reopen Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 7 a.m.

SHIVA DINNERS

Regular Hours
Mon-Sat Tam-8pm
CLOSED SUNDAYS

AND

BEAUTIFUL PARTY TRAYS

21754 W. 11 MILE RD. • HARVARD ROW • 352-4940 FAX: 352-9393

PRIVATE BANQUET FACILITIES FOR ALL OCCASIONS

r

$2

A B 2
'2 OFF ER
FOR

OFF

ruigKEN

SPECIALLY-TRIMMED RIBS

WITH OR WITHOUT SKIN

ALL DINNERS INCLUDE: SALAD OR COLE
SLAW, POTATOES AND GARLIC BREAD

ALL DINNERS INCLUDE: SALAD OR COLE
SLAW, POTATOES AND GARLIC BREAD

GOOD 7 DAYS!

Exp. 10-1-98 JN

GOOD 7 DAYS!

■ Exp. 10-1-98 ,1N

JL

Brass Pointe

g% a di kP 99

24234 Orchard Lake Rd., N.E. corner of 10 Mile • 476-1377

WI5HUNO OUR CZ - TO/AM
FRIEPID5 A
HAPPY INEW YEAR!

omeone in the kitchen is thinking.
c5 Trying
new things - chargrilled

N.Y. strip steak on a bed of
carmelized onions and roasted
peppers, grilled fresh. (They mean it.)
Salmon with corn salsa!"
1-130R METRoiT

"A

small place is making
a name for itself"
MANNY RASKI7N

w.,.

Mq4 Ad

Muple

IA Mile Rd.

Trail

1 f4YtR1

I' FERNDALE

•

the original •

Brady Family Tavern

+COME TO THE BACK
"ONE & ONLY"

Lake

j• West LI

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FREE

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(OF EQUAL OR LESSER VALUE)

WHERE coon FRIEM5
GET SERVED cool? FnOM

1050 Benstein Road, Walled Lake, MI

9/18

1998

248-669-2122

Open for Lunch & Dinner

RIB Detroit Jewish News

On the heels of roles in this summer's
"There's Something About Mary"
and "Your Friends and Neighbors,"
Ben Stiller stars as troubled TV screenwriter
Jerry Stahl in "Permanent Midnight."

SERENA DONADONI
Special to The Jewish News

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At The Movies

FOR FREE

love working," Ben Stiller said
recently in Los Angeles. "I'm
one of those people who have to
force myself to stop working
and deal with life."
This attitude goes a long way
toward explaining why the 32-year-old
actor is currently starring in no less
than three movies: Your Friends and
Neighbors, the disturbing examination
of sexual mores and betrayal that has
divided both critics and audiences; the
gleeful gross-out comedy There's
Something About Mary, a surprise sum-
mer runaway hit; and Permanent
Midnight, opening today, based on the
scathing, frank autobiography of Jerry
Stahl, who lived a see-saw double life
as a television writer and heroin
addict.
"This is a guy who lived a very
unique life," Stiller said about Stahl,
whom he portrays in the movie,
"because he's a guy who could hang in
the hood with drug dealers and hold
his own — as a tough guy, really —
but yet was also this funny comedy
writer guy pitching "ALF" stories. It
was a really interesting dichotomy."
Permanent Midnight, written and
directed by David Veloz, is "dramatic
but also really funny," Stiller
explained. "There's a lot of really dark
situations in the film that are extreme-
ly confusing because they're funny and
also horrible, which is the essence of
what I liked about the book."
Stiller and Stahl, who bear a strong
physical resemblance, became close
friends and collaborators as a result of
working on Permanent Midnight. The
duo have already completed a screen-
play adaptation of Bud Schulberg's
1941 Hollywood novel What Makes
Sammy Run, and plan to collaborate
again soon on several projects for

EXP. 9/30/98 • ONE COUPON PER COUPLE

Serena Donadoni is a Detroit-based

On Nine Mile Road
One Mile East of Woodward

248.1158/P4242

fi-eelance writer.

Stiller's production company, Red Eye.
Stahl, who plays a small role in
Permanent Midnight as a rehabilita-
tion clinic counselor (he gives a
none-too-promising prognosis to his
on-screen alter ego), did provide
Stiller with a great deal of back-
ground information, even taking him
to the places where he used to pur-
chase heroin.
But for Stiller, it was the world
Stahl created on the page that gave
him what he needed most.
"The book itself is so well-written;
it's so vivid," he explained. "That was
really the biggest reference source I
<___\
had. And just talking to him, I learned
all the stuff you know how to do
when you're a junkie, and he told me
as much as he could for a guy who's
been sober a number of years.
"To me, the key to the character
was getting close to him and under-
standing him," Stiller added. "I want-
ed him on the set every day and he
was there."
Another connection they formed
was through television. Stahl wrote for
such hits of the late 1980s/early 1990s
as "Moonlighting" and "thirtysome-
thina " and Stiller had his own short-
lived
lived but influential sketch comedy
program, which ran briefly on MTV
and Fox.
"The Ben Stiller Show" (1992-93)
regularly appeared at the bottom of
the ratings, but won an Emmy and
ended up on several year-end best-of
lists. It still boasts a small but fiercely
loyal following.
"The grind of the TV show world
is not fun," said Stiller. "It's just
incredibly hard work and you just
have to keep on doing it over and over
and over again, week after week.
"I was reading about Jerry
Seinfeld," he continued, "and how he
just missed all the '90s working on his
show. It might sound unbelievable,
but I can totally understand that. ,
Working on a show, that's your life."
Stiller also related strongly to Stahl's

