Metro

ON THE COVER

De
grees
Of

Separation

Detroiters share stories of famous
family connections.

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

Staff Writer

hari Zingle of West Bloomfield
has a great family, fun friends and
. an interesting job that includes
travel and marketing of new products for
the Web site jewish.com .
-
But, even with her own
personal prides and
achievements, every once in
a while she gets to check out
the response of others when
they find out her great-
grandfather's first cousin
was Larry Fine, one of the
Larry Fine
Three Stooges.
. "Actually, the usual reaction I get is an
imitation of one of the Stooges," she said.
"Usually, `nyuk, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk: or 'woo,
woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo; with the
appropriate hand motion."
It doesn't matter that Zingle never met

S

Linda
McCartney

When Gerald
Pergament of
Southfield was a
teenager, he and his
mother and sister
went to New York City
on vacation. While
there, Pergament
remembered,"[We]
were invited to my
mother's brother, our
Uncle Louis and Aunt Paul and Linda
Reva Epstein's apart- McCartney
ment for lunch. My
first cousin Lee Eastman (born
Leon Victor Epstein) had also come
with his daughter, Linde
Pergament said of the future wife of
Beatle Paul McCartney, Linda
McCartney."She was about 2 years
old," he said.

Larry Fine. The fact that her grandparents
were once his neighbors-in Philadelphia is
enough fascination for many.
Of course, having a famous relative
Charlotte Rae with her niece, JN Story Development Editor Keri Guten Cohen
doesn't make us better or more important
like House Arrest with Jamie Lee Curtis
aunt was married to the cousin of Russian
— but it can certainly lead to fun discus-
sions. Among the family of Jewish News
and Kevin Pollak. Winer is married to for- artist Marc Chagall, and I am related to
the wife (or girlfriend, depending on the
staff alone are enough celebrities to have
mer Charlie's Angel Shelley Hack. And
through his wife, Beth, Sklar is related to
source) of the man hired to kill Russian
created a lively conversation among the
18th-century scholar, the late Rabbi
revolutionist Leon Trotsky.
group.
Ezekiel Landau of Prague.
Outside the IN offices, Jewish Detroiters
Story Development Editor Keri Guten
mark familial connections with many of
Editorial Assistant Gina Horwitz is a
Cohen's aunt is Charlotte Rae, longtime
second cousin once removed of stage, TV,
the famed, including actress Elizabeth
actress and Tony award nominee best
movie actor and Tony Award Berkley who grew up in Farmington Hills,
known as Mrs. Garrett on the TV
nominee Tony Roberts and
Detroit-born comedian, the late Gilda
show Facts of Life, for which she was
a first cousin of trumpeter
Radner and celebrated American author
nominated for an Emmy award. The
and composer Frank
Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark
actress is big sister to Keri's mom,
London of the Jewish music Twain.
Miriam Guten of Dallas.
Relatives of many locals were eager to
group the Klezmatics.
JN Editor Robert Sklar is a cousin
help compile a sampling of -their farbous-
I'm a third cousin of Lisa
to Detroit-born Hollywood filmmak-
Bonet, who played Denise
relatives, sharing stories and memories of
er Harry Winer, who directed
Har ry Winer
well-knowns in fields from athletics to
Huxtable on The Cosby
episodes of TV shows including
Show.-Also, my grandfather's , music and politics to the arts. ❑
Veronica Mars and Alias and movies •

"I remember how we all went a
couple of blocks to Central Park
and took pictures while Linda
played."
He also recalled, "When Linda
married McCartney my
mother was horrified! She
wrote her brother Louis
that she was upset and
concerned about a Jewish
girl marrying a Christian
man! Uncle Louis wrote
back that his son (our
cousin) had divorced his
first wife and married a
Christian woman more
than 15 years earlier and
. that he had been ashamed
to tell my mother, or any-
one else. Lee had raised Linda as a
non-religious person. So, she was
born Jewish, but never was given
any instruction or support for her
Jewishness. . ' '
Linda McCartney died of breast
cancer in 1998 at age 56.

Cindy
Chupack

Julius and Ruth Chupack of
West Bloomfield know comedy
when they hear it. And they
hear it every time they watch a
TV show written by their great-
niece, Cindy Chupack. -
"She was a producer and a
writer for Coach and Everybody
Loves Raymond and Sex and the
City," Julius said of his brother
Harry's granddaughter. "Cindy's
a beautiful redhead, like Harry.
"Cindy's father, Marvin, who
is Harry's son, was born in
Cindy Chupack
Detroit and he grew up in the
Jewish neighborhood around
Linwood and Dexter," Chupack
funny like Cindy: We came out the
said. "Cindy started out. writing copy,
Depression, so nothing was funny."
like her grandfather Harrj7, who wrote
copy in the ad business. But he wasn't

December 29 - 2005

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