Patricia Arquette was in Washington this week to represent The Creative Coalition at the White House’s Champions of Change initiative.

For her role as Allison Dubois on the critically acclaimed series “Medium,” Arquette has received numerous accolades, including the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and many subsequent Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations. The granddaughter of comedian Cliff Arquette (best known for his television personality Charlie Weaver), Arquette comes from a family ensconced in the entertainment industry. Her father was actor Lewis Arquette and her siblings — Rosanna, Alexis, Richmond and David — are all actors.

Arquette recently wrapped shooting Patricia Riggen’s “See If I Care” opposite Eva Mendes. Her feature film credits include Richard Linklater’s “12 Year Movie aka Boyhood,” “Holes,” “The Badge” and “Little Nicky.” Arquette has worked with a stellar list of directors in such critically acclaimed films as: Martin Scorsese’s “Bringing Out the Dead,” Rupert Wainwright’s “Stigmata,” Sean Penn’s “The Indian Runner,” John Madden’s “Ethan Frome,” Tony Scott’s “True Romance,” Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood,” David O. Russell’s “Flirting With Disaster,” John Boorman’s “Beyond Rangoon,” “Lost Highway” (in a dual role for David Lynch), Steven Frears’s “Hi Lo Country” and Roland Jaffe’s “Goodbye Lover.” Among Arquette’s TV movie credits is “Wildflower,” directed by Diane Keaton, for which Arquette earned a CableAce Award as Best Lead Actress.

Last spring, after visiting Haiti and seeing firsthand the destruction caused by the devastating earthquake that hit the island, Arquette started up the charity GiveLove (www.givelove.org) to help provide victims with sustainable housing and assist in rebuilding communities in the aftermath of the disaster.

My Five Minutes with the President

Last year, when actress Patricia Arquette cofounded the nonprofit GiveLove with Rosetta Getty (wife of actor Balthazar), the two women had a plan: To help rebuild post-earthquake Haiti, they would try to improve sanitation systems and use abandoned shipping containers to create homeless shelters. But as the rainy season approached, they distributed tents and mosquito nets as well. “Need is everywhere,” says Arquette, noting that GiveLove also built an orphanage that shelters 170 children and 30 at-risk teenage girls. “People say, ‘Just choose one thing and do it.’ But why? If there are kids sleeping on the ground, you say, ‘Let’s get them in bunk beds.’ Different groups need different things.”

More.com:Patricia Arquette:Hands On in Haiti

Patricia Arquette, Maria Bello, and others among latest celebrities to take the “Hollywood Pledge”.

Patricia Arquette, Maria Bello, Kristin Chenoweth, Lisa Ling and Sean Penn have joined the growing list of celebrities taking the “Hollywood Pledge”, a philanthropy campaign led by the Give Back Hollywood Foundation and inspired by Bill Gates & Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge. The “Hollywood Pledge” and its companion website unites celebrity philanthropists and serves as a convenient way for them to promote the charities and causes they are most passionate about.

Celebrities take Hollywood Pledge

Patricia has recently completed filming the drama/comedy See If I Care with Eva Mendes and Matthew Modine. No release date yet.

Patricia has also signed to star in the psychological thriller, Glutton , directed by her brother, David Arquette. The film also stars Abraham Benrubi and Kacey Barnfield. It will be shot in 3D and filming begins in July.

www.movieweb.com/news/glutton-adds-patricia-arquette

www.dreadcentral.com/news/44832/cast-expands-david-arquettes-glutton

Patricia Arquette is one of several A-list celebrities visiting Washington, DC this week to advocate for funding for the arts.

“It’s not enough anymore, in this economy, for actors to just argue why arts funding benefits people,” actress Patricia Arquette told The Hill on Thursday. “I came here to talk to Republicans about how the arts drive huge sectors of this country’s economy.”

Arquette is one of a handful of actors lobbying policymakers ahead of Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, and her trip is part of a joint outreach effort by the Creative Coalition, one of the entertainment industry’s premier advocacy groups. She spoke to The Hill at a dinner at the Ritz-Carlton hosted by the Creative Coalition and Lanmark CEO Lani Hay.

This isn’t Arquette’s first visit to Washington to lobby for arts funding, but the star of CBS’s hit drama “Medium” said she wanted to reach beyond the arts’ traditionally friendly political audience.

“I had an amazing meeting today with the RAMS,” Arquette said, referring to the Republicans Associated for Mutual Support (RAMS), a group of current and former GOP chiefs of staff. “Obviously, [Republicans] aren’t considered the party that typically supports public arts funding, but we talked about the economic impact of creative work and intellectual property, and we were all reasonable adults, so there was a lot of mutual understanding in the room.

“As the country moves beyond a manufacturing economy, one of the areas we’re going to need to stay on top of the world is the creative economy: film, movies, music and technology. After all, isn’t the iPod a work of art?”

Hollywood Stars Advocate for the Arts

Our favorite actress, mother and humanitarian is celebrating her 43rd birthday today. Here’s wishing her a very happy birthday and many more.

Happy Birthday, Patricia!!

Nice interview with Patricia Arquette about Give Love and her charity work in Haiti, filmed at SXSWi in Austin, TX.

www.nosexandthesuburbs.com/2011/03/givelove-video-interview-w-patricia-arquette-at-sxsw/

According to the GiveLove Twitter and Facebook pages, GiveLove.org will team with partners Water.org and CoTweet for a global viral sanitation campaign at SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX.

You can read more about it on their new Twitter and Facebook pages here.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/GiveLoveorg/160016190714950

http://twitter.com/#!/GiveLoveOrg