TV producer shops show about Hasidim

A US TV producer says he is shopping around a docudrama based on the lives of three Hasidic Jews who abandon their Orthodox practices for secular lives. Noah Sheinmann of No Regrets Entertainments, one of the executive producers of "Shunned," said divorce will be a key theme of the series, the New York Post reported. All three married cast members met their partners through arranged marriages and they're all either divorced or going through the process. Pearlperry Reich, one of the cast, said she wanted to join the show to give a face to the usually faceless -- and to kick start a modeling and/or acting career. "My main purpose is to create a positive Judaism," Reich, 30, said. "And it would be a really good opportunity for me to get my face out there." Shauli Grossman, 24, Reich's boyfriend, said his attachment with the project was motivated to educate Orthodox teens, the Post said. "There are a lot of people [for whom] this lifestyle is not a choice, and they would die to leave," Grossman said. "We're married off at 17 or 18 before we even know what we want." Luzer Twersky, 26, said he married at 19 after only one date and after he abandoned his ultra-Orthodox world it was like being taken from a one-room basement flat and shoved into Grand Central Terminal at rush hour. "A lot of things are new to me. I saw 'Star Wars' for the first time last year," Twersky said. "It's interesting. At least now I can understand what people are talking about; 'May the force be with you.'"