* * * * **** * * * **** STAR DELI IS ONE OF THE BEST CARRY OUT ONLY RESTAURANTS IN AMERICA! (248) 352-7377 intelligence, integrity and ambition and televised sports' primary function as escapist entertainment. Cosell coveted a seat in the Monday Night Football booth from the outset, but fretted that ABC Sports honcho Roone Arledge wouldn't give it to him. "Maybe they can't put a Jew from Brooklyn in prime time," he told his wife, Emmy (Patti Lupone). Although it directly acknowledges Cosell's Judaism just a couple of times, Monday Night Mayhem creates a fasci- nating portrait of the naivete of a bril- liant urban Jewish intellectual. Cosell, whose catch phrase was "I tell it like it is," loved substance and contro- versy. As depicted here, he volunteered to "wear the black hat" while Dallas Cowboy quarterback-turned-broadcaster Don Meredith became a fan favorite with his aw-shucks Texas act. But Cosell wasn't prepared for the over-the-top hatred he inspired in a large segment of the viewing audience. Although viewers will surely wonder, Monday Night Mayhem doesn't bother to explore if Cosell tapped into a reservoir of anti-Semitism, anti-intellectualism or antipathy for the East Coast media elite. For his part, Cosell (played by John Turturro with equal measures of pom- posity; bitterness and self-pity) didn't care what the source of the enmity was. He just took it personally, although he couldn't and wouldn't alter his approach. "I'm out there all alone," he confided to his wife. "I don't see how I can con- tinue to do this." Nonetheless, Cosell aspired to a larger stage. During the 1972 Munich Olympics, he lobbied Arledge for a shift at the anchor desk after the attack on Israeli athletes. (Arledge stuck with an exhausted Jim McKay, whose profound- ly sorrowful and dignified coverage was the only aspect of that tragedy that was beyond reproach.) And after Arledge was put in charge of ABC News, Cosell presented himself as a potential anchor on par with Walter Cronkite. Obviously, Cosell's skills and ego weren't satisfied by professional sports, despite its overweening presence on the American landscape. That frustration, coupled with Arledge's hubris and Emmy's insistence, led to Cosell ambivalently stepping away from Monday Night Football in 1983. The outspoken Cosell, who died in 1995 at 77, was the first sportscaster to examine American society, especially racism, through the lens of sports. Unless you count media stars like Larry King or Barbara Walters — whose focus often is on celebrity over substance — there hasn't been a high-profile Jewish TV commentator since Cosell. 1-1 TRY OUR DELICIOUS HOMEMADE POTATO SALAD & COLE SLAW! EVERYBODY KNOWS WE HAVE THE BEST HOMEMADE TUNA IN TOWN! OUR HOMEMADE FAT-FREE TUNA ALSO CAN'T BE BEAT! WE CUT OUR LOX BY HAND! 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Robin Rothstein's play, Down for the Count, performed at at 4 and 11:10 p.m., follows two close friends coming to terms with one's fatal illness. Rothstein, who studied play writing at the University of Pennsylvania, has been an actress and teacher. Seth Kramer's play, Speak Now, is about a bride confronting doubts about her marriage only moments before she is about to take her vows. Curtain rimes are noon and 7:30 p.m. Kramer, who has been writing since high school, has had his work per- formed by the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Stella Adler Studio in New York and Pegasus Players in Chicago. He also organizes productions of short plays, asking writers to create works with the same setting. Rich Orloff's play, Class Dismissed, explores the ramifications of a professor- student relationship and will be staged at 2 and 9:30 p.m. Orloff, who has taught at Oberlin College, has had other works performed in the area through readings at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre and a staging at the Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea. "I've been writing plays since Hebrew school, where I dramatized portions of the Torah," Orloff says. "I also did a comic revue, Oy.', a collection of 12 sketches about Jewish life in New York. " ❑ Play by Play runs noon-mid- night Saturday, Jan. 12, at the Performance Network, 120 E. Huron, Ann Arbor. $40 full day; $20 half day; $5 per hour. (734) 663-0681. Web site: www.heartlande.com F. 11 am - 10pm Saturday: 11 am - 11pm 4 pm - 11pm S p unday: at.op 4m Friday: 33210W.14 Mile Road Simsbury Plaza Just East of Farmington Road West Bloomfield 6676 Orchard Lake Rd. 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