This hands-across-the-Green Room, backstage at the Schoenfeld, marked the first time the two Englishmen ever connected, and it was achieved easily with only one degree of separation: Geoffrey Polischuk, who had been Rupert Everett's dresser in Jones' last Broadway outing, Blithe Spirit, is currently Hugh Jackman's dresser for A Steady Rain, so, said Jones, "I asked him to find out if Daniel would be interested in meeting. Turns out, Daniel had, in fact, heard of me and did know who I was and said he would be happy to see me, so we got tickets on Wednesday and, as soon as they'd sold their sweaty T-shirts [for a BC/EFA fundraiser], we went around to see them, and we had a little family chat. It was nice to linger. I sent him a family photo of his great-grandparents, who are my grandparents."

Jones (Bridey of TV's "Brideshead Revisited," and co-artistic director of Off-Broadway's TACT/The Actors Company Theatre) began to suspect a kinship five years ago when he saw a movie in which Craig played Ted Hughes to Gwyneth Paltrow's Sylvia Plath. "I said, 'My God! He looks just like my brother, Chris,' who lives in New Zealand and looks slightly different from my oldest brother and myself. That must be odd. Then, I thought, 'Wait a minute — Craig!' My father's sister married a Bill Craig, and they had seven children. Could he be the son of one of my cousins? My father wasn't very good about keeping up with them because I think he found seven a bit overwhelming, but he had kept in touch with the eldest one, Jenny Hawkins, so I e-mailed her in Edmondton, Alberta, and she said, 'Yes, Daniel is Tim's son, about fourth along the line of seven.' There you are! How amazing! I was the only thespian in the family until he blew me off the board."

[caption id="attachment_3001" align="alignnone" width="460" caption="Simon Jones (right) with (left-to-right) son Tim, cousin Daniel Craig, and wife Nancy, backstage at A Steady Rain."][/caption]

— Harry Haun