•••••• - 311~.0•••••••• ■— """ • ‘•-•---•- -. .G. NICK'S 6066 W. Maple • West Bloomfield, Michigan 48322 • (248) 851-0805 Time With Zeffirelli The fumed Italian director talks about the real-life inspiration for the Jewish character Milk fed Provini Veal Ribs, finely trimmed and specially dry rubbed to perfection. Served with soup or salad and choice of side...$13.95 • • stall••• ■ •• . +1111111•••5111. . 1110•••• ■ ••011111111111•# ■ • CATERING WE CAN DO SOMETHING FABULOUS FOR THAT SPECIAL EVENT DELIVERY SERVICE AVAILABLE A Little Bit Of New York Right Here In Bloomfield Hills LET US TAKE CARE OF THE FOOD! HOME OR OFFICE, ANY OCCASIONS, SHIVAS, NO NOTICE NEEDED! 6646 Telegraph at Maple • Bloomfield Plaza • 248-932-0800 • Excellent (Whitefish , Perch and Steaks Orchard Lake Rd. • 932-3133 ne.4‘,funch 'Buffet • 'Banquet Room evadable L Atonilay-rrhursdag (11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) Uno'8 Chicago Bar 0 Grill 1 /2 OFF r Any Menu Item when a 2nd menu item of equal or greater value is purchased L Not good with any other offer. Expires December 31, 1999 Valid Anytime • Dine in Only 6745 ORCHARD LAKE RD. Across from Americana West 6/18 1999 (248) 737-7242 96 Detroit Jewish News yejt aw k.isea714 aorh 4/ ;t 4" played by Cher in his latest movie. NAOMI PFEFFERMAN Special to the Jewish News T here is something special about Jews," the famed Italian director Franco Zeffirelli says, not disingen- uously. "They have an instinctive compassion for their neighbor." The 76-year-old auteur illustrates the sentiment in his latest and most person- al film, Tea With Mussolini, which may also be his personal best. Based in large part on his 1986 autobiography, the movie revisits Zeffirelli's childhood before and during World War II, when he was a motherless, illegitimate child adopted by a group of feisty expatriate Englishwomen and by a wealthy Jewish- American art collector in Florence. The film stars theatrical grande dames Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith as the eccentric Englishwomen, and the inimitable Cher as Elsa Morganthal, the flamboy- ant American Jew. Who else but Zeffirelli, best known for his lush 1960s adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet, could have cast Cher as the flashy Jewish adventuress who is obliv- ious to danger until she is nearly deported to a concentration camp? For Zeffirelli, who directed The Champ and Mel Gibson's Hamlet, the casting wasn't such a stretch. Cher, after all, arrived for the shoot in a style befitting Elsa, with her own personal hairdresser, makeup artist, costumer and assistant. Elsa is a former Ziegfeld star; Cher's a diva. The actress, like her character, is Naomi Pfefferman. is the entertainment editor at the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. generous and frank. "And she looks like an Israeli lady," the director says. Zeffirelli, who reportedly keeps seven or eight servants and as many Jack Russell terriers at his palatial home in Rome, can regale you with scandalous accounts about Jackie 0. and the late, great Maria Callas. He has juicy stories about Taylor and Burton cursing at each other on the set of Taming of the Shrew; about Sir Laurence Olivier, Plowright's late hus- band, who could behave rather unpleasantly; or about the late "Lenny" Bernstein, whom he always telephoned during a personal crisis. But what the director most wants to talk about during a recent telephone interview is the real-life inspiration for the character of Elsa: the Jewish- American woman who changed his life. He doesn't recall her name; he met her when he was 5 or 6 years old, not long before his mother, Alaide Garosi, a talented fashion designer, died of tuberculosis. The Jewish visitor was a former Broadway star, tall, attractive, fabulously wealthy, who visited Garosi twice a year to "completely renew her wardrobe," Zeffirelli says. "I was fasci- nated with her incredible jewels and fabulous fragrance. One day, he recalls, his mother took him to her sumptuous hillside villa outside Florence, accompanied by all the seamstresses and the woman's chauffeur. Inside, his mother told him, he was going to see some fantastic paintings. But the budding little artist was dismayed upon entering the Renaissance villa, which "had been turned into an incredibly advanced space for modern art," he says. "My mother's friend couldn't have cared less about the Renaissance doors and fireplaces. She just put up white 5 )