38 February 28 • 2019
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TRANSPARENT PLANS AHEAD
A year ago, Jeffrey Tambor, now 74, the
star of the Amazon series Transparent,
was fired after accusations
from other cast members
that he sexually harassed
them. Transparent creator
Jill Soloway, 53, canceled
the show’
s pending fifth
season following the firing.
After Tambor was let go,
Soloway said she wasn’
t
sure whether Transparent
would continue in any form.
Well, she’
s changed her
mind: Transparent will return
to Amazon with a two-hour
final movie musical that will
premiere sometime later this
year. Soloway also plans to
make a cast album of the
musical version with an eye
toward possibly bringing the
musical to Broadway.
Before the first TV epi-
sode aired, Jill and her
sister, Faith Soloway, 54,
an accomplished composer
and lyricist, kicked around
the idea that it could be a
musical TV series. As the
series aired, Faith tested out
songs she wrote based on
the series’
themes and char-
acters before patrons of an
artsy NYC pub. Transparent
is partially autobiographical:
The sisters’
Jewish father,
like Tambor’
s Jewish charac-
ter Maura, came out late-in-
life as transgender. Jill says:
“The songs are coming from
a deep place inside of our
own family’
s history.”
The entire TV cast (except
Tambor) was recruited for
the musical movie. Soloway
told Variety that Judith
Light, 70, (who plays Shelly
Pfefferman, Maura’
s Jewish
ex-wife) will be the film’
s
focal point, and the plot
will take off from where
the fourth season ended.
Soloway says about Light: “[Light] was
unbelievable singing and dancing, doing
these kicks … She’
s more in shape,
more energetic, more alive than every-
body on the set. We all just worship her
... I love having Shelly have the lead and
let her have her storyline. Because we
got to cast so many people dancing, we
cast a lot of women who are over 65
and 70. Old Jews love the show, and I’
m
happy to make television for
them.”
LOWDOWN ON FOX NEWS
The documentary Divide
and Conquer: The Story
of Roger Ailes played a
limited number of theaters
last year and garnered
mostly good reviews. It will
premiere on TV on Sunday,
March 3 (A&E cable, 9 p.m.,
many encore showings).
Ailes was made head of
Fox News when it started
in 1996, and he remained
head of the controversial
conservative news outlet
until he was fired in 2016,
following many accusations
of sexual harassment. He
died in 2017.
The documentary traces
his life, which included
being a media adviser to
Presidents Richard Nixon
and Ronald Reagan. Ailes
was the dominant force in
creating the Fox News “us
against them” sensibility.
The documentary was
made by Alexis Bloom, 43.
Born in South Africa, she
moved to England in 1988
for her education, and she
earned undergrad and grad
degrees from Cambridge
University. She moved to
the States in 2000, work-
ing first as a journalist
and, later, a documentary
maker. Her longtime partner
is actor/director Fisher
Stevens, 55. They have two
young children and wed in
2017. Stevens and Bloom
together made the criti-
cally acclaimed 2016 HBO
documentary Bright Lights:
Starring Carrie Fisher and
Debbie Reynolds. You may
recall it aired just weeks after the sud-
den “back-to-back” deaths of Carrie
Fisher and Reynolds. ■
NATE BLOOM
COLUMNIST
Carrie Fisher
Fisher Stevens
Jill Soloway
Judith Light
celebrity jews
arts&life
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