On The Tube Merchant was the commentator, although calmer heads eventually prevailed. Most fighters, Merchant says, are pussycats off stage. "Fighters are among the most decent athletes. They come from rough backgrounds, many of them. And not a few have had run-ins with the law when they were young, and got steered somehow into boxing because they were strong or needed some kind of self-discipline. Larry Holmes at one point refused to be inter- atch boxing on HBO and it often seems "Because they are really alone as athletes, they viewed by Merchant, though the heavyweight that commentator Larry Merchant is the often are more interesting than athletes in team toughest guy in the room. He hits his tar- champ subsequently sent a letter of apology to the sports. They may not be as glib, but they are more broadcaster. gets more often than the pugs who pass for con- introspective." At one point, controversial heavyweight champ tenders these days. Merchant has had more trouble with "managers or Mike Tyson refused to sign with HBO if Larry "I've been doing that all my life," he said in a tele- promoters in the ring who were trying to stage-whis- phone interview from his home in Santa per answers to their fighters. I tell Monica, Calif "It's what journalists are sup- them, 'If you don't stop that, I'll have posed to do. When I was a newspaper man, I to stop the interview.'" would have had more time to be more circum- ), Merchant, 73, grew up in spect and diplomatic about asking questions. Manhattan and the Bronx, and even- There was the time there were some ugly tually went to Lafayette High School moments in a fight that involved featherweight ' in Bensonhurst. He was a couple of champ Prince Nassem Hamed. When years ahead of Sandy Koufax, and Merchant asked him about it, Hamed told knew him through Merchant's him it was all part of God's plan. Merchant's younger brother, Richard. reply: "But God isn't here right now, so I have "I have fond memories as a kid of to ask you about it." . my grandparents, who were Bernard Hopkins took umbrage when Orthodox" and immigrants from Merchant asked the middleweight champion Russia, said Merchant. The commen- why he fought a series of bums. "He went off tator studied with a rebbe — who and called me ignorant," Merchant recalls. "A had a tiny little school — and lot of people thought he'd never communicate became a bar mitzvah, but he with me again. describes himself today as a High "But before his next fight, he came over to Holiday Jew. me and said, 'I'm an independent guy and In conversation about two upcom- expect to be heard, and you're an independent HBO's World Championship Boxing broadcast team: Larry Merchant, ing HBO pay-per-view events, Sept. guy and you should be heard, too. Jim Lampley and Roy Jones Jr. 18 and Sept. 25, following the sec- Ring Leader HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant never pulls his punches. W )) Lilith As Superhero Filmmaker merges Judaism with sci-fi. NAOMI PFEFFERMAN Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles W hen Bill Platt pitched his action-orient- ed Darklight TV movie two years ago, he hoped to create a new genre: "Chai- Fi." The 32-year-old filmmaker intended the project — inspired by the Jewish demoness Lilith — to merge his heritage with his sci-fi obsession. "I wondered if I could make Jewish legend fun for audiences who liked The Matrix," he said. "And I wanted to see if I could create my own Jewish superhero." He wasn't imagining a comedic MOT superhero like Jonathan Kesselman's the "Hebrew Hammer" or Alan Oirich's "Menorah Man." Platt rather set J14 9/17 2004 68 his sights on Lilith, the talmudic demon-queen turned feminist icon (think Lilith magazine). The film — typical Sci-Fi Channel fare — is more for Battleship Galactica fans than Lilith afi- cionados. Yet Platt did meticulous homework on the demoness at the University of Judaism's library in L.A. Traditional sources describe her as Adam's surly first wife, who considered herself his equal; declining to be dominated, she ultimately fled the Garden of Eden and morphed into a murderous incubus. Darklight re-imagines Adam's ex as an immortal suffering amnesia who eventually uses her powers to thwart a plague. It's the kind of debut feature one might expect of the enthusiastic Platt, who's always been a bit "chai-fi." Growing up in Reston, Va., he immersed him- self in his Conservative Hebrew school as well as in comics and the Star Wars movies. At NYU's graduate film program, he honored his Jewish grandparents —who had supported his superhero fixation — with a short starring Yiddish theater star Mina Bern. His futuristic police thriller, Bleach, won the 1998 Student Academy Award and jump-started his career as a producer of the Sci-Fi Channel's Exposure Studios; when he suggested Darklight to that network in 2002, he brought genre elements to the Jewish-inspired character. Like any self-respecting superhero, Lilith has an arch-nemesis, a mad scientist, and a superhuman task, saving mankind. "It's amped-up tikkun olam," Platt said. "She's repairing the world, except she's doing it on a grand scale, one curse at a time." ❑ Darklight debuts 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, on the Sci-Fi Channel.