rt Entertainment Making A Point Musical comedy addresses racist issues. Suzanne Chessler Special to the Jewish News R Sean Mosely as Purlie and Samara Littleton as Lutiebelle in the Mosaic Youtly-Vheatre produc- - z tion.4ait Nate Bloom Special to the Jewish News Roasting Bill William Shatner, 75, rolls along. The veteran actor, who plays Denny Crane in Boston Legal, is up for a 2006 Emmy as Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. A science documentary he narrated, How William Shatner Changed the World, also is up for an Emmy, for Best Nonfiction Special. The Emmys air 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, on NBC. In May, Shatner visited Israel William Shatner to announce the establishment of the William Shatner-Jewish National Fund Therapeutic Riding Consortium Endowment for Israel. Shatner plans to help raise $10 million to provide horse-riding programs for disabled children of every religious back- ground. This is all nice — but not as much fun as the upcoming Comedy Central 54 August 17 - 2006 ick Sperling, who founded Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit but rarely is seen on stage, gets a chance to perform with the troupe in his favorite musical, Purlie. Portraying 01' Cap'n in Mosaic's debut summer produc- tion, Sperling can be seen Aug. 18-20 and 25-27 at the Detroit Film Theatre in the Detroit Institute of Arts. This project, which includes Mosaic alumni and adult mem- Roast of William Shatner promises to be; it airs 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 20, on Comedy Central. While comics have lampooned Shatner before, he remains a rich, goldmine of comedic delights — from his easily imitated speaking style to his larger-than-life roles to his obvious egotistical delight in being Bill Shatner, the guy who has faced down Klingons and ageist Hollywood executives. Maybe the best thing about Shatner is that he actually seems to enjoy mocking himself. He knows he's one of a kind and just goes with it. The Princess Sings Broadway composer Adam Guettel, 41, says he is working on a musical- stage version of The Princess Bride and that Jewish novelist and screen- writer William Goldman, 75, is writ- ing the book for the musical. Few modern children's books have had the enduring success of The Princess Bride (1973). Goldman crafted an exciting and funny adven- ture novel for kids and adults. In 1987, Goldman wrote a snappy ver- sion of Bride for the screen, and the bers of the community working alongside young artists, tells the story of an aspiring preacher, Purlie Victorious, who sets out to acquire a church by conning a Georgia plantation owner, 01' Cap'n. "Purlie became my father's favorite musical after he saw it on Broadway, and I used to hear him playing the cast recording all the time," says Sperling, whose current administrative goal is to raise $500,000 for Mosaic by Feb. 1 to get matching funds from the Kresge Foundation. "I don't know of any musical that has such infectious songs, film version became an enormous hit over time. (Goldman has written many famous movies — Marathon Man and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, among them — and has won two screenwrit- ing Oscars.) Guettel recent- ly told a reporter he had to "climb a mountain" Adam Guettel to meet the expectations others impose on him because of his ancestry and the expectations he imposes on himself. Guettel's grandfather was the leg- endary composer Richard Rodgers. Adam's mother, Mary Rodgers Guettel, is the author of the classic teen novel Freaky Friday. She also wrote Once Upon a Mattress, the hit musical. Long labeled a "promising" com- poser, Guettel finally got the word "promising" removed as a descrip- tive when his musical The Light in the Piazza ran for more than a year on Broadway, and he won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2005, Mosaic Youth Theatre founder Rick Sperling portrays 01' Cap'n in Purlie. Leder Leads Vanished, a new TV series on FOX, premieres 9 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21. The show combines elements of CSI, 24 and The West Wing. PR materials reveal a plotline that unfolds as the wife of a prominent senator disappears. The subsequent search for her "uncovers evidence that potentially can shake the foun- dations of American society." Vanished is produced and directed by Mimi Leder, 53. She is one of the few women to make it as a top TV director (ER) and to have success helm- ing action films (Deep Impact). Mimi Leder Mimi's father, Paul Leder, served as an American Army medic during World War II and helped liberate Buchenwald. After the war, he became a "B" movie director, and Mimi grew up on film sets. Mimi's mother, Etyl, a Belgian Jew and a concert pianist, was the only member of her immediate fam- ily to survive Auschwitz.