52 | MAY 4 • 2023 GROSSBERG AND CARLSON, BELAFONTE FAMILY, AND NEW SHOWS As I write this, it’s eight hours after the news broke that Tucker Carlson was no longer a Fox News employ- ee. It’s quite clear he was fired. Right after the news broke, a CNN early morning newscaster went through the “things” that might have led-up to this — and men- tioned the lawsuit that Abby Grossberg, 42, a former Fox News producer, had brought against Fox News. The newscaster said that Grossberg, who was the head booker of guests for the Carlson show, alleged “that there was a discrimi- natory atmosphere in Fox newsroom which affected women and religious minori- ties.” I thought, what “religious minorities?” How many Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs work for Fox News? Not many, I’m sure. I figured it was the usual news media misleading mishegas (non- sense). Until recently, most mainstream news outlets never, ever, mentioned that hate crimes against American Jews equaled or exceeded hate crimes against all other religious groups combined. Only a spate of recent serious antisemitic events led some mainstream media outlets to mention this fact — and they only do so “now and again.” I hadn’t followed Grossberg’s lawsuit that closely. When it was filed in March, the articles I read didn’t mention Grossberg’s complaint alleging antisem- itism in the Fox newsroom. Today, I found some March articles that did mention that antisemitism is in the complaint. But all but one of these articles did not repeat the instances of antisemitic harassment that are laid out in Grossberg’s complaint. So far as I can tell, only the Forward newspaper did that last March. The worst actor was Alexander McCaskill, senior producer of Carlson’s show. Without going into detail — McCaskill repeatedly nee- dled Grossberg and another Jewish employee with what I’d call petty, but hurtful, antisemitic “junk” remarks. McCaskill obviously thought he could get away with these remarks, as well as sexism, because the “big bosses” — Carlson and the Murdochs — set a “tone.” Carlson clearly engaged in “dog whistle” antisemitism — blaming almost everything on Jewish billionaire George Soros and pushing the conspiracy theory that Soros and oth- ers were “replacing white” Americans with people of color. This “theory” is a favorite of neo-Nazis. Discrimination is just one prong of Grossberg’s case. She also claims that Fox News lawyers coerced her into giving a misleading deposition in the Dominion suit. As the day went on, sever- al CNN and MSNBC guests said that Grossberg’s case could cost Fox News a lot of money, and Fox News wants to stop the “bleeding.” Their position would be stronger, they said, if Fox could tell a jury that Carlson is gone. As I finished writing this column, the news came that legendary singer/actor Harry Belafonte had died, age 96. Here is his Jewish 411. Harry wrote in his memoir that his paternal grandfa- ther was a Dutch Jew who settled in the Caribbean. However, Harry never met this grandfather, and the best sources say that it’s “possible” that he had a Jewish grandfather, but this has never been verified. Harry was raised Catholic. As for his children: his daughter, Shari Belafonte, now 68, was a popular actress in the ’80s. She’s the child of Harry’s first wife, a non-Jewish African American woman. Shari’s husband since 1989 is Jewish actor Sam Behrens, now 72. He had big roles in General Hospital and Knots Landing, but his career cooled off around 1990. The couple don’t have children. Shari’s half-sister, actress Gina Belafonte, now 61, has worked in small film and TV roles to this day, and she is a political activist, like Harry. Her mother is former (Jewish) dancer Julie Robinson, now 94. Robinson and Harry were married from 1957-2004. Gina’s hus- band is not Jewish. They have one child. Harry and Julie also had a son, David, 65. He is now the head of the Belafonte Family Foundation. (Harry married photographer Pamela Frank in 2008. She’s now his widow. There’s almost no “bio” on her). Silo is a 10-episode series that begins streaming on Apple TV+ on May 5. It is based on a best-selling trilogy of “dystopian” novels. The official description says: “In a toxic dystopian future where a community exists in a giant silo hundreds of stories deep underground, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them.” Advance publicity doesn’t detail the “backstory” of the main characters. I can tell you that Rashida Jones, 47, co-stars as “Allison.” The Game Show Show is an ABC and Hulu four- part documentary series that premieres on May 10 (10 p.m.). The final three episodes premiere on successive Wednesdays. It’s a fun look at over 80 years of game shows, starting with radio programs and then, into the era of TV. There are a lot of game clips and interviews with contemporary celebrities. These celebs include Howie Mandel, 67, and Marc Cuban, 64. CELEBRITY NEWS NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST ARTS&LIFE NBC NEWS Abby Grossberg IMDB Gina Belafonte STEPHANIE MORENO/WIKIPEDIA Rashida Jones