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First Round
ician's lll
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Any Publicity Is
Good Publicity
Meet one of the faces of success
T
Robert Goldfarb, M.D., is a
board-certified, senior staff
physician in obstetrics and
gynecology at the Henry Ford
Medical Center—West Bloomfield,
and a member of the Henry Ford
Medical Group.
he widely anticipated Ron
Howard film The Da Vinci
Code starring Tom Hanks is
getting some of The Passion of the
Christ passionate responses around
the world this week.
The film that opens
Friday, May 19, is based on
the Dan Brown monster
bestseller book that's sold
40 million copies around
the world without Oprah's
help, which is, in itself,
remarkable.
Look on the front pages
of any newspaper or
watch any news program
this week and it would
be impossible to miss
clergy disputing the film based on
a fact-based novel — and parishio-
ners debating whether they'll go to a
Tom Hanks movie based on murder,
Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene and a
Catholic albino.
The book's main premise is that
Jesus and Mary married and had a
child.
"The book is anti-Catholic. It's
anti-Christian," said Rev. Kenneth
Kaucheck, pastor of Our Lady Star
of the Sea Catholic Church in Grosse
Pointe Woods, according to a May
14 Detroit Free Press
story. "Many people
were offended by news-
paper cartoons about
the prophet Muhammad,
and yet here's a novel that
says the church has been
lying to people about core
beliefs concerning Jesus
— and there isn't much of
a response against it."
Sheesh — last week the Da Vinci
controversy about Tom Hanks hair
made it on the nightly entertainment
shows; now this religious controversy
makes it on the nightly news.
Two years ago, Anti-Defamation
League leader Abe Foxman of New
York and Rabbi Marvin Hier of the
Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los
Angeles took turns warning everyone
about the anti-Semitic implications of
Mel Gibson's movie.
"I don't expect to see Christians
streaming from the Star Southfield
theaters a mile away to lay siege on the
Jewish News because of Mel Gibson's
movie," I wrote back then, and that
column landed me on the early morn-
ing local newscast on the
day of the premier.
All the hand wringing
from our Jewish leaders
did nothing but give more
publicity for Gibson's
Passion movie, and all the
gentile hand wringing will
do the same for The Da
Vinci Code — as if
it needs it.
Anti-Catholic or not,
The Da Vinci Code
should bust Mission
Impossible: III off its perch as the
most-watched movie this weekend.
I'm sure that MI:///'s popularity
has been the result of the Tom Cruise
publicity machine. He's been every-
where the past few weeks: hip-hop-
ping across the globe to promote the
movie, then helping his wife, Katie, in
the delivery room, then joking about
eating the placenta, then back to pro-
moting the film. He showed up last
week on The Ellen Degeneris Show
buying the fans in the audience roses
for Mother's Day and buying
Ellen's 137-year-old mother
a red bicycle and helmet.
Sweet!
Academy-award winner
Cruise — who is creepy-
wacky in real life but plays
all-American roles in the
movies — is the protago-
nist in M/:///. He plays
opposite Academy Award
winner Philip Seymour
Hoffman, who is normal in real life,
but plays creepy-wacky roles in the
movies.
I've heard that the crowd laughs in
all the wrong places and actually roars
in approval during a scene when the
bad guys pummel Toin.
Guess which movie I'm seeing first?
You guessed right: the first one to
come out on a DVD.
Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is
hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com .
Honesty. Kindness. Compassion.
Communication. All of these are
key words in the philosophy of
Dr. Goldfarb.
"I try to individualize what I do,
treating everyone like family, the
way I'd want to be treated if I were
the patient," he says.
"It's always important what you do,
but equally important is how you
do it. To be a good physician, you
need to care. You can be technical-
ly competent, but you won't be
good if you don't care."
Growing up in Oak Park, he want-
ed to be a doctor from his elemen-
tary school days.
"My mother had multiple sclerosis,
and I watched as doctors tried to
piece together the puzzle of her
care with the technology of the
time," recalls Dr. Goldfarb.
"That was a major part of what
inspired me to take up medicine."
A graduate of the Wayne State
University Medical School,
Dr. Goldfarb has been on staff at
Henry Ford for 19 years.
In his practice, Dr. Goldfarb has
seen major technological improve-
ments in obstetrics and gynecology.
"With advances in technology,
the medical profession has
improved the ability to manage
high-risk births, primarily prema-
ture deliveries," he says. "We're
seeing more good outcomes now
for mothers and babies."
well as less dis-
ruption in a
patient's life.
Women can
return to their
normal activi-
ties much more
quickly now.
He remembers
some unusual Robert
Goldfarb, Al.D.
births over
the years,
including delivering a baby in a car
in the hospital parking lot and per-
forming a Caesarean section in the
outpatient surgery area at the West
Bloomfield medical center.
"The mother came into the
emergency department in labor,
and was monitored," Dr. Goldfarb
recalls.
"It was decided that we didn't have
time to get her to a hospital
during rush hour, and it was not in
her best interest to wait. I did a
C-section, pediatric nurses came in
to care for the baby, and we
transported them to the hospital
afterward. Everyone was fine.
"It is an honor to be allowed to
participate in such significant, pos-
itive events in my patients' lives,"
he says. "There is also a continuum
of care, where my patients' families
have grown up with mine. We're
going through many of the same
things at the same times."
Dr. Goldfarb is currently planning
a clinical study on the effects of
menopausal therapies.
He resides in Farmington Hills
with his wife, Janice, and two
teenage sons. Janice Goldfarb is a
volunteer coordinator for
Farmington Hills. The family is
affiliated with Congregation Adat
Shalom.
Dr. Goldfarb also notes that gyne-
cological surgical techniques allow
minimally invasive procedures
which were not available 10 or 12
years ago.
"This means a more comfortable
and shorter recuperation period, as
Pb1' 11101e inibrmation Or to make an
• appointment call 1-800-1-1ENRYFORD or
visit our Web site imvw.henryford.com
May 18 • 2006 9