Stars of David

February 14, 2008 - Michael Elkin, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Lisa Appel

What better time than Valentine's Day to honor sweethearts of success? Let's start with the lawyers (yes, even lawyers have hearts), and these two are especially worthy: Michael L. Kleiman, a founding member of Bleczinski, Kleiman & Klein, LLC, has been named secretary of the Montgomery Bar Association Family Law Section, while Bradford Jay Sandler, a partner at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP, has been named recipient of the Committee of the Year Award in honor of his chairmanship of the bankruptcy committee of the Business Law Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association.

Here's an item worth broadcasting that's as tasty as those chocolates in the box you can't put down: Pioneer radio entrepreneur/on-air talent Ron Cutler is channeling his energetic talent to writing. And the man once deemed "the Steven Spielberg of radio" now may be giving some E.T. (extra-terrific) competition to Dan Brown. After years of research, Cutler's come out with The Secret Scroll, and it's no secret that he'll be doing a book signing this Sunday afternoon at the Borders in Marlton, N.J.

Not only hearts take a tumble Feb. 14; Lisa Appel does, too -- which is a good thing for the local acrobat/teacher since she's won the CBS 3/CW Philly 57/Cirque du Soleil "Free to Be Expressive" audition, earning her an appearance on a promotional TV spot and a VIP package for Cirque du Soleil's upcoming "Kooza" performance here. Oh, that Lisa, always with a leg up on the competition.

Cameras! Lights! Iris Dreschler! Iris Dreschler? That's right; Dreschler's ready for her close-up, once more chairing the Israeli Film Festival, a four-week event coming to area screens beginning Feb. 23. Forget the popcorn -- get out the hummus!

Who knew that Steven Spielberg's empire would expand to Philadelphia? "One Film," an education project under the aegis of the Free Library of Philadelphia, will premiere with the director's "Empire of the Sun," beginning a two-week program on Feb. 21 at Moore College of Art.

Stephanie Shapson Peet

Partnering with the city's "One Book, One Philadelphia" venture, the film project is headed up by movie mavens Carrie Rickey, critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Ruth Perlmutter, whose history of accomplishments on behalf of the Jewish Film Festival here has been applaud-worthy. Nice touch: Spielberg wrote the two a letter, thanking them "for allowing my film to be part of a program that will help educate communities, not only about the violence toward children in war zones of the past, but also of those in the present."

Re: Peet -- Stephanie Shapson Peet, a legal eagle with the labor-relations and employment-law department at Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel, has made it t-a-oo (as the Zink would have said), being named a "Pennsylvania Rising Stars Super Lawyer" for the second straight year.

Andrew Glassman

We are family (and then some): The Glassman Family -- formerly of Philadelphia -- including Mickey, Larry and Brenda, Steve and Randy, their children, and their grandchildren -- are being honored later this month by B'nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, Fla., for their support of the synagogue over the years. Hope they can get one table for all of them to sit together at the dinner-dance.

And speaking of people named Glassman, this is not your average Andrew: Andrew Glassman, the protean former NBC10 broadcaster-cum-reality-show producer ("Average Joe," "Three Wishes"), is again calling the shots, this time as exec producer of "Bingo America," coming to GSN cable at the end of next month. Get your cards, ready!