Kaczmarek connection? Sorry, we doubt it

An article in the online Madison publication 77 Square implies that actor Tony Shalhoub met “Malcolm in the Middle” star Jane Kaczmarek, “another Green Bay-to-Hollywood transplant,” while at UW-Green Bay. We’re not so sure that something wasn’t lost in translation or misremembered. Scouring UW-Green Bay archives, we’ve not come across any record of Malcolm’s mom attending or performing here. She’s a UW-Madison grad. Her Internet Movie Database biography says she was born in Milwaukee, and, “was a theater major at the University of Wisconsin. While there, she became buddies with Tony Shalhoub, who encouraged her to shoot for stardom.” (But take that for what it’s worth since IMDB’s information is often supplied by Internet users in “Wikipedia-like” fashion.) We’ll let you know more if we get the lowdown on the Shalhoub-Kaczmarek-UWGB connection. The article is archived at http://77square.com/movies/features/story_440525