44 April 11 • 2019
jn

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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