Interview with Patricia Arquette on "Medium" and Relief for Haiti

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Patricia Arquette has two more weeks of production on “Medium” for the season, and then she’ll be returning to Haiti and the labor of passion she’s thrown herself into — transforming a squalid, violent, displaced persons’ camp into a village with sustainable housing and sanitation. “Ever since the earthquake, it’s completely consumed all my excess time. I’m glad to say my kids are on board, and they’re OK with that,” notes the mother of a 20-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter.

Arquette says she initially simply donated money to big charities after the devastating 7.0 quake hit the impoverished island nation in January. But then, a combination of seeing news stories detailing the ongoing misery in Haiti and hearing about it from a nurse friend of hers made her feel compelled to do more.

“She was among the first responders to rush down. She was so shaken. She’d been to India, to a lot of different locations — she’d seen a lot of poverty, but nothing like this. And she said, ‘You have to do something. Everybody’s got to do something.’”



The actress had heard about how massive shipping containers could be quickly converted into clean, safe housing and wondered about bringing that idea to Haiti. The fact that she didn’t know how to go about it, or how to fundraise, hasn’t stood in Arquette’s way. “My friend said, ‘Just start moving forward and don’t look back,’” she explains.

Since then, she has found collaborators, including veteran relief project coordinator Cosmo Pfeil and Christopher Robertson of Houston’s Inhabitat, who has successfully built container homes. Last week, she says, the army came in to grade the land being used, and this week, their architect will be at the site. Plans for sustainable sanitation have also been worked out. The hope is that this village will serve as a prototype for more — and, of course, the methodology could then be repeated in Haiti and elsewhere. To make donations or find out more, see her GiveLove.org website.

Meanwhile, fans of “Medium” are getting quite bent out of shape — to judge by comments on the Internet — over the leaked news that the six-year-old Arquette series will have her character dying at season’s end. Is this really the end?

“We’re never certain if we’re going to get picked up,” says the star. “I just feel like it’s going to be a very good show. Our writers are doing things in a very interesting way. It’s not going to be a straightforward show. Viewers will like it. That’s not saying about whether it’s the end. We won’t know that until the upfronts in May.”

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