"Why is Sarah Silverman wearing a cross?" Jewish daily Forward wondered. "Is Sarah Silverman going Christian?" asked Heeb Magazine.
The Jewish American comedian has built her career on offensive jokes, about Jews too, and has often taken pride in her sister rabbi who was detained while trying to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem wearing a prayer shawl.
While the interview revolved around issues of racism ("I also make jokes about Mexican people and Jews – I know that doesn't really count because I'm a Jew," Silverman said) and the fact that she is genuinely hurt by jokes about her age, not a word was said about her unusual piece of jewelry.
Although Silverman is known as a provocateur, the Jewish press appeared quite shocked by the incident. "Sarah, I know you think Jesus Is Magic," wrote the Heeb, "but is that really who you’re going to turn to when someone calls you old?
"What is going on here? Have we lost one of our favorite Jewesses to the siren song of the gentiles, or is Sarah just pulling legs/pushing buttons while lamenting her own buttons having been pushed?"
'She got it on a movie set.' Sarah Silverman with cross
Following the uproar, Heeb reported later on, Silverman's father and sister rushed to set the record straight. "I told Sarah that her nana (long passed) wanted to know about the cross," Donald Silverman wrote. "Sarah told me to tell Nana she's still a Jew. It came from something she wore on a movie set."
Susan Silverman added, "I'm her rabbi sister and called her and asked WTF? She got it, like our dad said, on a recent movie set and she just liked that it pointed to her boobs. Oy. :-)"
Only last week, Silverman was named one of the 20 cutest Jewish women in Hollywood in a special project by the Celebs website. Although she only made it to the 20th place (the first place went to Ashley Tisdale of "High School Musical"), that's no reason to stop playing by the rules.