I recently interviewed Queens schoolteacher Tiffany Rubin for a story that ran in The Post’s TV section last Monday, Jan. 10. Rubin’s real-life story is the basis for “Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story,” airing Jan. 31 on Lifetime. Rubin is played in the movie by Oscar-nominated actress Taraji Henson (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”).
In 2008, Rubin and two others flew to South Korea, where a disguised Rubin infiltrated a school to rescue her son, Kobe (7 at the time). He’d been kidnapped by his Korean-born father (Rubin’s ex) the previous fall and spirited off to Seoul.
Once the producers bought the rights to the story, nothing happened for a long time — and Rubin figured the movie would never be made.
“They bought the rights [to my story] for a period of time . . . but a lot of really big stories came out in that time, like Elizabeth Smart, and [Lifetime] really had to get those movies made,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh, my story will probably never be made,’ but whatever, I didn’t care.
“Then, suddenly last spring, they told me it was going to be made and then I heard they were shooting it and I started seeing stories on Google about it,” she said of the movie. “It was shot over the summer . . . with a bunch of scenes shot in Canada and a few outdoors shots in Korea.”
Rubin made her 2008 trip to Korea with Mark Miller, who founded the American Association for Lost Children, and Bazzel Baz, a retired ex-Marine and CIA agent.
Rubin, Miller and Baz — along with Kobe and Rubin’s mother — were interviewed for a documentary about the story that will air on Lifetime the same night as “Taken From Me.”
Rubin said a “rift” has since developed between Miller and Baz over the movie — which she plans to watch in Queens (at Thomasina’s) with her mother, Kobe (who’s now 10) and a lot of friends and family.
“Kobe’s gonna come because there will be food there, and if there’s one thing that kid likes, it’s food,” she said laughing.
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Thank you, John Landgraf.
The FX chief had this to say to TV critics about their ability (or lack thereof) to pump up ratings for certain shows: “You did it on ‘Mad Men’ — it has become, by our analysis, literally the most critically acclaimed series in the history of television.
“[You moved it] from a dismal ratings failure to ratings mediocrity.”
Touché.
Last, but not least:
* Discovery’s FitTV is being rebranded to the weird-sounding Discovery Fit & Health starting Feb. 1 . . . Congrats to industry vet Chuck LaBella on joining Gigapix Studios as VP/television . . . Lesley Stahl and Cokie Roberts roundtable at “Celebrating the 19th Amendment: 90 Years,” Feb. 10 at the New-York Historical Society (2 West 64th St. at Central Park West) . . . The BBC is reviving “Upstairs, Downstairs,” which launches April 10 on PBS. The complete original series will be out on DVD March 29 (Acorn Media). It features 21 discs, and 25 hours of never-before-seen bonus footage . . . Congrats to “Ellen DeGeneres Show” publicist Melissa Little Padgitt and husband Jason on the arrival of Addison Riley.