Claire Danes focuses glowing New York Times spotlight on Israel

Actress raves about the visits she’s made to film TV series ‘Homeland,’ offering high praise in cover story and fashion spread for paper’s style magazine

The last time we paused to consider Claire Danes’ clothing, it involved a delightfully dated fashion show on “My So-Called Life,” the actress’s dearly departed mid-’90s breakthrough. (The grunge afterglow! The Enya soundtrack! It was all so wonderful.)

Thanks to Sunday’s issue of T, The New York Times Style Magazine, we now know the actress has come a long way in her fashion choices — literally. For her cover photo and accompanying fashion spread, the 33-year-old Danes traveled to Tel Aviv, posing in a variety of trendy outfits and offering glowing reviews of Israel.

“The night life is incredibly alive, and there is an extremely positive and generous spirit towards us,” the actress said of the country, which she visited to film “Homeland,” the Showtime series based on the hit Israeli drama “Prisoners of War.”

The cover of a New York Times T Magazine issue featuring a photo shoot with actress Clare Danes in Israel

After shooting scenes for the show’s first season in Israel last year, the cast returned in the spring, using the old commercial terminal at Ben Gurion Airport as a substitute for action in Beirut. Danes evidently enjoyed both visits. “We went to Jerusalem and Masada and all these absolutely edifying and riveting places,” the actress said of her first trip, before mentioning outings in Tel Aviv and Jaffa on her second.

The country that inspired “Homeland” has done wonders for Danes’s career, which she acknowledges stalled somewhat following her award-winning turn in the 2010 HBO movie “Temple Grandin.” Earlier this year, the actress claimed a Golden Globe for her role on “Homeland,” in which she plays a CIA officer convinced that a released POW has in fact become an agent for al-Qaeda.

The Yale-educated performer is among the front-runners to win a prize at Sunday’s Emmys, one of nine awards for which “Homeland” has been nominated. (The show has already won two technical Emmys, announced Sept. 15.) High-profile fans of the show include President Barack Obama, T Magazine reports, with the series’ second season scheduled to premiere Sept. 30 in the US.

For her fashion shoot, Danes visited a number of picturesque spots in Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Local fashion designers were overlooked in favor of better-known brands from the West, but the article offers a number of Tel Aviv “essentials,” including the Mizlala and Miznon restaurants and the fashion chain named for Maya Negri, described as “the Donna Karan of Israel.”

An actress worthy of Shakespeare in her teens, Danes has previously spoken publicly about how much fun she’s had in Israel. Last year, the star educated Conan O’Brien about Tel Aviv, which she described as “the most intense party town I’d ever been to.”