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