Midseason TV

A Jewish guide to what's new.

GERRI MILLER

Special to the Jewish News

`THE HELP'

The WB; premieres 9:30 p.m. Friday, March 5.

A

bsent from series TV since Beverly Hills,
90210 ended its decade-long run in 2000,
Tori Spelling turns up in the same ritzy zip
code as the ditzy dog walker for a filthy rich family
in the WB midseason sitcom The Help.
Spelling joins TV vets Mindy Cohn ( The Facts of
Lift), David Faustino (Married ... With Children) and
Antonio Sabato Jr. (Melrose Place) in the comedic
Upstairs, Downstairs-like ensemble.
"I have two dogs and three cats:So playing a dog
walker, that's right up my alley," says animal lover
Spelling. As a child, she brought home strays to the
Spellings' Bel Air. mansion — to the consternation
of mom Candy and uber-producer dad Aaron.
Since 90210, Spelling has appeared in movies, like
Scary Movie 2, and on TV, as . a female Scrooge in
the telefilm A Carol Christmas. She's filmed the
romantic comedy 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, due

out in September.
Meanwhile, she's shot several sitcom pilots. "I
really wanted to get into a comedy. I did a pilot a
year. They just never made it to series," she notes.
"This one did, so here I am."
Two years ago, Spelling made her stage debut in the
Los Angeles production of Maybe, Baby It You, a
two-character romantic comedy co-written by Charlie
Shanian, who cast her as his co-star.
Their chemistry translated to stellar reviews
and real-life romance.
"We were both like, 'Don't get involved,' especial-
ly when you're doing theater every night for five
months. It was my first time doing theater, and I was
really trying to take it seriously. I was so nervous.
Butterflies in my stomach for the entire five months
— maybe that was because of him, I don't know,"
laughs Spelling, who'll marry Shanian this summer.
Spelling looks forward to having a family of her
own and continuing the Jewish traditions with which
she was raised. "We celebrated all the main holidays.
We went to temple sometimes for Shabbat," she says.
More recently, she and friends have planned cele-
brations, inviting people whose families live out of

But he enjoys the sitcom experience.
"It's such an easy job in terms of stress. Movies
are the creme de la creme, but also tedious and dif-
ficult," he says, noting that in real life, he hasn't
think the part is right in my wheelhouse: a
remained friendly with his ex-wife.
very nice, intelligent, cranky old Jew," quips
For Lindsay Sloane ( The In-Laws, TV's Grosse
Robert Klein about his character in The
born Lindsay Sloane Leikin, the chance
Pointe),
Stones, a sitcom
to work with
about a Jewish
Mutchnick and
family that's por-
Kohan and her
trayed — except
"sassy, sexy" charac-
for the younger of
ter was too good to
the two offspring
pass up.
(Jay Baruchel) —
Raised in a Jewish
by Jewish actors.
home, Sloane was
In the show
bat mitzvah and
from Will & Grace
remembers the
creators Max
"God-awful pink
Mutchnick and
strapless gown with a
David Kohan,
big bow on the side"
Klein and Judith
she wore to her
Light play a
Hollywood-themed
divorcing couple
party.
who still live with
Left to right: Robert Klein, Lindsay Sloane, Jay Baruchel
Her May wedding
each other and
and Judith Light in "The Stones."
to talent agent Dar
their kids.
Rollins will be a
"This is not a
more tasteful Jewish
family that goes to synagogue, exactly, but we're
affair,
and
"as
small
as
it
can
possibly
be with two
not hiding it," says Klein of the Stones' Jewishness.
big
families."
The veteran actor, who lives in Manhattan and
She finds many similarities between TV mom
Westchester, N.Y., is currently planning-his eighth
Judith
Light and her own Jewish mother. "My
HBO special and writing a memoir of his youth,
mom
knew
everything I did before I did it," she
called The Amorous Busboy from Decatur Avenue.
laughs. "I could never get away with anything. "El

`THE STONES'
CBS; premieres 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 17.

I

3/ 5
2004

50

Left to right: Mindy Cohn as Maggie, Antonio Sabato
Jr. as Dwayne, Camille Guaty as Maria, Marika
Dominczyk as Nanny Anna, Al Santos as 011ie and Tori
Spelling as Molly in "The Help."

town to Passover seders.
Reflecting on her career and life so far, Spelling,
30, is pleased with the woman she's become.
"I'm finally at the point where I can look back
and say I've made some mistakes, but I'm really glad
I did it that way," she says. "It helped form the per-
son that I am." 111

`SIGNIFICANT OTHERS'

Bravo; premieres 9 p.m. Tuesday, March 9.

r

our couples dis-
cuss their mar-
. riages with an
unseen therapist in
Bravo's new comedy

Significant Others,

which, like HBO's
highly acclaimed Curb
Your Enthusiasm, is
mostly improvised.
Herschel Bleefeld
plays Ethan, a young
husband uneasily cop-
ing with impending
fatherhood.
"He really is a good
guy and he tries really
Herschel Bleefeld of
hard. I sense that in
"Significant Others"
myself in my own rela-
tionship — I just want
me, whose mind works a
it to work and do well,"
mile a minute."
says the newlywed,
But it does have its
whose Reform rabbi
downside. "I'm always
father performed his
afraid that I'm going to
marriage.
say something about
Acting since college,
someone close to me,"
Bleefeld says that Others,
he confides. Fortunately
which he describes as
for him, his bride "is
"funny, interesting and
very
supportive and
edgy," is the perfect
venue for "somebody like understanding."

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