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Saturday, May 10, 2003

By Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Each mother got to pluck one of the roses, long-stemmed beauties in shades of salmon, hot pink and red, from the centerpiece.

	The opinions that matter: From left, Natalie Beckerman, Rita Seltman and Audrey Reichblum listen to Esther Lapiduss speak during the Media Mothers Lunch at the Pitt Club in Oakland. They're the moms of, respectively, Jon Beckerman, Bernie Goldmann, Bill Reichblum, and Maxine and Sally Lapiduss, all professionals in the TV and movie industry. (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette)

But only Oakmont's Babs Widdoes was able to arrive and depart with the reason she was invited to the gathering: her son, actor turned director Jamie Widdoes. He was here to see his mom and plan, with two pals, a joint 50th birthday bash.

What was dubbed the first "Media Mothers Lunch," held at the Pitt Club in Oakland, was the brainchild of Lucy Fischer, director of the University of Pittsburgh Film Studies program, and Carl Kurlander, a visiting assistant professor who is a writer ("St. Elmo's Fire") and producer ("Saved By the Bell").

"I came back from working in L.A. for 20 years, and I thought I and my friend Bernie Goldmann, who I didn't know here but I knew in L.A., were the only two people from Pittsburgh, and we used to Fed Ex Mineo's pizza back and think we were cool," Kurlander said. "And then, when we had Bernie come and speak, I found out a big secret. You can get people to come back to speak if they're visiting their moms."

Back visiting this time was Widdoes.

An actor immortalized in "Animal House," he is a director and executive producer whose credits include "The King of Queens," "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter," "Dave's World" and a pilot for a new NBC sitcom with Heather Locklear.

The tall, bespectacled Widdoes is enough of a Pittsburgher to remember the sweet taste of Isaly's Lemon Blennd, pledge allegiance to Aiello's pizza and recall how, as an unpaid volunteer, he squeegeed the stage during the Three Rivers Arts Festival, which his mother once directed.

"Or we'd have to run across the plaza and put the cement blocks on the pavilions, so that the paintings wouldn't blow in the river," he added. "That sort of working in the arts, letting the arts wash over you without really knowing it," fueled him and others.

Shadyside's Barbara Ackerman, whose son Peter co-wrote the computer-animated charmer "Ice Age," said that they raised their children to "be independent and have wings," and they used them.

That characterization certainly applies to producer Goldmann, who spoke at Pitt in 2002. "I never saw anyone so involved and loving what he's doing," Oakland's Rita Seltman says of her son.

Kurlander and Fischer decided to throw this power lunch for those with the real influence: the mothers. And while they may talk TV timeslots and set visits, they mix that with news of an impending marriage.

They tried to puzzle out how these families fed their children's interests. And they pondered the larger question: Can Pittsburgh turn entertainment into what Kurlander calls "the new steel"?

Some moms, such as Shadyside's Esther Lapiduss, passed along the comedy gene to her writer-producer daughters, Maxine and Sally.

Years before he became executive producer of "Good Morning America" and CEO of WebFN, which streams financial news, Bob Reichblum set up a radio station in his attic. Mark Rosenthal staged puppet shows at 3 before he graduated to the Pittsburgh Playhouse, his mother, Louisa Rosenthal of Churchill, recalled. Today he's president and COO of MTV Networks.

Joan Minsky of Mt. Lebanon remembers how a fourth-grade teacher wrote, "You should be a journalist," on daughter Terri's paper. She was, before creating Disney Channel sensation "Lizzie McGuire" and writing and executive producing "Less Than Perfect" for ABC.

Natalie Beckerman recalled visiting the set of "Ed," which son Jon created. "An assistant producer came up to me and said, 'Oh, you're Jon's mom,' and I said yes. And she said, 'Well, you know, he's smart and he's really talented, but he's so nice.' "

Beckerman said Pittsburghers love to see one of their own make it. "I also think Pittsburgh families are very supportive of their children, and they haven't boxed them in to be attorneys or teachers or doctors (although my other son is a doctor) but allow them to blossom."

Audrey Fisher, who has a musician son and actress daughter, suggested that it's "moms and dads standing behind their kids, nurturing them to be the best they can be. ... It's giving them the strength to trip, stumble and fall and get back up again and do it all over again, if it's necessary."