arts&life celebrity jews NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST CHABON AND ROOTS Com munit y DIRECTORY Ad deadline is August 16, 2018 Issue date August 30, 2018 Call Keith for advertising 248-351-5107 GET THE JN DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR EVERY WEEK! Follow us online Detroit Jewish News @JewishNewsDet Go to thejewishnews.com and click “Subscribe” @detroitjewishnews 000000 40 August 16 • 2018 jn I noted last week that Pulitzer Prize- winning author Michael Chabon, 55, was writing an episode of Star Trek: Discovery. In the past week, more details were released about that and, by coincidence, his wife, writer Ayelet Waldman, 53, appeared in many news reports last week as well. Discovery, on the CBS All-Access streaming service, has turned into a pretty big hit. The second season of Discovery begins next January. To keep viewer interest fresh, CBS ordered four 15-minute mini-episodes (called Star Treks) that will premiere this fall. The mini-episode “Calypso” was written by Chabon. It follows a man who finds him- self alone on a deserted ship. Waldman, a former lawyer and law professor, has been married to Chabon since 1993 and they have four chil- dren. Like Chabon, Waldman’s novels frequently have Jewish characters and themes, and they both have written essays on Jewish subjects. Waldman’s moment in the news began when Henry Louis Gates, the host of the PBS celeb- rity ancestry show Finding Your Roots disclosed in the July 31 episode that House Speaker Paul Ryan, a practicing Catholic, has some remote Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry (about 3 percent of his DNA). Gates let this drop during a news conference promoting the fifth season of his show, which premieres in January. On Aug. 1, Ryan tweeted: “Guess I have to start saying l’chaim, too, now.” Waldman, a political progressive like her husband, responded to the Roots news a few hours later. In a tweet that was widely reported, Waldman wrote: “I’m sorry but no, we don’t want him.” Also weighing in was Stephen Colbert, a practicing Catholic like Ryan, and a progressive like Waldman. He joked on air: “Haven’t the Jewish people suffered enough?” The fifth Roots season will have 25 guests. Three are Jewish: comedian Andy Samberg, 39; comedian Sarah Silverman, 47; and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, 48. Also, comedian Seth Meyers, whose paternal grandfather was Jewish, is a guest. But it’s unclear if his Jewish ancestry will be a focus of his episode. Samberg is the subject of this intrigu- ing teaser in the official Roots press release: “Highlights include a search for Andy Samberg’s biological grandpar- ents” I gather, from this release, that either Andy’s (Jewish) mother or his (Jewish) father was adopted. My edu- Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon Andy Samberg Adam Levine cated guess, based on a lot of clues, is that it was his mother who was adopt- ed, and I won’t be that surprised if she’s biologically Jewish. ADAM BRINGS THE SUGAR The “pay-for” wing of YouTube, for- merly called YouTube Red, has been relabeled YouTube Premium. If you, or a password-sharing friend, subscribe, you might check out Sugar, a new series that started on Premium on Aug. 15. The title is inspired by a YouTube music video (“Sugar”) featuring Adam Levine, 39, and his band Maroon 5. That video got 2.5 billion views. In the series, a famous musician or band will surprise a superfan of the musician(s) with a personal visit. Levine, who produces the series, will be in one of its eight weekly episodes. Appearing in another episode is singer/songwriter Charlie Puth, 26. Puth, whose mother is Jewish, has been hot since his first hit (“See You Again”) in 2015. •