You learn something new everyday

Rachel made an interesting discovery the other night. We always knew that Jerry Stiller — "Frank Costanza" on Seinfeld and more recently "Arthur Spooner" on King of Queens — is Ben Stiller's father, but we never knew (or cared) who Ben's mom is.

Another King of Queens star, Anne Meara, who played Spencer's mom on the show, is Ben Stiller's proud momma. She and Jerry are both native New Yorkers. Wikipedia, as reliable as it is, has an interesting tidbit:

Meara was raised Catholic, but converted to Judaism six years after marrying Stiller.[2] She has long stressed that she did not convert at Stiller's request, but because "Catholicism was dead to me", and she simply came to prefer the more "lively" character of Jewish culture. She took the conversion seriously and studied the faith in such depth that her Jewish-born husband quipped, "Being married to Anne has made me more Jewish."[3]

Is it just me or did they pull Ben out of the cabbage patch?