Stars of David

May 28, 2009 - Michael Elkin, Arts & Entertainment Editor

June is bustin' out all over, and golf outings for good causes help make the month a hole in one. Here's one: The Parkinson Council, the Delaware Valley Chapter of the National Parkinson Foundation, is in the chips with its 10th annual Golf Classic on June 8 at the Philmont Country Club in Huntingdon Valley. They'll be raising green on the greens and saluting one of their own: Jan Albert, a council board member and golf guru whose efforts have helped bring in more than $3 mil for the cause.

Turning a page on the calendar -- and the best-seller lists -- are Philly's Jennifer Weiner and Jeff Zaslow. Popular penner Weiner is coming out with Best Friends Forever. When it comes to the author of Good in Bed and In Her Shoes, BFF could just as well stand for Beach Fiction Fun.

Jeff Zaslow

Then there's Zaslow, the Wall Street Journal columnist whose writing career has never hit the wall: His latest, The Girls From Ames: A Story of Women & a Forty-Year Friendship, is his own take on BFFs. Sure beats peddling hot dogs on the 700 level at the Vet in the heat, eh Jeff?

"The Bachelorette" is one chunk of prime real estate for ABC. So who better than real estate guy Reid Rosenthal to raise the prospects of a rosy choice on the weekly series? The Prudential, Fox and Roach real estater is from the land of Upper Dublin.

What a Fellow: Sarah Tishkoff, who holds the rank of the David and Lyn Silfen University Associate Professor in the School of Medicine and School of Arts and Sciences at Penn, may outrank them all. She was just named as one of only an octet in the initial class of Penn Fellows. Guess Popular Science mag got her right as a popular choice, naming the geneticist as one of its "Brilliant 10" U.S. scientists way back in '03.

Brian Herzlinger

For those asking what local guy/director Brian Herzlinger's been doing since his flick of "My Date With Drew" flickered nationally -- his latest had a Philly date on the calendar. Herzlinger's "Baby on Board" had a one-week engagement at 941 Theater, which is longer than the likeable Philly filmmaker had spending time with Drew Barrymore.

Just imagine how many "mazel tovs!" these two have decreed over the years, not to mention how many Bar/Bat Mitzvah students they've advised to stop chewing gum during studies: Fred Kazan and Robert Layman -- Kazan un- retired to serve as religious leader of Kesher Israel while Layman retired from retired status to serve as interim director, Vaad: Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia-- were recently honored as part of a national octet of rabbis -- octo-rebs? -- celebrating the 50th anniversary of their ordination. It was so ordained at the annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international org of Conservative rabbis, during its annual get-together, in Jerusalem. These two members of the Class of 1959, Jewish Theological Seminary, are a class act in many more ways than one; their friendship dates back to the '40s at Gratz College. For kids reading this, that was a time when Internet meant one of the SPHAs scored a basket at the Broadwood.

Dragon his fete: Mark Greenberg is the new Drexel U. provost and senior vice president for the school's academic matters.

Hi-ho, silver! That's what they might have been singing to Sheldon Pavel , who recently celebrated his 25th anniversary as president of Central High School, where he was honored at a surprise party. Say, who was that masked man? Dunno, but Pavel was the one with the undisguised smile.