44 | JANUARY 18 • 2024 J
N

CELEBRITY JEOPARDY 
JEWS, MEXICAN JEWISH 
FILMMAKER, LOVE 
STORY: DON AND BOB
Other items have crowded 
out my coverage of the
second season of Celebrity 
Jeopardy. But, as I write 
this (Jan. 8), one out of the 
three Jewish contestants 
are still in the running. The 
finale will air on Jan. 23, 
2024 (ABC, 8 p.m.). There 
will be many online sourc-
es happy to tell you who 
is in the finale (including 
ABC).
This season’s Hebrews 
are actor Steven Weber, 
actress/comedian Rachel 
Dratch and actress Kyra 
Sedgwick.
As in regular Jeopardy, 
three contestants play in 
a Celebrity game. Twenty-
seven celebrity contestants 
were in the first, nine-game 
round. The first of three 
semi-final games aired Jan. 
2. On Jan. 9, the second 
semi-final game aired. 
Steven Weber was a con-
testant in this game, but he 
ended up losing.
Weber is best known for 
Wings (1990-97), a hit sit-
com about two brothers 
(Weber and Tim Daly) who 
run a single-plane airline 
for tourists. Currently, 
he is a “main cast” actor 
on Chicago Med (Dr. Dean 
Archer).
Weber’s father managed 
“Borscht Belt” comedians. 
Weber wrote an insight-
ful HuffPost piece (2011) 
shortly after returning from 
Israel (it’s online, free). 
While he wasn’t raised in a 
religious home, Weber has 

clearly thought a great deal 
about Jewish/Israeli history 
and his “Jewishness.”
Rachel Dratch, 57, was 
set to compete in the 
semi-final round that aired 
on Jan. 16 (after press 
time). In the first round, 
she just edged out 
Macaulay Culkin in a very 
exciting game (she won by 
$1!).
Dratch, who grew up in 
a Reform Jewish home, is 
best known for her long 
stint on SNL (1999-2006). 
Her most SNL famous 
character was Debbie 
Downer. I really liked 
Dratch in several “Love-
Ahs” sketches with Will 
Ferrell. In 2022, Dratch 
won a Tony (best featured 
actress).
Sadly, Kyra Sedgwick, 58, 
was eliminated in the first 
round. She’s best known 
as the star of Closer, a hit 
TV series (2006-2012). She 
played the deputy police 
chief of the Los Angeles 
major crimes unit. She won 
an Emmy and a Golden 
Globe for this role.
Sedgwick’s dad was a 
not-religious white Anglo-
Saxon Protestant with lots 
of Mayflower ancestors. 
Her mother was Jewish, 
but never said anything 
about being Jewish. 
Kyra’s proudly Jewish 
stepfather acquainted her 
with “Jewish things” and, 

around age 20, she decid-
ed to identify as Jewish.
Memory is a film that 
opened “wide” on Jan. 5. 
Last month, I followed an 
educated guess that 
Memory writer/direc-
tor Michel Franco, was 
Jewish. I was right. He was 
profiled by the Jerusalem 
Post in 2021. Franco, like 
his Jewish father, was born 
and raised in Mexico. His 
mother is an Israeli Jew 
who settled in Mexico. 
Franco, 44, is fluent in 
Hebrew.
I was waiting for the 
reviews of Memory to 
come in before I wrote 
about it. Franco has made 
seven films to date that 
have really divided critics. 
An early review of Memory, 
in Variety, was mostly 
favorable and I hoped this 
film would be Franco’s 
breakthrough and maybe 
get some Oscar nomina-
tions.
Well, those things 
probably won’t happen. 
The NY Times critic 
“killed” Memory and so 
did some other critics. 
However, praise came 
from many critics, including 
some who didn’t like 
Franco’s prior work.
Memory is Franco’s first 
 film set in America 
(Brooklyn). Capsule 
premise: Sylvia (Jessica 
Chastain) was traumatized 

by sexual assault in high 
school. Her memory of it 
is hazy. At a high school 
reunion, she meets Saul 
(Peter Saarsgard) and he 
frightens her as he follows 
her home. But he’s not the 
creep Sylvia thinks he is. 
He has his own tsuris that 
I won’t reveal here. (Josh 
Charles, 52, has a big sup-
porting role as Isaac, Saul’s 
brother).
Without any fanfare, a 
20-minute documentary, 
directed by Judd Apatow, 
53, was posted on 
YouTube about a month 
ago. Bob and Don: A Love 
Story is on the The New 
Yorker (YouTube) channel.
It is about the seemingly 
unlikely 60-year friendship 
of (the late) Don Rickles 
and Bob Newhart, now 94. 
The film is short enough 
that I could convey all the 
good reasons why they, 
and their respective wives, 
got on so well. But you 
really should watch the 
film. There are home movie 
clips that feature the cou-
ples on vacation together 
and clips of their children 
(also friends) playing — and 
there is the poignancy 
of Newhart and his wife, 
Ginny, talking about their 
love for Don and his wife, 
Barbara Sklar Rickles 
(who died in 2021). These 
are things I can’t replicate 
here. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

GREG2600, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Steven Weber

PHILIP ROMANO, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Rachel Dratch

ANGELA GEORGE, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Kyra Sedgwick