Soap opera writer Leah Laiman faces a daytime dilemma.

ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER

Special to The Jewish News

hen Leah Tolman began
writing for soap operas, she
wanted to introduce Jewish
characters. And she did.
In the early 1980s, she created Jake,
a Jewish lawyer on "General
Hospital," with an uncle who kept
kosher. A few years later, Laiman
introduced Robin, a prominent Jewish
doctor who was female and Orthodox,
to "Days of Our Lives." Robin had a
mezuzah outside her door, and her
pharmacist father wore a yarmulke.
But after two decades in the busi-
ness, Laiman, currently head writer
for "Another World," is reluctant to
create another Jewish character.
"On 'Days of Our Lives,"' Laiman
explains, "Robin became romantically
involved with one of the longtime
heroes on the show who, of course,
was not Jewish.

"They were quite a popular couple,
but I didn't want her to marry a non-
Jew, or convert or ignore her religion.
The non-Jewish writers didn't want a
non-Jew to convert, and in the end, the
romance wound up going nowhere.
"Since all core characters [on the
soaps] are not Jewish, ultimately any

new Jewish character would be faced
with an interfaith marriage."
That's counterproductive, Laiman
believes, "even if you are saying some-
thing good about the Jewish character,
Jewish people and the Jewish religion."
Still, Laiman goes on to say, she is
grateful for having had the opportunity

Leah Laiman, standing center, is head writer for "Another World." She develops
plots and passes them out to her fellow writers, who create the dialogue.

Jewish soap actress Lesli Kay Sterling
is on top of the "World."

that my grandmother had had a heart
attack and a stroke," she recalls. "So I
Special to The Jewish News
got on a plane that night, and took
the red-eye from L.A. to New York.
hen Lesli Kay Sterling
"The next day, I got a call from my
watched soap operas
agent
saying I had been offered a
while working out at a
screen
test in New York. Since I was
Los Angeles gym, she
already
there, I was able to slip away
had no idea that club members soon
from
the
hospital and take the screen
would be watching her on the gym's
test. But it didn't matter anymore if I
television sets as Molly Conlan on "As
got the part. The only thing that mat-
the World Turns."
tered was my grandmother. Every
"One day, I was running on a
morning I went to synagogue with my
treadmill in L.A. watching soap
grandfather to pray.
operas, and I thought to myself, 'Why
Sterling was offered
are these actresses working and
Lesli
Kay
the
plum part of Molly,
Left.
I'm on a treadmill?"' says the
ruing
on
Ste
but
sadly, her grandmoth-
actress.
"As the World
er died on Sterling's first
She'd been doing some inde-
7' urns':
air date. "But my grand-
pendent features for Showtime
"A g cod gig."
father began to watch me,
and Cinemax, but hadn't
and it gave him some-
worked in three months. "I
to
do
at 2 p.m. each day," says
thing
called my agent and said, 'Please try
the
actress.
He would call me up
and get me a job on a soap.'
and
say,
'Guess
what Molly did,' and
But, just as a contract role on day-
I would say, 'Yes, Grandpa, I know. I
time television seemed like a strong
play her!'
possibility, Sterling was hit with some
"Unfortunately, he passed away this
bad news from home.
past
fall, exactly one day after the offi-
"My grandfather called to tell me

ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER

)

1/S

1999

74 Detroit Jewish News

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