Patricia Arquette trades Hollywood for Haiti

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Patricia Arquette wasn't overjoyed when she found out her CBS hit show Medium was renewed for another season (its seventh). The reason: The 42-year-old actress was in Haiti, helping displaced earthquake victims. ``[Producers] called me to tell me we were just picked up and I didn't know what was happening,'' Arquette said at a fundraiser at a private home in Coral Gables. ``There were kids running around with no shoes in broken glass and broken metal. The toilets were full. There are sanitary issues. I said, `I can't even talk to you about that. I'm in a whole other world.' ''

Indeed, Arquette's bizarro glamorous Hollywood life definitely went on the back burner for 12 days earlier this month when the actress, who has starred in such movies as Flirting with Disaster, Beyond Rangoon and True Romance, traveled to the ravaged island nation. Her goal, along with the Give Love Foundation (which she founded), is helping to resettle homeless families. Earlier in the day, Arquette visited the Robert Morgan Educational Center in South Miami to check in with welding students who are building the doors and roofing trusses for quake victims' new homes. Fifty-four housing structures are set for a one-acre site in Cité Soleil, a volatile area in Port-au-Prince.



Arquette, who has a son with musician Paul Rossi and a daughter with her husband, Hung actor Thomas Jane, was particularly affected by the plight of the children. ``It was mind-boggling,'' said the Chicago native. ``Kids are running around with red hair because they have protein deficiencies. There was a dead body in the rubble. We called every day, but still no one came. Part of what we did we ended up doing out of humanity.''

Arquette, who traveled with her older brother, actor Richmond Arquette, feels like they made some progress (brother David and sisters Alexis and Rosanna are also in showbiz).``These people are so excited about [relocating] somewhere that's safe and dry and cooler than the hot sun and that won't leak on them.''

Arquette says she isn't sure she is the same person who left Los Angeles just a few weeks ago. ``It's a huge thing,'' she admits. ``I don't know if I've ever done anything my life that was more important.'' -- MADELEINE MARR

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