Stars of David

November 05, 2009 - Michael Elkin, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Ronnie and Dr. Robert G. Somers

What the world needs now is love, sweet love -- which explains why "Stars" is happy to jump the gun a few months for this one: Those sweeties over at the Philadelphia Theatre Company have just sent out a bouquet of best wishes to Karen and Carl Buchholz, their honorees at the next Sweethearts Brunch, the annual hearts-and-flowers fete, this time on Feb. 7. Carl is managing partner/CEO of Blank Rome LLP -- see, lawyers can have hearts -- and Karen is vice president/administration for Comcast Corp; both are longtime PTC players, in the corporate sense. Connie and Sam Katz, Debra Klebanoff and Jim Smith, and Julie and Jordan Savitch are brunch co-chairs, which is great, as long as they leave a chair for "Stars" near the omelette station. i Citizen Bernstein! Todd Bernstein, president of Global Citizen and co-creator/director of the Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service, is the fifth recipient of the Social Justice Award of JSPAN, the Jewish Social Policy Action Network.

Winter of our discontent? It's a Somers of a salute! Fall in line at the 57th annual Harvest Ball of the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network on the eve of Nov. 7, when Dr. Robert G. and Ronnie Somers -- the Elkins Park couple has long been associated with Einstein -- will be kudo-ed. The good doc well knows the feeling of a seat of power/trust, and now he can give one away: The health-care network will create the Robert G. Somers, M.D., Chair of the Department of Surgery the evening that he and his wife are honored.

"Who Will Buy?" goes the tune in "Oliver!" the ever-popular musical based on that Dickens of a scruffy kid. Will audiences buy nice guy Rabbi Pinchas Klein as the evil, feral Fagin? Shaare Shamayim congregants will get their chance to see if they do, as their rabbi takes on the rogue in a production of the show at the Northeast synagogue later this month.

Evan Kanefsky

Barbara Willig is musical director; Selma Dubrow, director; and Evan Kanefsky has the title role -- nabbed it without picking anyone's pockets. Okay, Pinchas, ready to have congregants boo you? As Fagin, of course!

If you knew Suzie, like "Stars" knows Suzie; well, it's not like he called her Suze: Suzanne F. Roberts, able to leap Comcast's tall building in a single bound thanks to her ever-popular cable-ready "Seeking Solutions With Suzanne," has been named winner of the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging's M. Powell Lawton Quality of Life Award, and will receive kudos at a dinner on Nov. 12 at the Union League.

The most important thing you have is your health! Mom was right, which is why it's a good thing the White House knows a thing or two when it comes to inviting experts to discuss health-care reform. One of those chosen was David E. Edman of Risk Management Partners LLC, in Wayne, who joined President Barack Obama, as well as a select group from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Business -- of which Edman's a member of the state leadership council -- to tackle the topic. No one asked, but "Stars" thinks all those proposed bills kicked about by Congress should be soaked in some nice hot chicken soup. Could it help? It couldn't hurt!