the below was written in the Boston GLobe this week --
If you can stand to hear Sarah Jessica Parker repeatedly exclaim “Oh my
God!’’ and “wow’’ and “un-be-lievable!’’, you might like NBC’s new series
about the family histories of famous people. Called “Who Do You Think You
Are?’’, the show is a not-so-subtle facsimile of Henry Louis Gates’s
genealogy series on PBS. But this is all about celebrities, including
Parker, Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields, Lisa Kudrow, and Emmitt
Smith. In the first episode, which airs March 5, the “Sex and the City’’
star discovers she’s descended from a Gloucester woman who was snared in the
Salem witch trials. But it’s not clear at first if Esther Elwell - Parker’s
10th great-grandmother - is the accused or the accuser. “If we were involved
in the way that is most objectionable, I would really want to - and, of
course, this is ridiculous - fix it,’’ says Parker, who’s shown researching
at the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Massachusetts
Historical Society. “I’m kind of nauseous. I want to go on record as saying
I find this physically upsetting.’’ It turns out Elwell was the accused and,
lucky for her, also acquitted. As Parker surveys gravestones in Salem, she
sighs. “An ugly time in a beautiful place.’’