50 | DECEMBER 2 • 2021 

BERKLEY AND BLAIR 
UPDATE; GREAT 
PLAY: MANY JEWS; 
REMEMBERING ADRIENNE 
SHELLY
Over the years, I have writ-
ten about Selma Blair and 
Elizabeth Berkley, two well-
known actresses who grew 
up in the Detroit area. In the 
last few weeks, I happened 
to come across a number of 
items related to the pair.
 Berkley, 47, grew up 
in Farmington Hills. She 
became famous playing 
Jessie Spano, a lead char-
acter on the hit NBC high 
school comedy series Saved 
by the Bell. In its original ver-
sion, Saved ran from 1989-
1993. 
After Saved, Berkley’s 
hopes of having a major 
film career derailed when 
she co-starred in Showgirls 
(1995). The director, Paul 
Verhoven, was coming off 
a series of hits when he 
made Showgirls, so you can’t 
blame Berkeley for accepting 
the role of Nomi, a Las Vegas 
showgirl who was frequently 
less than fully clothed. Critics 

hated the film and Showgirls 
was a film career killer. 
Otherwise, her life went 
well. In 2003, she married 
Greg Lauren, now 51, in a 
lavish Jewish wedding. The 
couple has one child, a son 
now 9. Greg’s father, Jerry 
Lauren, now 87, is a very 
wealthy man. He long head-
ed-up the menswear division 
of Ralph Lauren (Ralph, 82, is 
Jerry’s brother). 
In 2020, a re-boot of 
Saved by the Bell began 
streaming on Peacock and 
got good reviews. A second 
season began streaming 
on Nov. 24. Berkley again 
plays Spano, who now is a 
high school counselor with 
a doctorate. Also, in 2020, 
You Don’t Nomi, a documen-
tary defending the growing, 
“positive” cult status of 
Showgirls, was released. 
I didn’t realize that Berkley 
and Selma Blair were friends 
until Blair disclosed in 2018 
that Berkley, after hearing 
about Blair’s medical symp-
toms, insisted that she see 
her brother, Jason Berkley, a 
Los Angeles neurologist. He 
confirmed (2018) that Blair 
had Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Blair, 49, a Southfield 
native, had built a strong film 
and TV acting career when 
she first got MS symptoms 
in 2011. She went public with 
her diagnosis in 2018 and 
a Discovery+ documentary 
about her struggle with MS, 
Introducing Selma Blair, 
began streaming in October. 
The documentary revealed 
that actress Jennifer (Dirty 
Dancing) Grey, 61, contacted 
Blair when she heard about 
her condition. Grey didn’t 
know Blair then but con-

vinced her to seriously look 
into a stem cell treatment 
Grey had heard of. The treat-
ment has really helped Blair. 
Meanwhile, on Amazon 
Prime, a “new” Selma Blair 
movie, Far More, began 
streaming (free) this month. 
Blair plays the caring wife 
of a great guy who is dying 
from cancer. Adrian Grenier 
(Entourage) co-stars as her 
husband’s brother. Really 
strong acting by the two 
leads makes up for some 
script weaknesses. I dug out 
that Far More had a one-the-
ater opening in 2014 (under 
another title) and never saw 
the light of day again until 
Amazon began showing it. 
It’s worth your time. 
Also worth your time is 
The Humans, a film that had 
a very limited theater open-
ing last week and, at the 
same time, began streaming 
on Showtime. It is based on 
a one-act play by Stephen 
Karam that won (2016) the 
Tony for best play. The film 
was written and directed by 
Karam, a Scranton native of 
Lebanese Christian back-
ground. 
Very basic plot: Brigid 
Blake (Beanie Feldstein, 
28), a musician, and her 
boyfriend, Erik (Steven Yuen), 
live-in a run-down Manhattan 
apartment. Brigid’s parents, 
Richard (Richard Jenkins) and 
Deidre (Jayne Houdyshell), 
drive in from Scranton to 
celebrate Thanksgiving with 
Brigid. They are joined by 
Aimee, Brigid’s sister (Amy 
Schumer, 40), who is a 
lawyer in Philadelphia, and 
Momo (June Squibb, 82), 
Erik’s grandmother, who is 
suffering from Alzheimer’s. 

Gradually, a lot of family 
secrets and problems are 
exposed. 
On Dec. 1, HBO began 
streaming the documenta-
ry Adrienne, about the life 
of actress/writer/director 
Adrienne Shelly (1966-
2006). Shelly’s death was 
the subject of headlines 
when it became clear that 
she did not commit suicide, 
as the police first thought, 
but that she was brutally 
murdered by a construction 
worker in her building. Her 
husband, Andy Ostroy, 62, 
directed the HBO film, and 
he is a major character in the 
film. He pushed the police 
to re-investigate Shelly’s 
death; he raised their daugh-
ter, Sophie, now 17; and he 
founded a big arts founda-
tion bearing Shelly’s name.
Shelly was born Amy 
Levine and grew up on 
Long Island. She gained 
some fame as the star of 
several well-received indie 
films in the 1990s. However, 
she’s best remembered 
for Waitress, a film that she 
wrote and directed that was 
released just after her death. 
This feminist comedy/drama 
got very good reviews and, 
in 2015, a musical version of 
Waitress opened. It ran on 
Broadway for four years. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

LG ELECTRONICS VIA WIKIPEDIA

Semla 
Blair

VWILSONROBERTS VIA WIKIPEDIA

Elizabeth 
Berkley

