Steven Monjenza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga united their love and lives last December in a traditional Malawian engagement ceremony. Now, less than six months later, the two men are facing a possible 14-year sentence in prison doing hard labor. Gay marriage is illegal in Malawi and the two men have been charged under Malawi colonial-era sodomy laws. Their fate will be decided on Tuesday, May 18, 2010.

The L Word star Mia Kirshner was in Malawi when it all went down and took note firsthand at how inhumanely the situation played out in the media across the globe. Of that fateful day and the events following, she says. “I was in Malawi when they were married. Pretty wild, huh? So I was witness. We were getting tested for Malaria or something crazy like that and I could see the front pages of the nation’s and other newspapers – sort of reporting what had happened. It was almost like reading a comic book account of these two men being arrested because they were having a commitment ceremony according to Malawian custom. Two days later, they were arrested. ”

Mia’s organization, I Live Here, was formed in 2005 to provide urgent care to communities that have fallen through the cracks. Partnering with communities from around the world, I Live Here focuses on permaculture, art and education to build a sustainable future for its residents, according to the site’s mission statement. Recently, Mia’s L Word costar Jennifer Beals donated proceeds of her photographic memoir to different charities and I Live Here was among the recipients. The book, titled The L Word Book chronicled life behind-the-scenes on the set of The L Word.

I Live Here was put into jeopardy when Mia decided to publicly speak out against the atrocity in Malawi. “I knew that if I said something, especially being in Malawi, perhaps they’d shut down I Live Here and I wondered what I should do at that time,” she says. “Someone once told me that when you live in Malawi, you are either the whistleblower or the person who just keeps quiet and does your work. It really got to the point where I just couldn’t keep silent about this anymore. It was really gnawing at me and felt really uncharacteristic to me.”

Mia eventually decided to make her voice heard. She worked tirelessly with her I Live Here team to contact media outlets in the hopes of getting the story some airtime and press opportunities she says. “We basically called every news outlet that we could think of and just said, ‘Hey, the ruling’s on Tuesday. Can you guys run this story? Not my story, but the story?’ I just want people to know what’s happening there.” Mia also wrote about her experiences and thoughts about this issue for The Huffington Post.

Feeling a social responsibility to draw attention to the cause that has ousted the two twenty-something men into a tailspin of legal jargon, Mia says, “Ultimately, I feel like I’m not doing anything wrong. Malawi is a democratic country and I am allowed to state my opinions. I am going to keep on talking because I love that country very much and I feel like the law can do much better than it is doing right now.”

On whether or not she Mia considers the men’s case a gay issue or a human rights issue she says, “Watching what happened with Proposition 8, I think when you call this issue a gay issue you polarize the community. To me, it’s a human issue and it affects all of us. I think it’s very important to keep this open to all communities because it is something that affects all of us. It’s so maddening.”

Learn more about this issue and to get involved with Mia’s I Live Here project.

Source

Last week’s episode of “The Vampire Diaries” was one of my favorites of the entire season. We have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Elena’s biological mom and we finally got to meet her. We even find out that Jon Gilbert is actually Elena’s biological father. Isobel is a complex vampire who struggles with her humanity (or lack thereof) and her feelings towards her ex-husband Alaric and her “maker” Damon. I recently had the chance to chat with Mia Kishner, who plays Isobel, and she had some interesting insights into her character. We even talked a little bit about her time on “The L Word.”

How did you get the part of Isobel?
It was all just pretty random. It was right before Christmas, and I was in the countryside of Malawi staying on a dairy farm, (laughs) and I got this call from my agent and they told me about the show, The Vampire Diaries and it sounded pretty cool. And then they said that I could speak to Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec [Executive Producers] who I spoke to and it was through Skype and it was a really crackly connection, but there were words: mysterious and unpredictable and stuff like that I believe we used in the conversation that made me excited about the character. And I knew that they were talented, so I said yes–not knowing a lot about it. It was kind of a leap of faith.

Isobel is a vampire devoid of any human emotions. How are you able to relate to her?
I don’t think that’s true.

Oh, you don’t? Interesting!
I don’t. I think that she tries not to have human emotions but I think actually that’s her weakness–that she struggles with is that she does still have feelings for Alaric and her daughter.

Oooh, interesting. And how are you able to relate to her? Are you anything like her at all?
(laughs) We both like Paris. We love France. We speak French. That’s probably about it.

So the producers didn’t tell you too much about her back story?
No. I only learned more about the back story when I watched the actual episode. And that was interesting. But no, it was sort of left to my imagination what happened to her between the time that Damon turned her and when she comes back.

So you think that she loves and cares for Alaric. Why do you believe that?
Because I think true love is hard to come by and I think it’s part of who she is. She’s got a lot of lovers in her life, and nothing to compares to what she had. And it’s like at the end of the episode “Isobel,” she said “I made a mistake.”

Do you think she cares about Elena as well?
I think so. And I also think, as twisted as this sounds — I’m not defending Isobel’s actions — I think she wants to push her daughter away because she doesn’t want her daughter to be like her. But I think that ultimately, she’s going to do everything she can to protect her daughter’s well-being.

Yeah, like try to kill Damon and Stefan.
Yes, I mean in her mind, I think she has a skewed view of reality (laughs).

I think the question everyone wants to know is will Isobel be back?
You know, you never know what’s going to happen. I think that’s a question for Julie and Kevin. I would imagine she’s been really positioned in such a way that I think, I don’t know, it seems like she certainly the character to be reckoned with. But that’s more of a question for them.

Presuming she does come back, which I hope she does, what do you want to see from Isobel going forward?
I think I’d like her to go head-to-head with Katherine one day. I think that would be fantastic. I would like to see the full scope of her power. I think ultimately she wants to be in charge. So, how she’s going to do that I’m not sure. But yeah, I think I’d to see more of that. And I’d like to see more elements of her past and then the present day. Like where she was and what her influences are and why she is the way she is. And I’d like to see — for me, what was really important, which you don’t see that much in this episode — but something that I want in the character is the humanity. I think that’s what makes her even more seductive.

For sure. And what was your favorite scene to film in last week’s episode?
I really love working with Matt Davis. He is just such a goofball and when I work with him, we’re both like little kids together. We make dumb jokes together. And sometimes it was so hard to look at him, because I’d burst into laughter. I just think we have fabulous chemistry. Ian [Somerhalder] is just lovely. We sat next to each other on the plane. And then we actually met to rehearse our scene and I respect his preparation and his seriousness towards his work. He’s a gentleman. He carried my bag at the airport, he drove me back to the hotel. He’s a really, really, really nice guy. I don’t want to pick a favorite because they’re all great. And Nina [Dobrev] came back to my hotel room and we had dinner and rehearsed together, and [she's] also very professional. So I guess in different ways, I enjoyed all of them, which sounds like a boring answer.

You touched on it a bit, but what was it like coming into such a tight knit cast? Were they very welcoming?
Yeah, they were totally lovely. I really appreciated the fact that it’s the end of the season, and I imagine everyone’s so tired, and yet everybody rehearsed. So that was wonderful. And I thought that they were unbelievably welcoming and sweet and gracious. I think what’s most impressive about the cast is something that perhaps people take for granted is that they’re professionals. They know their lines, they do their job, and they take their work very seriously. As a result of that, it’s a welcoming atmosphere.

Do you think Isobel is anything like any of your previous characters? Jenny Schecter [from the L Word] comes to mind.
Like Jenny? Oh no, I don’t think Isobel is crazy.

She’s just a vampire.
Yeah, she’s just operating on another — we’re not talking human terms, when we talk about Isobel. No I don’t think she’s like Jenny. And it’s also a really different kind of show. But no, I don’t think so. Isobel was so cold and flat, and there was so little room. It was a challenge for me as an actor, because I’m not used to working like that. So I guess in that sense, it’s a very different character.

That makes sense. To switch gears for a moment to The L Word, the big question in my mind, with the way everything ended, is did someone kill Jenny or did Jenny kill herself?
I don’t know. The whole last season was confusing to me. So, I wish that I had — I don’t know. I wish I had an answer.

That’s okay. That’s a perfectly acceptable answer.
I always thought Jenny was a survival of the fittest type person. I don’t think she would — I could imagine Jenny faking her own death and reappearing in another country to wreak havoc.

Do you have favorite moments from filming that show?
Oh my God, I mean, that’s the thing. Rose Rollins, who played Tasha, is one of my best friends. Actually, her show was just picked up today! So we talk about this all the time. It’s not really a favorite moment, but we were so lucky to work with the girls that we worked with. We were so close and we had so much freedom and it was just a very blessed time, in my life at least. I’m very grateful for that.

So back to The Vampire Diaries…did you have any interesting fan reactions to Isobel?
You know what, I don’t think I look like Isobel in real life, so I haven’t been recognized as Isobel. But I guess, we’ll see.

Do you know any tidbits of your storyline that we didn’t get to see or we might see in the future?
Yeah, there are definitely — and again, I think it’s a question for Julie and Kevin — but there were quite a few things that were left out, that weren’t in the episode, like quite a few juicy things that I’m not sure why they chose to remove. But I don’t know if I’m allowed to say what.

Any little things that you could share?
I guess the scene with Alaric at the end was much more romantic, and much sadder. And then I think the scene was Damon was definitely much longer. That was cut down.

And do you have any other projects coming up?
Well, I just finished The Vampire Diaries, and I finished another movie where I play a vampire queen. And that’s called “Dark Days.” And what I spend most of my time doing — I had a book that Campion published last year, called “I Live Here,” and it’s an anthology about human rights all over the world…human rights abuses. [It's] kind of like a visual documentary. My partners and I started a program and a jail in Malawi. The link for the website I-Live-Here.com.

That’s what you were doing in Malawi!
Exactly! You were probably wondering why I was there. I was there working on — we run a school in a juvenile prison, and we run a permaculture program, a legal rights program and creative writing [program]. We’re having a ball — a Russian themed ball on July 29th. It should be fun. It’s such a huge part of my life, that in a way, it kind of inhibits my ability to work as much as I’d like.

Well I know I hope to see you again on The Vampire Diaries next season. It was such a wonderful episode.
Oh really! You liked it?

Oh yeah!
I couldn’t tell. Was it a good episode?

Yeah. They’ve been building Isobel up all season, so it was great to finally see her. I really liked it.
Thanks, I really appreciate it.

Source

Who killed Jenny Schecter? A mere five months ago, that was the burning question on lesbian lips in living rooms and local bars from Los Angeles to Little Falls, New Jersey.

Mia Kirshner (Miss Conception, The Black Dahlia, 24) — the astonishing actor who played Jenny, and managed to find the humanity in a character known for uttering, “Adele, the appliqué on the back of your jeans was declared an abomination by the Geneva Convention,” and other psychotic bon mots — is in fact a thoughtful woman who’d rather spend time with her friends than bask in the spotlight of Hollywood.

After a record six years as Showtime’s longest running original series, The L Word finally ended in March, putting our love-to-hate relationship with Jenny Schecter to rest, not to mention relieving us of those annoying alliterations.

What many people don’t know is, all that time, Mia was also focused on humanitarian issues, and in October, 2008, she published her first book, I Live Here, a collection of “visually stunning” narratives told through journals, stories and images, by refugees and displaced people from around the world.

The normally press-shy actress talked to AfterEllen.com and opened up about working on The L Word, her reaction when she found out Jenny was dead, and furthering her efforts for I Live Here with an upcoming fundraiser that will include L Word cast members Jennifer Beals, Laurel Holloman and Rose Rollins.

AfterEllen.com: Now that The L Word is over, can you tell us what your overall experience was like?
Mia Kirshner: It’s hard to talk about an overall experience, because each year was so different. But looking back now that a few months have passed since it ended, I miss seeing the girls. They were really fun to work with. I miss that dorm atmosphere that happened on the set. I miss giggling with them. I think in retrospect, in spite of some of the weirdness with the storylines, particularly with my character, it was wonderful. Showtime gave us a lot of freedom, and I realize how rare that is, and how lucky we were to have those jobs.

AE: How was it to work with so many women and so few men? That’s a rare thing.
MK: It is a rare thing. When I first started the show, I was worried about it because in high school, there were packs of girls that reminded me of packs of wolves. I always felt like a group dynamics [can get] nasty. I remember in the pilot, I kept to myself. But now, I can only say it was a really wonderful experience – on the social side of it and the creative freedom that we had.

Working with all women is a great thing. Women talk more about how they’re feeling, what they’d like from each other, and what they don’t like. It can be a more sympathetic environment, if that makes any sense.

AE: You were all doing something groundbreaking, a show about lesbians, and going through it together. Did that help?
MK: We never thought of it like that. I didn’t at the time. And we had all had our own experiences in the gay community, with women, whatever. Not all of us, but some of us. It wasn’t a big deal. And we were shooting in Vancouver, so we were in a little bubble.

AE: So, being cut off from Hollywood fostered a little esprit de corp?
MK: Yeah, it was nice. We had dinner in each other’s homes. Leisha [Hailey] and I lived together the first year. It was a special, special time.

AE: Who were you closest to in the cast? Who do you miss the most?
MK: I would say I was close to Leisha. Kate [Moennig] and I hung out a lot. But it was always group stuff. Leisha, certainly, because I lived with her the first year and the second year. We got to know each other very well.

Rose Rollins is definitely one of my best friends. I speak to her every single day. I love her very, very much. And I would say Jennifer [Beals], as well.

AE: So, that notion that women don’t support each other, or try to keep each other down — you didn’t see any of that?
MK: No, absolutely not. I didn’t. Also, I was working on I Live Here, the whole time I was in Vancouver, so I had other things I was thinking about. I was focusing my energy on the book. I wasn’t that involved in the politics.

AE: Did you like the way the series ended?
MK: No. No. No, I didn’t. But what can I say? We had so much freedom on The L Word, I think we became used to being able to have our say, and being heard on the show. But that’s not normal. That’s definitely a privilege that [creator and executive producer,] Ilene [Chaiken] and [executive producer,] Rose Lam gave to the cast.

Therefore, when things went down the way they did, it was surprising not to be asked, “Are you OK with this? What do you think of this?”

But they don’t have to do that. We were lucky to have jobs.

AE: What did you think when you got the script and found out Jenny was dead?
MK: I remember so clearly being so shocked at my own reaction. We were shooting the scene where Niki [played by Kate French] is trying to seduce [laughs] – I call everyone by their real name – Alexandra Hedison’s character at the club. We had just come back from lunch and finally, I had heard. There was all this speculation about what was happening, and it was really toward the end of the show. I remember being really upset by it, and being surprised by how upset I was.

There was the logical mind, where I was like: “This is just a character. You’re lucky that you worked so long, and it gave you opportunity to do so much.” But there was another part of me that was so sad because I tried to find the best in Jenny, in order to play her.

I agree with most of what people say about her, but here was a girl, if I can defend Jenny, who at the end of the day, seemed bi-polar to me. And an artist in search of herself. I never wanted Jenny to be a hero. I admired Ilene for making her a complicated, often unlikable character, but perhaps a truthful character that pushed people’s button.

But especially [during] Prop 8, what does this say about a show that was supposed to be about friendship? I guess I was just sad that there was no redemption on that end.

AE: Did any of the writers or producers tell you they knew who killed Jenny?
MK: No. I’m not sure who did it, or why. Well, “why” is clear, but it’s still remains murky to me and I’m OK with that.

AE: Who do you think did it? Some people speculated Jenny killed herself.
MK: I don’t know. When you see this character you’ve worked so hard on, for so long, just become a stereotype of a lunatic, I was very sad about that. I haven’t done a lot of press for the show because I don’t want it to be misinterpreted that I’m trashing the show. These are my own feelings about someone in search of herself, becoming something I thought she wasn’t. The work that had been valuable to me and my experience.

And I said to the girls as I was leaving on my last shot, that I had never known a greater group of people since I was in grade school.

AE: Were you comfortable doing all those nude scenes and sex scenes?
MK: [laughs] Really? Are you asking me that?

AE: Yeah. Sorry.
MK: Uh, I don’t know. For me, it’s a job.

AE: Fair enough. OK, moving on. Did you ever get confronted by angry fans that couldn’t separate you from your character?
MK: It happened once at a club. We were at a gay club in Vancouver and one girl came up to me and said, “I hope you die.”

AE: Whoa.
MK: Yeah. I asked her to come outside with me, and I was like, “Listen, why are you at this club tonight?” And she said, “I’m here to have a good time.” And I said, “So am I. Do you have a job?” And she said, “Yeah.” And I said, “Why do you work?” And she said, “To make money.” And I said, “That’s why I work, and that’s why I have a job and I need to make money. And that’s what I do. So when you say, ‘I hope you die,’ I assume you’re talking about my character, and not me. And it’s not nice. It’s not me, it’s my job and it’s what I do to pay my bills. And I just ask you to have a little kindness.”

AE: What did she say to that?
MK: She seemed kind of shocked and taken aback. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable but I really wanted to make the distinction it’s a job; a lucky job to have. But she was pretty rude and unkind.

AE: Did you experience a lot of that?
MK: No, I think out of all the cast members on the show, I keep an extremely low profile and I don’t go out that much. So, I’m not really exposed to that kind of stuff. I know it’s a boring answer.

AE: Hey, if I were playing a character everyone hated, I’d keep a low profile, too.
MK: You’d keep a low profile? No, it wasn’t that. I keep a low profile because when I’m not at work, I just want to hang out with my family and friends. I guess I’m not ambitious about what actors are supposed to do.

AE: You’re not missing anything. Which was your favorite Sounder?
MK: Sounder. Oh, I hated that stuff. I really just don’t know what to say.

AE: What stuff? You mean like the storyline about putting a dog down just to get back at someone?
MK: Yeah. I just didn’t understand why. I didn’t see what that said about the character. Not that Jenny wasn’t mean – she was – but there was a point where I was like, “Whoa. This is not something I’m [personally] comfortable with.” But it’s what [Ilene] needed to express and that was my job.

AE: Have you heard anything about an L Word movie?
MK: I have no idea. No idea.

AE: If they do one, I can’t see how to make Jenny undead. Maybe a prequel?
MK: I don’t know. And it wasn’t a long time ago, but the show feels like a long time ago. A lot of stuff has happened.

AE: Well, your book came out and now you’re really concentrating on the I Live Here project.
MK: After I came back from Malawi, my writing partner, James MacKinnon, and I decided that we wanted to start a program in the juvenile prison there. So we spent a couple of years doing research and that’s really what my spare time is devoted to.

If you think of the book as the right hand — the education part of it — then the project is the left hand. You see what some problems are around the world, and then you do things in a concrete way and you fix them.

AE: What crime could a young child commit that would send them to prison?
MK: I would say over half of them are there because of crimes related to poverty, such as stealing food. Many are being held without a proper trial, many of the kids are orphans. Their parents died from AIDS-related illnesses. They’re locked in their cells, they’re overcrowded. There’s one bucket to use the bathroom.

I’ve been asked, “Why Malawi?” and my answer is, “Why not?” When you see human rights being violated, you have to say something and do something about it. Period.

I don’t want to pretend to be an expert on the subject and have the ultimate answers, but there’s an attitude that because they live in another country and we live here, they don’t affect us. I think it’s important to look at the world as a body. And if one part of the body is sick, and not treated, than disease will spread to the rest of the body. It’s preventative. That’s what I Live Here is trying to do, in its small, humble way.

AE: Your book, I Live Here, uses storytelling as a powerful tool to raise awareness.
MK: Yeah, it’s their stories. That’s the premise of the book: that stories can change the world. And you give people who often wouldn’t be given a chance to speak for themselves, to write about their lives. So I think having people speak for themselves is very powerful.

AE: I read that your father was a displaced person.
MK: My dad was born in a refugee camp after World War II and went through a series of camps. My grandmother on my father’s side lost her husband and her son. They were killed, I think. We don’t know what happened to them. And that’s why I think it’s important to archive what happens to people who survive violence and trauma.

AE: Without a record or anyone bearing witness, crimes are lost to time.
MK: I think so. I also think, on a very personal level, if you’re asked what or how you feel, and what you want, it makes you feel valued. And if you feel valued, it makes you stronger.

AE: Have you met anyone during the making of the book that really inspired you?
MK: The kids in the Malawi prison. Certainly, at first glance, these kids didn’t seem to be hardened criminals. These kids wanted to write and draw. And what came out of their writing was their hope and their humility, and their lack of anger. Many others would be very anger at the fact that their parents had passed away, that they were extremely poor, and that they were in jail and hadn’t been charged. It was an inspiring thing. So, I realize how f—ing lucky I was to have a job. I have nothing to complain about.

AE: Well, we’re spoiled Americans.
MK: I’m Canadian!

AE: Oops, I forgot. Well, there’s a certain cynicism when it comes to going out into the Third World and looking around. It even gets parodied.
MK: I think if you’re trying to do a something, then that’s a good, great start. It shouldn’t be mocked. There’s value in everything. It’s better than doing nothing, I think. At the end of the day, before someone mocks anything, look at the work, get the facts before anyone forms a judgment.

AE: What’s the next phase for I Live Here?
MK: Well, there’s the fundraiser on August 22 in Santa Monica. I really really hope people come out for this one. Jennifer Beals, Laurel Holloman and Rose Rollins are all scheduled to be there with me.

AE: An L Word mini-reunion sounds like reason enough to me. Especially for a good cause.
MK: And we’re going to debut a huge multi-media installation about the journey in making I Live Here. Then, I go to Malawi at the end of the month to set up the program. We’re also doing something called the Ambassador Program, a student curriculum based on issues covered in the book.

AE: It’s very ambitious, for a grassroots campaign.
MK: And people are responding. There’s a woman named Debra Latourette who wrote to us and held her own backyard fundraiser. She raised over $1,000. How cool is that? Just a total stranger, doing that.

AE: Now I feel bad about asking you about those sex scenes and why Jenny is dead.
MK: And I don’t want to seem like I was complaining. Who cares what I felt? I was a f—ing actor with a job.

AE: You don’t sound like a complainer at all. But I get it. In Hollywood, it’s safer to be nice to everyone.
MK: I’d rather tell the truth.

AE: I think it’s OK if we raise awareness for good causes and care about what you ate for breakfast, because you’re a celesbian.
MK: [laughs] I know. But at the end of the day, that’s really what the bottom line is for me: the real world.

AE: So, what did you eat for breakfast?
MK: [laughs] You know what I’m saying.

Source: AfterEllen

Visit causecast.org for more information.

Thanks to Holly for the link.