“Girl In Progress” interview with Patricia Arquette

Today is the beautiful Patricia Arquette’s birthday and all of us here at patricia-arquette.com wish her the very happiest of birthdays and many more to come.

Just in case you weren’t excited enough about Patricia Arquette’s new movie, Girl In Progress,  here’s a site with some teaser clips from the movie to whet your appetite. Be sure to check out all the clips.

Girl In Progress- “Cry For Help”

Recently, Urban Zen had a fantastic opportunity to connect and collaborate with Patti Hansen and Patricia Arquette to distribute survival bags to women living in tent camps in Haiti. The project was borne out of an inspired conversation that our founder, Donna Karan, had with her long-time friend Patti Hansen. Patti and Molly Madden recently launched a new collection of bags called, “Hung on U,” and Donna immediately thought of Haiti. A few conversations later, the idea of the Survival Bags came into being. Patti provided the bags and Patricia Arquette distributed them to the women she works with through her GiveLove Foundation in Haiti.

The beautiful bags were filled with the essential items needed most by the women living under the difficult circumstance of tent life including: underwear, plumpy nut nutrition bars, a poncho, a pair of flip flops, a whistle, a flashlight and purified water tablets.

We had the opportunity to catch up with Patricia Arquette who distributed the bags. We chatted with her about all things Haiti and the experience of giving love by giving out the survival bags.

Here, we share our conversation to you:

Urban Zen: Can you tell us a little bit about the work you’re doing in Haiti?

Patricia Arquette: GiveLove started working in Haiti right after the earthquake in one of the largest tent camps in Citi Soleil. We realized right away that the lack of sanitation was a public health disaster. After learning more about Haiti, it became obvious to us that the lack of sanitation was a systemic problem even before the earthquake and 80% of the rural people had no clean water or toilets. Only the wealthiest people in Port-au-Prince have access to adequate sanitation. We couldn’t turn away from the fact that poor sanitation causes more deaths than HIV and malaria combined, and sadly diseases like cholera kill children and the elderly who are most vulnerable to infection. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be consumed with finding affordable sanitation solutions for the poorest people or have to understand pathogen death rates. The system that we’ve chosen to implement in Haiti is called thermophilic composting, and it’s a very simple and easy way to completely sanitize waste and convert it into compost that can be used for agriculture and reforest Haiti.

Urban Zen: A Conversation with Patricia Arquette

On December 6th, Patricia Arquette, actress and co-founder of GiveLove, traveled to Haiti with sheets and bath towels donated by Overstock.com. Arquette gave the bedding and bath products to the girls living in Don Busco orphanage, where GiveLove built housing. About the donation, she tweeted “The girls are over the moon. U can’t imagine how thankful they were!” We love being able to support the humanitarian efforts of organizations like GiveLove.

Join Patricia Arquette and Give Love to Haiti

Discover the actor within or get help cultivating a scene or character at this 2-hour one-on-one session with Patricia Arquette in Los Angeles, California. Whether you are a budding thespian hungry to learn or a seasoned veteran in need of some elite coaching, Patricia’s acting strengths will facilitate yours.

The proceeds for this item benefit Shine On Sierra Leone

Get Acting Advice from Patricia Arquette

A delegation of silver screen and TV actors are taking part in a visit to Israel this week, during which they will meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.

Already on their trip, the group has met with Palestinian Authority leaders in Ramallah.

At a press conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday, the actors spoke about their impressions of Israel, including their visits to the rocket-battered town of Sderot, an Ethiopian absorption center and the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem. All expressed a great deal of enthusiasm about visiting Israel, though their excitement appeared to be tempered by some serious travel fatigue.

The week-long trip is being led by the “Creative Coalition,” a politically active group made up of American entertainers, in collaboration with the American Israel Education Foundation, an organization affiliated with AIPAC.

The actors on hand at the press conference included Patricia Arquette (True Romance and TV’s Medium); Richard Webb (known as “that guy from Wings”); Richard Schiff (Toby from The West Wing); and Rob Morrow, who played a Jewish doctor in Alaska on Northern Exposure in the ’90s.

Patricia Arquette spoke first, saying

“We look forward to learning about the Arab side of the conflict as well and how we can as human beings bring art as a healing force.”

Group of Hollywood Stars Get Taste of Holy Land

Bill Murray, Patricia Arquette, Mary Elizabeth Winstead join “Charlie Swan” with Charlie Sheen

Imagine a city the size of Los Angeles with no safe drinking water and no bathrooms – the effect would be devastating. Toilets may be a taboo topic for some of us, but for Haitian children, men and women, a single clean toilet can be a lifesaver for communities. Founded by Patricia Arquette & Rosetta Getty, GiveLove provides more than 4,000 school children with access to compost toilets and helps numerous communities learn how to compost human and organic waste and to recycle it into nutrient rich soil. Compost sanitation prevents the spread of dangerous diseases and improves public health.

Visit the gallery for more photos.