52 | MARCH 16 • 2023 

CLIMATE CHANGE, 
CARTOON INDIANA JONES, 
LENO’S JEWISH DOCTOR, 
MORE

Extrapolations is a six-part 
Apple TV+ series that pre-
mieres on March 17. Here’s 
part of the official description: 
“Extrapolations is a bracing 
drama that introduces a near 
future where the chaotic 
effects of climate change 
have become embedded 
into our everyday lives. Eight 
interwoven stories about 
love, work, faith and family 
from across the globe will 
explore the intimate, life-al-
tering choices that must be 
made when the planet is 
changing faster than the pop-
ulation.”

It’s obvious that the import-
ant nature of the material 
attracted “star power.” The 
Jewish cast members are 
Judd Hirsch, 87, Daveed 
Diggs, 41, Peter Riegert, 
75, and David Schwimmer, 
56. Riegert and Schwimmer’s 
characters have very “Jewish 
names.” It’s likely that they 
are Jewish characters.
Here are some of the big-
name (not Jewish) actors 
in the series: Meryl Streep, 
Forest Whitaker (best actor 
Oscar), Kit Harington (Game 
of Thrones) and Tobey 

McGuire.
Riegert is the least-known 
of the four Jewish actors. 
He’s best known for playing 
Donald “Boon” Schoenstein 
in Animal House (a cool frat 
guy). I loved him in Crossing 
Delancey (1988), one of the 
best Jewish-themed mov-
ies ever made. He played a 
charming Jewish pickle store 
owner who “wins” the Jewish 
woman of his dreams. 
Digman, an animated 
comedy series, premieres 
on Comedy Central on 
Wednesday, March 22. The 
advance publicity says that “it 
takes place in a world where 
archaeologists are celebri-
ties.”
Andy Samberg, 44, co-cre-
ated the series and he voices 
Rip Digman, the titular char-
acter. The guest (voice) actors 
include Maya Rudolph, 51, 
and Daniel Radcliffe, 33. 
Boston Strangler is an 
original Hulu film that will 
premiere on March 17. The 
title references the name 
given to an unknown person 
who strangled 13 women in 
the Boston area in 1962-64. 
There was a prior film, The 
Boston Strangler (1968). It 
starred Tony Curtis as Albert 
DeSalvo, a man who con-
fessed to the strangulations 
but was imprisoned for other 
serious crimes due to a lack 
of evidence that he was the 
strangler (in 2013, DNA test-
ing proved he did kill at least 
one of the women). The 1968 
film focused on the police 
investigation. 
The Hulu film takes anoth-
er tack: the focus is on two 
Boston Herald reporters: 
Loretta McLaughlin (Keira 
Knightley) and Jean Cole 
(Carrie Coon). They were the 
first to suggest the 13 mur-
ders were probably done by 
the same person and they 
coined the name “Boston 
Strangler.” Their reporting 

— and how seriously it was 
taken — was hampered by 
the rampant sexism of the 
early 1960s. 

Morgan Spector, 42, has 
a big supporting role as 
James McLaughlin, Loretta’s 
husband. Spector got spec-
tacular reviews for his per-
formance as star character 
George Russell in The Gilded 
Age, a hit HBO series that 
premiered last year. 
The title of a recent Kelly 
Clarkson (talk show) segment, 
posted on YouTube, “lured 
me” in: Jay Leno Surprises 
Burn Center Nurses with 
Bahamas Vacation. I knew 
that Leno’s face was badly 
burned last November while 
working on one of his cars. 
During the segment, they 
showed photos of Leno’s 
burns and they looked ter-
rible. Remarkably, he now 
looks the same as he looked 
before the accident. Clarkson 
said that they even replaced 
Jay’s ear (!) — and she 
couldn’t tell it was a replace-
ment!
 The nurses who treated 
Leno liked getting a free 
vacation. But I was more 
interested in (guest) Dr. Peter 
Grossman, 57, the head of 
the Grossman Burn Center 
in Los Angeles, where Leno 
was treated. It’s the largest 
private burn center in the 
country. 
Grossman told Clarkson 

that his father had founded 
the Burn Center. His father, 
he said, got interested in 
burn treatment after he saw 
the aftermath of a fire at a 
Catholic school that killed or 
maimed many children and 
nuns. 
I “dug out” the whole story 
in other sources: Peter’s 
father was A. Richard 
Grossman (1933-2014). He 
was an emergency room 
doctor in Chicago (1958) 
when the Catholic school fire 
happened. He saw how little 
they could do (then) for the 
surviving burn victims. He 
moved to Los Angeles, and 
he began by getting a few 
“dedicated” hospital beds for 
burn patients. Over time, this 
start “morphed” into the Burn 
Center. Dr. Grossman creat-
ed, or learned, the best treat-
ment for burns and he had a 
great bedside manner. 
He mostly treated “regular 
folks,” but there were celeb-
rities, including Richard Pryor, 
who burned himself terribly 
(1980) in a drug-related acci-
dent and spent six weeks at 
the Center (Leno spent eight 
days at the Center). 

I was able to confirm that 
Richard was Jewish, as was 
his late wife, Peter’s mother. 
There are now three Burn 
Centers (two in California 
and one in Missouri). By the 
way, Peter Grossman was a 
charming talk show guest. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

BY PHILIPPE BERDALLE, WIKIPEDIA

David Schwimmer

BOARDWALK EMPIRE

Morgan Spector

GROSSMAN PLASTIC SURGERY

Dr. Peter Grossman

