Arts & Entertainment

Newman's Own

Farmington Hills native Jaime Ray Newman lands
a starring role in ABC's new series Eastwick.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

N

icole Kovacs has spent consider-
able time watching Jaime Ray
Newman.
It started out with babysitting respon-
sibilities for Jaime, her 10-years-younger
cousin, but transitioned into fan-like
responses as Newman built a stage and
screen career.
When the Newman-starring series
Eastwick, an adaptation of the John
Updike novel The Witches of Eastwick,
recently launched, Kovacs hosted a fam-
ily viewing party to celebrate in her West
Bloomfield home.
"We've all been rooting for Jaime and
putting announcements about the show
on our Facebook sites',' says Kovacs, who
this summer visited the actress, relocated
from Michigan to California. "We all loved
the pilot and almost forgot she was part of
our family."
Eastwick, about three very different
women with magical powers, also features
Rebecca Romijn and Lindsay Price. While
Newman portrays Kat, a working mother
of five in a troubled marriage, Romijn
(Roxie) is a single mom in a romance with
a younger man, and Price (Joanna) is an
awkward newspaper writer with a crush

on

a photographer.
"I feel really lucky to have this role
because I figured my fate would be some
procedural drama:' says Newman, 30
and single, who has appeared in General
Hospital, Lincoln Heights and Nip/
Tuck with continuing roles. "I've played
lawyers, cops and congressional aides.
"To land someplace where I get to play
comedy and drama through a complex
character, I come to work every day feeling
challenged by something new."
Newman, who grew up in Farmington
Hills and went to Hillel Day School and
Cranbrook, knew she wanted to be an
actress when she was 12 and won a role
in A Rosen by Any Other Name at the
Jewish Ensemble Theatre.
After appearing the next year in the JET
production of First Is Supper, she started
a production company and produced three
plays, with adults, at a rented theater.
College studies began at Boston
University, where Newman focused on
acting. They continued at Northwestern
University, where she pursued a more gen-
eral education.
"I ended up acting every quarter, pro-
ducing and playing with a band;' says
Newman, who also developed her skills at
Interlochen."My parents, Fred and Marsha
Newman, had moved to Los Angeles, and I

moved there as well.
"A month after arriving in Los Angeles, I
got on General Hospital. They killed me off
in a year, and I returned to my theater roots:"
There was a successful play with David
Schwimmer, a not-so-successful play and
no work for a year.
"I lived with my parents and went
through a tough time, but the watershed
broke when I booked the title character in
a pilot:' recalls the actress, who just com-
pleted The Gauntlet, an independent film.
"It didn't get picked up, but it got me
noticed by ABC. I subsequently did four
pilots and joined other shows. Eastwick
was my fifth pilot and the first one to get
on the air."
Newman got her break through doing a
screen test for The Mentalist. The direc-
tor moved on to Eastwick and called her.
Newman, whose series is shot at night,
has been enjoying Hollywood party nights
and some glam times.
"This year, I did the Emmy stuff,"
she says. "I got to go to the big Jeffrey
Katzenberg DreamWorks party and the
HBO party. We were on the cover of TV
Guide so we had this amazing photo
shoot with the coolest clothes.
"It's bizarre walking down a red carpet
and having 100 photographers saying,
`Jaime, over here, and then having people

Jaime Ray Newman: "It's bizarre walking
down a red carpet and having 100 pho-
tographers saying, 'Jaime, over here."

asking for autographs. I think it's cooler
for my parents to watch."
The Newman family, including Jaime's
sister, Beth, belonged to Congregation
Shaarey Zedek of Oakland County. They
now participate with Nashuva, a Jewish out-
reach organization based in Los Angeles.
"I travel a lot to Israel;' the actress
says. "We have family in northern Israel,
and I'm finishing a script with director
Guy Nativ. It's going to be a joint Israeli,
Palestinian, American production."
Newman, who relaxes with yoga, is
involved with Hope for Paws, rescuing dogs.
"My career hope is that Eastwick grows
and grows:' says Newman, looking for-
ward to Thanksgiving in Michigan with
grandparents Ettie Handelman and Phyllis
and Albert Newman. "If not, I hope I land
someplace else that's just as terrific." [ I

Eastwick airs 10 p.m. Wednesdays
on ABC.

ews

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

Film Notes

Scheduled to open Friday, Oct. 9, is
Couples Retreat, a comedy about four
couples from the Midwest who vaca-
tion at a tropical island resort. The
resort specializes in couples therapy,
and while only one couple is there
for that reason, they all quickly learn
their group rate requires all of them
to participate.
Co-stars include
Jon Favreau and
his real-life buddy
Vince Vaughn,
Kristen Davis and
Jason Bateman. Fun
fact: The first-time
director is Peter
Jon Favreau
Billingsley, who has
helped produce most
of Favreau's films. Billingsley was a
very cute child actor who starred in

52

October 8 • 2009

the classic A Christmas Story.
Earth Days, open-
ing Oct. 23, is a
documentary about
the development of
4 0' the modern environ-
mental movement,
from the '50s to the
first Earth Day in
1970. The "green"
Paul Ehrlich
pioneers profiled
include biologist/population expert
Paul R. Ehrlich, now 77.

TV Notes

Glee, the Fox series
that centers on an
Ohio high-school
choir and which airs
9 p.m. Wednesdays,
has turned out to be
a big critical and rat-
Lea Michele
ings hit.
As recently reported in the JN,
Jewish actors include Lea Michele

(she has a Sephardi father and an
Italian Catholic mother), who plays
lead character Rachel Berry, and
Dianna Agron, a Jewish actress who
plays the devout Christian character,
Quinn Fabray. Also Jewish is actress
Jessalyn Gilsig, who plays the wife of
the teacher who leads the choir.
In the episode airing Sept. 23,
the "spunky" Berry character was
revealed to be Jewish. Cool!
The CW series The Vampire Diaries,
airing 8 p.m. Thursdays, also has
turned into a hit — with nine more
episodes just ordered. The show
takes place in a small Virginia town,
where two vampire brothers — one
good and one evil — fight for the
souls of the townsfolk.
Co-starring as Bonnie Bennett, a
teen with psychic powers, is actress-
singer Katerina Graham, 20.
In a recent interview, the biracial
Graham detailed her unusual back-
ground. She was born in Switzerland

e

to a black Liberian
journalist father
who worked for the
United Nations and
a Jewish-American
mother. She speaks
fluent French and
Spanish — and some
Katerina
Hebrew that, she
Graham
says, she learned in
Hebrew school. She was raised in Los
Angeles by her mother and has been
acting for 10 years.

•i

Best Picture

Ajami, an Israeli movie co-directed by
a Palestinian and an Israeli and spo-
ken primarily in Arabic, won Israel's
Ophir Award as Best Picture. The
drama about life in the Jaffa neigh-
borhood of Ajami will be submitted
to the American Academy Awards as
Israel's nomination in the category of
Best Foreign Film. II