44 April 11 • 2019
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GAME OF THRONES MANIA
This month’
s top TV event will be the
April 14 return of HBO’
s Game of Thrones
(GOT) for its six-episode
eighth (and fi
nal) season.
GOT creators David Benioff
and D. B. Weiss, both 48,
wrote many past season GOT
episodes and they are the
credited writers for all but the
fi
rst episode of the fi
nal sea-
son. They also co-directed
the sixth and fi
nal episode.
Miguel Sapochnik, 44,
directed episodes 3 and 5
of this fi
nal season. Sapoch-
nik is an English Jew of
Argentine Jewish ancestry.
In the show’
s fi
rst seven
seasons, he directed four
GOT episodes, including the
great “Hardhome” episode in
season 5 and the stupendous
“Battle of the Bastards” ep-
isode in season 6 (for which
he won the Emmy for best
director). His wife of 13 years
is actress Alexis Raben, 38,
a Russian Jew who grew
up in America. She now has
a recurring role as “Rhom”
on the SyFy cable series
Krypton.
The two Jewish actors in
the GOT cast I know of are
Paul Kaye, 54, and Anton
Lesser, 67. Kaye’
s character,
Thoros of Myr, a priest with
the Brotherhood without
Banners, died fi
ghting the
white walkers “north of the
Wall” last season. Lesser
plays Qyburn, a learned man
who is evil Queen Cersei’
s
“Hand” (chief adviser and
henchman).
GOT is full of plot lines in
which characters discov-
er previously unknown
parentage and/or family ties.
Here are two real ones: (1)
David Benioff was born David
Friedman. He uses his moth-
er’
s maiden name (Benioff)
as his pen name. He shares a maternal
great-grandfather with Marc Benioff, 54,
a mega-philanthropist and multibillionaire
who is the CEO of Salesforce, a software
company. These two overachievers, who
are both practicing Jews, became aware
of each other and their family ties after
they both became quite famous; and (2)
George R. R. Martin, author of the GOT
novels, was on the PBS ancestry series
Finding Your Roots this
season. He didn’
t know
of any Jewish ancestry
until DNA tests done by the
program revealed that his
paternal grandfather was
an unknown Ashkenazi Jew
with whom his grandmother
apparently had an extra-
marital affair. For Martin, it
must have been a case of
his life imitating his art.
If you are a Game of
Thrones fan, you’
ll love
Game of Thrones Cast
Funny Commercials. A video
of that name is posted on
YouTube. Several (real) ads
for the Israeli company
Soda Stream feature the
Icelandic actor who plays
“The Mountain.” Another
Soda Stream ad co-stars
Mayim Bialik, 43, and the
GOT character Hodor. All
the ads are real ads, except
the fi
rst and the last. They
are parody ads lifted from a
comedy site.
OLD FOLKS CUTE
On March 29, Carl Reiner,
97, tweeted this to Doris
Day: “Congratulations on
joining us 97-year-old show
folk.” He signed his tweet:
“Carl Reiner, screenwriter of
our 1963 venture, The Thrill
of it All.
Day, whose 97th birthday
was April 3, tweeted back,
“Thank you for inviting me.”
Reiner is about to
release a new book titled
Scrunched Celebrity Photos
Hand Scrunched by Carl
Reiner. Recent entries on
his twitter feed include
notes about his daily sched-
ule, which includes watching
Jeopardy almost every night
with Mel Brooks, 92, and his three daily
walks — “walking through every room
on the second fl
oor of my house.” ■
NATE BLOOM
COLUMNIST
Miguel Sapochnik
Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks
Marc Benioff
Alexis Raben
celebrity jews
arts&life
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