Star Trek actress Marina Sirtis

Marina Sirtis cooked "rivedosoupa" the night before and now she's cleaning the kitchen and putting the dishes away while she talks about playing Deanna Troi from another planet for several seasons on the TV phenomenon Star Trek: The Next Generation and now in feature films.

"I'm a real homebody," the classically-trained actress pauses to admit while dishes clatter in the background. "Can you hear me? I'm finished now, though."

A homebody is the last thing her galaxy of fans would consider the London-born actress who trained with the Royal Shakespeare Company, played Ophelia in Hamlet her first job out of drama school, starred as Elizabeth in Richard III, and hopes to tackle Medea, Phaedra and Antigone. She did a performance a few years ago in Hartford and the audience was packed with Star Trek fans who had come from as far away as Boston and New York to see their favorite empathic, half-Betazoid ship's counselor in the flesh. (view entire article)

Political gadfly
Arianna Huffington

She was once a Republican stalwart but is now unaffiliated and considers herself a gadfly of both parties. The strong woman behind then-husband Michael Huffington's record-setting and futile $28 million California senatorial campaign several years ago, she has also gone to “bed" with comedian Al Franken to critique the '96 convention for Comedy Central and written a number of international bestsellers on Maria Callas, Pablo Picasso and feminism and scholarly works on political leadership and Greek mythology. The Athenian-born Huffington, nee Stassinopoulos, is a Cambridge-educated M.A. in Economics and most recently ran for governor of California. She now lives with her daughters Christina and Isabella in Los Angeles and Washington D.C.

You’re a serious advocate, but several years ago you also wrote a comic fantasy. Why?

Because I think right now what's happening in politics kind of cries out for satire and I feel that by using satire you can still make important political points, but make them in a way that attracts people more, that entertains at the same time as it instructs, which has always been a great Greek way, going back to Aristophanes. Aristophanes made very, very important points, but he made them through laughter and satire and as a result they often had a very powerful effect. (view entire article)