Jews
W

Nate Bloom
Special
to the Jewish News
I

1 1:1

Headline Howard
CNN Headline News (HLN) has just
I lly given Clark Howard, 53, his own
maw
weekend show in which he dispenses
advice on all sorts of money mat-
t) ters. Howard takes phone calls from
the audience of his nationally syn-
dicated weekday
radio show (not
aired in Detroit) as
well as noon and
4 p.m. Saturdays
and Sundays on the
HLN cable TV show.
He'll soon have a
consumer
help line
Clark Howard
on the show's Web
page on the HLN site, www.cnn.com/
CNN/Programs/clark.howard.
An Atlanta native, Howard became
a millionaire running travel agencies
before he began a second career
as a consumer-financial reporter.
He has a master's in business from
Central Michigan University. Howard
also is the author of a series of best-
selling books on travel, consumer
problems and personal investing.
In 2002, Howard and his daugh-
ter, then 13, had a joint bar and bat
mitzvah. Howard told an Atlanta
paper that he grew up in a Reform
Jewish home; and when he was 13, it
wasn't common for Reform temples
in Atlanta to put on a "full" bar
mitzvah. His daughter Rebecca chal-
lenged him when she was 11, saying,
"Why should I [have a bat mitzvah]?
You didn't [have a bar mitzvah]."
Howard says, "I wanted her to
feel connected to the religion. The
only way I could demonstrate to her
that it was worthwhile was for me to
stand up with her." Howard prepared
for his bar mitzvah with seven other
adults and, he says, "For the first
time in my life, I actually studied
what Judaism is. Now I could actually
assist in leading a service. This is a
gift my daughter has given to me."

MP

Defiance Sidelights

Liev Schreiber, 41, one of the co-
stars of the film Defiance, recently
spoke to the London Jewish
Chronicle about playing one of a trio
of Jewish brothers who fought as
anti-Nazi partisans. He said he was
reluctant to do another Holocaust
film after adapt-
ing and directing
the Jonathan
Safran Foer novel

James Newton

Howard

Everything is
Illuminated (2005),
which also has a
Holocaust theme,
for the screen.
However, the power
of the Defiance

story drew him in.
The son of a non-Jewish father
and a Jewish mother, Schreiber was ,
raised by his mother with virtually
no Jewish religious background.
Nonetheless, he strongly identifies
as Jewish, telling the Chronicle that
his two young sons with non-Jewish
actress Naomi Watts, his longtime
"life partner," have been circum-
cised: "They both had a proper bris,
with a mohel and a Hebrew naming
ceremony. I'm not an observant per-
son, but I love the idea of a bris in
the same way I love the seder. I real-
ly appreciate the sense of continuity
and relatedness in Jewish culture."
Defiance musical composer James
Newton Howard, 57, recently told
the Los Angeles Times that his work
on the film had special meaning for
him. Regarded as one of the top film
composers in the world, Howard has
been nominated six times for the
Best Score Oscar.
"I didn't find out I was Jewish
until my mid-30s," Howard says.
"My father died when I was young.
He was Jewish. He had changed
his name, and he didn't want me
to know that. And my mother, I
guess, decided it wasn't important.
I am Jewish, and I identify as being
Jewish. So to some extent, this
was my story. As I became more
immersed in the movie, it became
more meaningful as it went on."

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Leah Sidelights

In the Hallmark Hall of Fame pre-
sentation Loving Leah (see related
story on page
B8), Lauren
Ambrose (Six
Feet Under) gives
an absolutely
luminous per-
formance in the
title role. Neither
Ambrose nor
Ricki Lake
Oscar-winning
actress Mercedes Ruehl, who plays
Leah's Jewish mother-in-law, is
Jewish in real life. However, Jewish
actor spotters will have a field day
with the rest of the cast: Ricki Lake,
looking just beautiful as a Reform
rabbi; Natasha Lyonne as Leah's
sister; Susie Essman (Curb Your
Enthusiasm) as Leah's mother; and
Harris Yulin as the chief Chasidic
rabbi.
Actor Adam Kaufman, 34, plays
Leah's brother-in-law, who accord-
ing to ancient Jewish law is bound
to marry her after the death of his
brother. Kaufman, the son of a Jewish
father and a Catholic mother, says
he celebrated both faiths' holidays
as a child and now considers himself
secular. Kaufman also can be seen in
a recurring role as Brian Donovan on
CBS's Without a Trace. ri

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January 22 • 2009

B7