OFFERtvc, At The Movies GLUTEN FREE PRODUCTS! MUST BE PRE -ORDERED CALL FOR DETAILS `The Singing Detective' Now Serving Cool C Delicious Blended Ice Coffees Directed by Keith Gordon, Robert Downey Jr. stars in the American movie version of a 1980s six-part British television masterpiece. Lattes cis Cavil Espre„ eti \* Coffees Spa JOEY BERLIN Copley News Service z Limited Time! c ------- ErrlarzAct F,ocul Seirviota Catering & Banquet Services Since 1988 In association with the eetzt 149 ( 1 are proud to announce the opening of the new Banquet & Event Center ew film stars seem to be composed of so much tal- ent and trouble as Robert Downey Jr. His every career triumph is matched by some personal catastrophe, usually involv- ing drugs and the law, faithfully reported on the evening news. Happily for Downey, he is on a per- sonal and career upswing as he essays the lead role of crime novelist Dan Dark in director Keith Gordon's big-screen adap- tation of The Singing Detective. The off- beat musical noir detective yarn co-stars Robin Wright Penn as Dark's wife and Mel Gibson as his shrink, with Adrien Brody and Katie Holmes also featured in the strong supporting cast. Before switching careers, New York- born director Gordon, 42, who is Jewish, was an actor, playing a number of adolescent/young adult roles in the 1980s. He is probably best remembered as Rodney Dangerfield's son, Jason Melon, in Back to Schooh and also had the lead in Brian DePalma's Dressed to Kilt His &rectorial efforts include A Midnight Clear, Waking the Dead and To Bar and Bat Mitzvah's Wedding Receptions Bridal & Baby Showers Graduations Corporate Events Special to the Jewish News I Call for details 248.689.2494 749170 THANK YOU FOR YOUR BUSINESS 11/14 2003 76 'TN To Be (Jewish) NATE BLOOM ibis is a smoke and Liquorjil,e environment DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Mother Night. In The Singing Detective, Downey stars as a hospitalized and hallucinating writer who re-imagines one of his novels about a hard-boiled gumshoe investigating a murder. He tackles the widely admired teleplay n an interesting example of "I'm. Jewish when I want to be," Robert Downey Jr. has now declared himself "half-Jewish." In a recent interview, he pointed out that his father's original last name was "Elias," and "he is Jewish." In fact, his father, Robert Downey Sr., famous in the 'late 1960s and early 1970s as the director of the cult clas- sics Putney Swope and Greaser's Palace, is "half-Jewish." Downey Sr.'s father was Jewish, but his mother was Irish, and not Jewish. (Downey Sr. adopted his non-Jewish stepfather's name when he was 17.) A few years ago, Downey Jr., while indicating his father was "half-Jewish," made a point of Nate Bloom is the editor saying that he him- ofJewhoo.corn. DETECTIVE on page 78 elf was "not Jewish." Why the change? Well, Downey Jr. has been clean for the last 18 months, after being kicked off Ally McBeal for testing positive yet again for cocaine. However, it can be hard for him to get parts because no film company will finance a film unless the leading actors have an insurance bond that pays the company back for its losses in case a leading actor is unable to complete a film. Insurance companies are demanding a very big pre- mium for Downey Jr., although, to his credit, he has never failed to complete a film. It turns out Downey Jr. has long been friends with Mel Gibson, who produced and has a small part in Downey Jr.'s new film, The Singing Detective. Gibson paid for Downey Jr.'s insurance bond for Detective. Downey Jr., of course, has reason to be grateful to Gibson. Therefore, when reporters asked Downey Jr. about Gibson's controversial film, The Passion of Christ, Downey Jr. supported his buddy and declared the film "not anti-Semitic," apparently adding to his credibility by telling reporters that he is "half-Jewish." s Why is Robert Downey Jr. "suddenly" Jewish? Reservations now being taken through 2004 www.Emeraldfood.com Robert Downey Jr. in Keith Gordon's "The Singing Detective" by the late Dennis Potter (who penned the film version before his death in 1994), playing a character who, like Potter, was bedridden with a debilitating skin disease. "In the same way the original explored English society post-war, this explores America at the time McCarthyism was coming in and America was developing a sort of xenophobia about the rest of the world," Gordon told BBC World. "I think it's no accident that Potter takes the character who in the English version is in a ward full of people, and in this version, he isolates him alone in a private room. "It's very much that American thing of a man against the world, isolated and paranoid about the world around him, much the way America started to become paranoid at that time." The 38-year-old Downey likes to joke that he has never been in a film that was financially successful, but he may not be able to say that much longer. He will next be seen opposite Halle Berry in the suspenseful thriller Gothika. Here, he talks about his new film, his past problems and his future.