Arts & Entertainment Seder Solutions Check out these new Passover guides and Haggadot to bring new vitality to your seders. Suzanne Chessler Special to the Jewish News S eders can retain the basics while taking new directions every year as publishers turn out new texts and Haggadot. Here are the latest with comfort, fun and diet-smart recipes among the pages: • Pesach for the Rest of Us: Making the Passover Seder Your Own by Marge Piercy (Schocken; $22.95) gives the fiction and poetry writer a chance to reveal why the holiday is her favorite. Besides including explanations for the traditions, she offers poetic impressions that carry readers into her personal spirituality, opens up the possibilities of the seder table and shares family recipes, all in the hope that readers will fashion their own homemade, highly personal seder. •And You Thought There Were Only Four by Joe Bobker (Gefen Publishing House; $14.95) multiplies the four classic Passover questions to 400, with the promise they will make your seder enlightening, educational and enjoyable. ("Did all the Jews willingly par- ticipate in the Exodus from Egypt?" "No. The Torah admits that only one in five Jews were sufficiently adventurous and imbued with faith to take up the challenge of emancipation.") The author, who has been publisher and editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Jewish Times, built a career on Nate Bloom Special to the Jewish News Jews At The Bat The start of the Major League base- ball season and Passover are two annual milestones that proclaim spring is finally here. This year, baseball's opening day, April 2, coin- cides with the date of the first Passover seder. Following is a Jason Marquis list of this season's Jewish Major Leaguers as compiled by Jewish Sports Review, the only publication that contacts players to verify they are Jewish. There are no Jewish rookies this year, and Boston's Gabe Kapler recently decided to retire to pursue a managing career. Also, Red Sox pitcher Craig Breslow, who has been in a couple of Major League games, was sent down to the minors on March 16. All the players listed below have at least one Jewish parent, were either raised Jewish or without religion 56 March 29 • 2007 asking questions and brings that outlook to the holiday. • Telling the Story: A Passover Haggadah Explained, adapted by Barry Louis Polisar (Rainbow Morning Music; $7.95), is a Haggadah that tells about holiday rituals in simple terms and presents the prayers in English and Hebrew with pho- netic pronunciations. Although the author usually writes for children, he planned this for adults as well. • The Storybook Haggadah by Seymour Rossel (Pitspopany Press; $9.95) is for children ages 7-10. Written in English and Hebrew by a rabbi, the book moves from right to left and is recommended as an and don't follow a faith other than Judaism. Suiting up for 2007 are Kevin Youkilis (Boston); Ian Kinsler and Scott Feldman (Texas Rangers); Scott Schoeneweis and Shawn Green (New York Mets); Jason Marquis (Chicago Cubs); Mike Lieberthal (Los Angeles Dodgers); John Grabow (Pittsburgh) and Jason Hirsch (Colorado). Breaking Out Opening Friday, March 30, is the film The Lookout. Joseph Gordon- Levitt co-stars as a young man whose "perfect" life was destroyed when, in high school, he's in an accident that leaves him mentally impaired. Now, a few Joseph years out of school, Gordon-Levitt he works as a night janitor in a bank and shares an apartment with a blind man (played by Michigan's own Jeff Daniels). A high-school acquaintance wants Gordon-Levitt's character to help him rob the bank, and he hires an ex- stripper (Isla Fisher) to "soften up" the impaired young man. Most people still remember Gordon-Levitt, 26, as the teenager Tommy Solomon on TV's 3rd Rock from the Sun. But the Jewish actor has built a respect- able career since in indie films (including last year's hit Brick), and The Lookout is a good jump for Isla Fisher him into mainstream Hollywood flicks. Fisher, 31, is being touted as one of the next big Hollywood actresses after her success in The Wedding Crashers. In this month's Interview magazine, there's an interview with Fisher titled, "What a Mentsh: Isla Fisher Converts to Stardom." The title references her soaring career and Jonathan her recent conver- Tucker sion to Judaism in advance of mar- rying Borat comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. The same Interview issue has introduction to the holiday or for use at the seder table. The blessings and order of the service are the same as in any Haggadah, but this one tells the narrative from a child's point of view and is illustrated for children. ' STORYBOOK HAGGADAH - 7;7 • Please, Don't Pass Over the Seder Plate: A Haggadah for the Young and Young-at-Heart by Harriet Goldner (Jewish Family Fun; $8.95) is the work of a grandmother who could not find the book she wanted for her own family. She includes the message of the holiday supplemented by verse and lots of illustrations. a fashion photo spread featuring Jonathan Tucker, 24, the star of the new TV series The Black Donnellys. Tucker just told a TV reporter that his father is Irish Catholic and his mother is Jewish, but no word on how he was raised. Shining On Opening March 30 at the Maple Art Theatre in Bloomfield Township is the comedic film Color Me Kubrick, starring John Malkovich as a London con artist who pretends to be the famous director Stanley Kubrick — although he looks almost nothing like Kubrick and doesn't know much about his films. Kubrick is based on a true story. In real life, the con man's game was first exposed by New Marisa York Times columnist Berenson Frank Rich and his Jewish wife, Times reporter Alex Witchel. Both are prominent charac- ters in the movie; Alex is played by the ever beautiful Marisa Berenson, 61, whose late father was Jewish.