44 Febraury 14 • 2019
jn

NOTEWORTHY TV
AND STREAMING PROGRAMS
Starting on Feb. 15 on Fox (9 p.m.) is the 
legal drama Proven Inno-
cent. It stars Rachel 
Lefevre, 39, as Madeline 
Scott, a fi
 erce attorney who 
leads a team to exonerate 
the wrongly convicted. The 
back story is that Scott was 
the defendant in a high-pro-
fi
 le case, was wrongly con-
victed, spent 10 years in jail, 
and eventually was proved 
innocent. In court, she 
frequently jousts with the 
prosecutor (Kelsey Gram-
mer) who put her in jail. 
Leferve, a Montreal native, 
is the daughter of a Jewish 
mother and a non-Jewish 
father. While she’
s secular, 
she identifi
 es as Jewish. 
Her stepfather is a Cana-
dian rabbi. By the way, the 
series is shot in Chicago 
and fi
 lming of episodes was 
halted on Jan. 30 due to the 
incredible cold wave. It has 
resumed. 
Sammy Davis Jr.: I’
ve 
Got to Be Me, is the title of 
a new American Masters 
series program about the 
late Sammy Davis Jr. 
It will premiere Tuesday, 
Feb. 19, at 9 p.m. (PBS). 
His multi-faceted life and 
career will be covered, 
including his conversion to 
Judaism. American Masters, 
in my opinion, is the best 
biographical series on TV or 
on any other outlet. 
The Feb. 19 (Tuesday, 8 
p.m.) episode of the PBS 
ancestry show, Finding Your 
Roots, titled No Laughing 
Matter, traces some of 
the family lines of three 
comedians: Tig Notaro, 
Sarah Silverman, 48, and 
Seth Meyers, 45. I just had 
an opportunity to view this 
program in advance. 
As I have noted before, Meyers had 
just one Jewish grandparent (his paternal 

grandpa). So, until I saw the program, I 
wasn’
t sure whether his Jewish ancestry 
would be covered at all. I am happy to 
say it was. Silverman’
s “basic” ancestry 
story is not that exciting because it is so 
similar to the family history of so many 
Jews whose grandparents came from 
Eastern Europe. But it is 
made much more personal 
when Silverman learns 
about the hard road her 
maternal grandmother 
trod as a youngster fl
 eeing 
to America — and that 
hardship may explain 
much about her grandma’
s 
personality. Silverman is 
eloquent when she talks 
about what it was like to be 
the only Jewish kid (besides 
her sister) in the small New 
Hampshire town where she 
grew up. 
Meyers, by coincidence, 
also grew up in New 
Hampshire. In the last few 
years, he’
s often said that 
people assume he is Jewish 
because of his “look,” his 
last name and because he 
is a comedian. Years ago, 
his brother, Josh Meyers, 
46, also a comedian, said 
something that anyone 
would understand that he 
was referring to himself as 
Jewish. I followed Josh’
s 
lead and described Seth 
as Jewish in print. Well, his 
publicity people contacted 
me via email and said, 
“Seth is not Jewish.” This 
is the only time that has 
happened to me.
Well, since then, life has 
intervened. Seth is now as 
Jewish as a non-Jew can 
be. He married his wife, 
attorney Alexi Ashe, in a 
Jewish ceremony and they 
are raising their two kids in 
his mother’
s faith. Maybe 
that’
s why Jake Tapper 
wished him a “happy Cha-
nukah” on-air last Decem-
ber and Seth just returned 
the greeting. Now, via Roots, 
Seth knows that his Jewish 
great-grandfather came to America with 
nothing, settled in Pittsburgh and did 
amazingly well. ■

NATE BLOOM

COLUMNIST

Rachel Lefevre 

Sara Silverman

Sammy Davis Jr./1972

Jake Tapper

celebrity jews
arts&life

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