forefront. I'm there to be silly"
hopes Huff eventually will perform a
Basically working nonstop (because he
public service by pointing out medical
can), Azaria will be seen shortly in the
alternatives for those suffering psycho-
upcoming motion picture Eulogy with
logical disorders.
Ray Romano, Winona Ryder, Debra
'Ultimately one of the things this
Winger and Zooey Deschanel.
show might do if it becomes successfid
Its a strange and funny little comedy
— especially since we're on cable TV
about a family of brothers and sisters
and don't have to sugarcoat anything —
is to let people know that therapy can be who come home for their father's funer-
al," he said. "As the weekend goes on,
an extremely helpful thing and is noth-
they find out more and more horrible
ing to be ashamed of," he said.
stuff about their dad."
The three-time Emmy Award winner
Between all the other projects, Azaria
for his voices on The Simpsons — going
flies back to Los Angeles
into its 16th season, with
occasionally to mreak The
three more years contract-
Simpsons episodes premier-
ed for — also has the
ing this season.
physical toughness and
"Based on what I've seen
mental strength to star in
so far, the shows are as
the upcoming Broadway
good and hilarious as ever,"
stage musical Spamalot, a
he said, laughing. "I had
farce in full armor based
no idea that it would be a
on Monty Python and the
long-term project 17, 18
Holy Grad His primary
years ago, when the Fox
function is to resuscitate
Network itself was brand
John Cleese's Sir Lancelot
new. We didn't know if the
along with a handful of
network would be around
such silly characters as
Hank Azaria in "Hu
a while, much less an ani-
Peasant 3 and the
"Therapy can be an
mated prime-time show.
Taunting French Guard.
extremely helpful thing." Anyone predicting what a
"A huge Python fan,
phenomenon it has become
I've never been happier to
would have been branded a lunatic."
have a job. We're in rehearsals now for
A handful of Emmy statuettes for his
the world premiere, opening in Chicago
work voicing such characters as Moe,
before Christmas and taking it to
Apu, Chief Wiggum and Dr. Nick
Broadway in February," he explained. "I
Riviera represent a slow but steady climb
have been singing on stage before, but
in the fickle field of acting, according to
this is my first time dancing, which is
the dark, skinny Azaria.
very odd for me. ... With luck, they
"For the first 10 years, nobody really
won't let me do much of it. But, if a
knew who I was, and working with The
musical number breaks out and I hap-
Simpsons writers week after week was
pen to be there, at least I won't be in the
'
MEXICAN GRILL
Not just big burritos.
Big flavors."
like intense comedy training. But it
always was a steady job that enabled me
to be picky about choosing other proj-
ects.
Born in Queens and educated at Tufts
University with degrees in psychology
and drama, Azaria, a Sephardic Jew (his
parents were born in Greece and his
mother speaks Ladino, the "Sephardic
Yiddish), was a mediocre bartender at
Manhattan's Arcadia restaurant until he
was fired for leaving the front gate and
door open one night. Another three
years of grinding poverty while pouring
drinks finally led to his professional act-
ing debut — with one whole line — on
the short-lived comedy series Joe Bash.
And now, with solid acting credentials
established through such feature films as
Pretty Woman, Quiz Show, The Birdcage
and Dodg eball: A Ti-ue Underdog Story —
plus another Emmy Award for the TV
movie Tuesdays With Morrie — the "sin-
gle again" Azaria controls his own des-
tiny as he moves effortlessly between
both coasts.
"It's a great time in my life, doing
things I've always wanted to do," he
explained. "And that includes my work
with all the characters on The Simpsons
— I've had many favorites over the
years, including Moe the bartender and
the Comic Book Guy, but now it's
Professor Frink, the Jerry Lewis-kind of
scientist guy. I love talking like that." P1
Huff airs 10 p.m. Sundays on
Showtime. Check your local
cable listings for additional
broadcasts.
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Yadin also found pottery, coins, cloth
and a dazzling collection of bronze ritual
items, which, because of their pagan
designs, Yadin believed had been stolen
from the Romans.
Convinced that Yadin's excavations
were incomplete because of the thick
layer of debris five to 15 feet deep on
the cave floor, Freund organized an
expedition equipped with state-of-the-
art technology, including ground-pene-
trating radar, electrical resistivity tomog-
raphy and a medical imaging endoscope
adapted to search beneath boulders.
His results sharpen the picture of life
and death in the cave complex, which
cuts more than 300 yards deep into a
virtually inaccessible cliff-side west of the
Dead Sea.
Supplied with a clay oven, extensive
provisions and articles of daily life, the
Bar Kokhba rebels were clearly intend-
ing long-term occupation. Human
bones found in the cave show no signs
of trauma, indicating that the residents
probably starved to death.
But the most surprising outcome is
Freund's new theory about the bronze
ritual items uncovered by Yadin. Based
on fresh discoveries and a cryptic
inscription from a copper scroll found
among the famous Dead Sea Scrolls in
the 1940s, Freund believes the bronze
items are not pagan, as Yadin held, but
Jewish. And he speculates that they
might be the only surviving artifacts
from Judaism's holiest site, the Second
Temple in Jerusalem. The Romans
destroyed the Temple, the center of
Jewish worship, in the year 70, six
decades before the Bar Kokhba uprising.
Freund hypothesizes that the cave was
used multiple times as a refuge and hid-
ing place. After all, he says, "How did
they know that this cave existed in 132
to bring all those people out here unless
they knew it from before? It's clear to
me this was a well-known cave, a cave
that had been used before and [that]
people talked about in closed circles."
More controversially, Freund's theory
suggests that Jews of the era assimilated
decorative aspects of Roman mythology
to the point of including mythological
figures on their holiest objects.
Freund makes a convincing case
involving carbon-14 dating, comparison
with other artifacts and the fact that
pagan motifs are featured on the
Temple's great menorah as depicted on
the Arch of Titus in Rome, which com-
memorates the sack of Jerusalem.
Especially persuasive is the copper
scroll's description of the site of one hid-
den cache of Temple objects: "In the
Cave of the Column of two openings,
facing east, at the northern opening ... is
buried, at three cubits, a ritual limestone
vessel. In it is one scroll; underneath is
treasure."
Which fits very closely with what
Freund finds.
NOVA's "Ancient Refuge in the
Holy Land" airs 8 p.m. Tuesday,
Nov. 23, on many PBS stations.
Check your local listings.
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