had she been on The Practice, she would
have been torn apart by the critics.
"The fact that I'm being celebrated
right now for being an alternative role
model for young girls means that final-
ly I'm making some kind of contribu-
don to society, which I've always want-
ed to do," Manheim says. "If a young
fat girl is watching The Practice — or
reading my book — and she sees that
you can be professional, articulate,
sophisticated, sexy and smart, and if
she says, 'I'm going to be just like
that,' then I say 'Hallelujah!'" Fl

Debra Wallace writes for Jewish

Telegraphic Agency.

Clockwise from top left:
Camryn'' parents, Jerry and Sylvia Manheim:
"They did what any good parent in Southern
California would do: They sent me to psychia-
trists, to hypnotists; they bribed me."
Camryn Manheim, third from right,
as Ellenor Frutt on the Emmy
Award-winning "The Practice."

Camryn, left, and her older sister, Lisa, in Israel:
`As a college graduation present, my folks sent my
sister and me to Israel. Which didn't make a
whole lot of sense since it was my graduation."

Plus-size model: Camryn Manheim
poses for 'Mode" magazine, which
caters to the "plus-size" woman.

The title of Manheim's
book comes from a one-
woman show she staged
Off-Broadway in 1993.

just for the cash. Oh, it was
going to be perfect.

I was the unofficial poster child for Levi Strauss.
It was all part of my monumental effort never to
reveal my body. ... Then came the day of David
Rosenthal's bar mitzvah. ... Mom: You are not
going to David Rosenthal's bar mitzvah wearing
Levi's. Me: Fine. I won't go. ... And that's why, I
missed out on almost all the baruch atah.4donai's of
my 13-year-old friends.

it On my table in my livirig room is a pOtogf .
of my father standing in front of a segregated
restaurant, holding a picket sign. It says, "Don't
Discrimate!" My mother took that photograph 50
years ago. That is my legacy; that is what I am
most proud of.

g4 Now, I don't know if you've ever been to a

Passover seder, but there's this book called the
Haggadah (huh god `duh) — which is passed around
the table and people ask questions from it like: Why
is this night different from all other nights? When
will Elijah drink the wine? Why do we hide the
matzah? When are you going to medical school?

tiM It would have been so easy if I
could have been a lesbian. But no, I
had to settle for heterosexuality,
which, as some of you know, is no
day at the beach.

Okay, now, we all know some pretty
heavy stuff has happened in the Holy
Land — you know, signs from God
and all. Some people get to the Wailing Wall and
have a vision; I heard a voice. "Camryn Camryn
Camryn." Somebody — a benevolent spirit per-
haps — was whispering my new name to me.

(Anticipating a blind date from a personal ad) I
had it all planned out. ... We would raise the
children as "cultural Jews," not religious Jews,
meaning they'd get all of Woody Allen's jokes but
be mystified and scared by Benjamin Netanyahu.
They would go to the best schools, no matter
what sacrifices we needed to make. The boys and
girls would have the same curfew, no double
standards. They would be bar and bat mitzvah-ed

It's in my blood to be an
activist. Ever since I was beaten
up in sixth grade for voting for
George McGovern in my ele-
mentary school's mock election,
I have been a committed liberal.
... For a long time ... I had severe
guilt about not joining the Peace
Corps. But as I began to make it as an actor, I realized
that just because I wasn't on the "front lines of
activism" didn't mean that I couldn't lend my strength
to a good fight. And besides, while I'd really love to
go out and dig an irrigation ditch, I just look better •
in Anne Klein than Gap Khaki. Just kidding.

When I got back to my seat, I ... hugged my par-
ents and let them heft that beautiful statue. You have
never seen so much kvelling and shepping naches.
When you've been trying your whole life to make
your parents proud, and you see them beaming for
you, for your achievement, the feeling is indescrib-
able. And better even than winning an Emmy.

5/14

1999

Detroit Jewish News 83