Arts & Entertainment

Dose Of Doo-Wop

Farmington Hills' Stuart
Avig helps bring sounds
of the '50s and '60s to
Freedom Hill.

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

Singing professionally has been a longtime sideline for
Stuart Avig; whose special interest has given his son, Scott,
a sideline — managing a part-time professional singing
group.
Dad Stuart, owner of a precious metal refining company,
finds weekend work performing with Shades of Blue, a doo-
wop quartet appearing Friday evening, Aug. 25, at Freedom
Hill Amphitheatre in Sterling Heights. Son Scott, director of
operations for a beauty supply distributor, promotes Shades
of Blue.
The quartet is one of 10 acts appearing in "The Ultimate
Doo-Wop Show," which also features Jimmy Beaumont &

ews

I

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

Emmy Time

ti

The Emmy Awards airs 8 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 27, on NBC. The Jewish
nominees in the acting categories
are Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer),
Debra Messing (Will & Grace), Lisa
Kudrow (The Comeback), William
Shatner (Boston Legal), Larry David
(Curb Your
Enthusiasm) and

Jeremy Piven

(Entourage).
Honorable
mention goes to
Michael J. Fox,
who is nominat-
ed for a guest
Larry David
appearance on
Boston Legal.
Despite his well-known battle
with Parkinson's disease, Fox has
given good performances in TV
guest shots. He has been an active
spokesman for stem-cell research
as well; last year, Fox, who isn't
Jewish, gave his views on the sub-

42

August 24 2006

ject at Consultation on Conscience,
a conference hosted by the Reform
Jewish movement.
In his talk, Fox mentioned that
his wife, actress Tracy Pollan, is
Jewish, and that
their children
are being raised
Jewish. (An
acquaintance
tells me he was
present when
Fox's son was
a bar mitzvah
Lisa Kudrow
in a New York
synagogue a
few years ago. Right after services,
he overheard Fox say: "This is the
proudest day of my life.")

Legion Of Lawyers

Justice, a TV series about a top
criminal-defense law firm, premieres
9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, on FOX.
Jewish actor Victor Garber (Alias)
plays the firm's head. His character
is great at getting clients, but juries
don't like him. Other firm mem-
bers include a young pretty female

attorney who is a forensic expert, a
handsome black lawyer who is politi-
cally connected and an All-American
WASP-y guy who is a brilliant cross-
examiner.
The show's unique gimmick is that
during the last 10 minutes of Justice,
you will see in flashbacks what really
happened (i.e., whether the defen-
dant really is guilty).
Co-producing Justice is Jonathan
Shapiro, who
also co-wrote
the pilot episode.
He is a Rhodes
scholar and an
amateur boxer
who wrote for
Ring magazine
while study-
Victor Garber
ing at Oxford
University. After
law school, Shapiro became a federal
prosecutor and, later, he was chief
of staff to California's lieutenant
governor. He left politics in 2005
and decided to return to writing, his
first love.

Actor Incognito

The 2002 murder of Jewish journal-
ist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan was an
early sign of something profoundly
twisted in a segment of British soci-
ety. Sheik Omar, the man convicted
of leading the Pearl murder plot,
didn't come from the Arab heartland
like the 9-11 hijackers. He was born
in Britain of middle-class Pakistani
Muslim parents and was well edu-
cated in British schools.
Almost all of those who have
committed or allegedly have tried
to commit a terrorist act in Britain
since 2002 share virtually the same
background as Sheik Omar (includ-
ing those just charged with trying to
hijack and blow up planes).
The producers of A Mighty Heart,
an upcoming movie on Daniel Pearl,
were well aware there are many
Sheik Omars out there. So they kept
the identity of the actor portraying
Pearl, Dan Futterman, a deep secret,
until they recently completed a brief
visit to Pakistan to get background
shots for the film.