The blondest of TV’s “Friends” is going to reveal her roots.
Lisa Kudrow, who spent 10 seasons playing airhead guitarist/singer and massage therapist Phoebe Buffay on the hit NBC series, is taking a camera crew with her to Belarus to investigate her Jewish family background, the actress recently told Parade magazine. “It’s a historical documentary about how history shapes your family tree,” said Kudrow, who also revealed that her last name means “curly hair” in Belarusian.
The series, based on a format that originally ran on the BBC, will air in the United States under the name “Who Do You Think You Are?” and will follow Kudrow and five other celebrities as they explore their genealogies. Kudrow said she wasn’t allowed to name the show’s other participants, but she did say that the NBC series “took me back to Belarus to find a cousin who survived the Holocaust but is dead now.”
The actress, who married French businessman Michel Stern in 1995, is also currently at work on “17 Photos of Isabel,” a big-screen adaptation of the novel “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits,” by Jerusalem-born writer Ayelet Waldman. Another Jerusalem native, Natalie Portman, will co-star.
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It's good to see a Jewish celebrity take stock in her Jewish roots. Extra points for marrying Jewish, too!
Like Johny Carson used to say, "I didn't know that". I had no idea she was Jewish. I knew David Schwimmer was Jewish but that was obvious. Half of my own grandparents come from Ukraine and half from Byelorussia, so I greet Kudrow as a "landsman". http://a-idishe-kretchme.blogspot.com/
Leon - I am always amazed when it is a Jew who says , "Gee, I didn't think she looked Jewish!" What is that to mean? When my dad went to live for several years in then Palestine during the Depression he thought that all Jews looked like him, a little short, a little dark, and a little plump (although his own brother was tall and blonde. His joke was that he went to Israel and all his cousins were "tall, blonde , and played the violin" I have a Greek friend who used to kid that all her American friends thought she should look like the Greek goddesses in the adventure movies and she would say, "I am Greek. For me, this is what Greek looks like!"
but where were her ancestors born?
Well, personaly i think it's great to finally have a show that debates the bad memories of history. I suppose that since the survivorsof their family obviously emigrated to the US some where born in Europe/Russia... By the way most of us "Israelies" look European, for an example I'm a third generation here and I look pretty Swedish....