Dear Diary

Most journals are about our own little problems. But Toronto actress Mia Kirshner travelled to four desperate parts of the world to bring back the tales of the most vulnerable people, Gayle MacDonald writes

For the past seven years, Toronto actress Mia Kirshner has been obsessed with self-financing and publishing her debut book, I Live Here, a harrowing tribute to the overlooked victims of war, corrupt governments and crippling disease.

“I worked on the book - all the time,” says Kirshner, a gorgeous, dark-haired slip of a thing who started acting as an extra in low-budget television and saw her career take off after nailing roles in Love & Human Remains and Exotica.

“I drove my friends and family insane because they said it’s all I talked about. I know it’s true, and I’m sure, very annoying to be around. But it literally has been an odyssey, an obsession for me. Because once I saw how many people have sacrificed so much … well, I became obsessed,” she says with a smile.

Kirshner says all this while in town last week to present her so-called paper documentary at the International Festival of Authors. The 33-year-old explains that she became fixated with the idea of the four-part book - which took the actress and many collaborators to some of the most ravaged places in Chechnya, Myanmar, Juarez, Mexico, and Malawi - after 9/11.
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Kirshner committed, not just acting

I’m a big fan of Mia Kirshner (love her portrayal of train-wreck master diva Jenny on “The L Word”) and I think she has an interesting point about the link between celebrity and activism. — Karen

If you get annoyed when actors engage in activism, Mia Kirshner is right there with you. The 33-year-old actress — who played a stripper in the revered 1994 movie “Exotica” and has worked steadily since, most often in roles as sexualized smarty-pants, like her character Jenny Schecter on “The L Word” — said recently, “I think some actors have exploited their philanthropic efforts to promote a film.”

Kirshner was saying such things because her book, “I Live Here,” released last week, is unmistakably philanthropic. Over the last six years, she traveled to four messy and malignant parts of the world — the Russian republic of Ingushetia; Burma; Juarez, Mexico; and Malawi — that have large disenfranchised populations. “I Live Here,” is the product of those trips: Its four separate volumes, one for each region, tell stories about the women and children in these places through journal entries, collages, photographs, paintings, graphic novellas and images of found objects. Kirshner wrangled many collaborators; J.B. MacKinnon, Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons are the co-authors, and there is a boatload of other contributors, including some of the subjects themselves.
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Mia Kirshner backs up her commitment

The ‘L Word’ actress reaches into her pocket to create the book ‘I Live Here,’ about troubled lives in places of upheaval.

If you get annoyed when actors engage in activism, Mia Kirshner is right there with you. The 33-year-old actress — who played a stripper in the revered 1994 movie “Exotica” and has worked steadily since, most often in roles as sexualized smarty-pants, like her character Jenny Schecter on “The L Word” — said recently, “I think some actors have exploited their philanthropic efforts to promote a film.”

Kirshner was saying such things because her book, “I Live Here,” released last week, is unmistakably philanthropic. Over the last six years, she traveled to four messy and malignant parts of the world — the Russian republic of Ingushetia; Burma; Juarez, Mexico; and Malawi — that have large disenfranchised populations. “I Live Here,” is the product of those trips: Its four separate volumes, one for each region, tell stories about the women and children in these places through journal entries, collages, photographs, paintings, graphic novellas and images of found objects. Kirshner wrangled many collaborators; J.B. MacKinnon, Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons are the co-authors, and there is a boatload of other contributors, including some of the subjects themselves.
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The L Word inspires chemical-free products with Sappho Cosmetics

On a recent sunny Saturday afternoon, Jennifer Beals and Mia Kirshner met in a loft near Hastings and Clark streets in East Vancouver. The stars of The L Word weren’t there to shoot a steamy scene for the show’s sixth season. Instead, the gorgeous brunettes were celebrating the launch of Sappho Cosmetics (www.sapphocosmetics.com), a new chemical-free line from the show’s makeup artist, JoAnn Fowler, who uses this loft space as unofficial headquarters.

The Emmy-nominated Fowler, who could pass for Judi Dench’s younger sister, credits Beals and Kirshner for prompting her to start Sappho. “For a long time, I didn’t think the world needed another makeup line,” she says. That all changed when she discovered research on the effects of chemicals in cosmetic products.
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