.

Pretty funny. She was promoting the new documentary, “The September Issue.”

I’m going to publish the fall movie guide next week, but here’s the trailer for the doc. It’s already playing in New York and will be in limited release Sept. 11.

For the record, even though I’m not a proponent of beauty pageants, Modestia is in full support of the current Ms. California Carrie Prejean.

If you are unaware of the current controversy surrounding Ms. Prejean, check out this video:

I can’t help but be incredibly proud of the way she has handled herself, especially after being called a “dumb b—-” and a “c—” by the childish and misogynistic blogger Perez Hilton.   She truly is pure class. 

Ladies, take note…

Last Sunday, CBS premiered “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler,” a true story about the Catholic woman who saved over 2,000 Jewish children during WWII.

Academy Award-winning actress Anna Paquin stars in the titular role, and recently sat down with Catholic Digest to talk about the film. I must admit I’m a big Anna Paquin fan and have been for years.

Some snippets:

You’ve said that doing this film made you feel part of something important. Would you share a little more about that?

I think that telling any story that’s such an important part of history and that is so sad and painful for so many people, and telling a story of someone who was trying to make a difference and did… that’s a really amazing thing to be able to be part of. [Irena] was a very, very incredible, strong, and sort of anonymous figure from that time. It’s kind of amazing to think about how many people like that have just gone unnoticed, and to get to be a part of telling those sorts of stories is really important.

 

How do you think Irena’s Catholic faith influenced her actions, and how did that factor into your interpretation of the role?

She was raised a Catholic, but what she was doing was probably more, I would say, derivative of the basic values of a belief system rather than (from her) being a very religious person herself. She was doing what she believed was the right thing, which was to be helping in any way she could and to be putting herself out there and on the line. 

Sometimes people encountering heroic stories like Irena’s tend to ask themselves, What would I have done? Would I have been as brave? Did you ever find yourself asking those kinds of questions?

Other people have asked me probably more than I’ve asked myself. (laughing) I was more worried about not offending her memory by trying to be as true to her as I could be without ever having met her. I would hope I would be as strong as her, but I hopefully will never have to know.

How did preparing for the role and then being part of the production affect your own life? 

We were in Latvia for two months and it was winter and it was really cold. We worked six days a week and it was pretty grim. The subject matter that you’re dealing with, it’s hard to shake it off at the end of the night. Really all I was doing was preparing for the next day and trying to sleep.

In one interview on the Hallmark site you mentioned something she had said — that she was scared about what she was doing but that she was more angry about what was going on, and that that helped her.

Yeah, her anger sort of helped her overcome her fear. Anyone caught or found out or suspected to be helping in any way in the Jewish community would be killed. There was no middle ground. You’d have to be a pretty determined and strong person to really not care that that was the situation you’re putting yourself in because the situation of the people you’re trying to help was so much worse.

  You can read the rest of Anna’s interview here.

Toni Rossi interviewed my good friend Jessica Rey on his blog, “The Intersection.”

Jes talks about her faith, speaking to kids about chastity, and the upcoming fashion show I’ve talked about previously on this blog.

Some snippits:

TR: Your recent focus has been on giving talks to young people about chastity and modesty. What made you start doing that?

Jessica Rey: I despise public speaking, and I know it’s so strange because I’m an actress. But there’s a difference. When you’re acting, it’s somebody else’s words and you’re playing another character. But when you give talks, it’s you yourself…so it is quite frightening. I didn’t want to do it. A lot of my priest friends kept asking me to do it, and I kept saying, “No, no.”

One day my friends went to this Christmas party and I was sick. At the Christmas party, they had these saint’s cards. They have them upside down and they pick one, and you’re supposed to pray to that saint for the rest of the year. I couldn’t go to the party so my friend said, “I’ll get you a card.” So she got me one, she gets home, and I say, “Who’d I get?” She looked at it and it was St. Bernardine of Siena – and I had no idea who that was at the time. I went and looked him up on the Internet and he’s the patron saint of public speaking (laughs). So I said, “Fine God, fine!” and I gave in and started doing it.

TR: Did those topics interest you throughout your life or did you learn about them the hard way by doing the opposite for a while?

Jessica Rey: I wasn’t doing the opposite to an extreme but I definitely didn’t understand fully chastity and definitely not modesty, especially having been in Hollywood for a while. I had a stylist who would dress me in these crazy outfits and I would walk down the red carpet thinking I was all that. I really wasn’t (laughs). So thankfully I learned about it fully before I really got into some bad stuff. But I grew up Catholic and always kind of knew. I just didn’t fully understand it. I learned about it from some people that I met in Hollywood. We actually had a group called “Holywood” and we would do a lot of formation, lots of different talks, Theology of the Body type stuff. So that’s how I fully learned about it.

TR: How do you make the concepts of chastity and modesty appealing to young people when you’ve got so many cultural forces promoting the opposite?

Jessica Rey: I think it’s really important that the people who give these talks are themselves younger and…they’re hipper and with the times. You know, (kids are) not really going to listen to it if it’s from their parents. Most kids don’t, sadly, so it does help that I’m younger, it helps that I’ve been on TV and kids think that’s really cool…And it’s crazy because I was just a Power Ranger (laughs)! I’m not an a-list celebrity that has been in a ton of blockbuster films. But they still think it’s cool that someone in Hollywood is living this life.

TR: So what should churches be doing better to reach out to young people?

Jessica Rey: My friends and I are actually starting – and I know that these exist throughout the country – but we’re going to be starting up some fashion shows here in Southern California. And the fashion show again is this cool thing that the girls want to be a part of. But it’s (also) going to be six weeks of formation on what it means to be a woman, how a man should treat you, we’re going to talk about courtship, modesty and dress, and just all of (those things) they’re not really getting.

Read the rest here.

The oh so very lovely Catholic singer and songwriter Marie Miller took some time out of her busy schedule to talk with us here at Modestia: 

When did you start playing music? Who or what would you say are your musical influences?

Marie:  My musical journey is a little scattered, but I started singing when I was about eight or nine, and I began playing mandolin when I was eleven. I didn’t pick up the guitar until I was about thirteen, which was when I started songwriting. I feel like I have so many musical influences, but big ones for me are: Nickel Creek, Cat Stevens, Jaci Velasquez, John Mayer, Point Of Grace, Coldplay, and my DAD! My dad’s a a great musician.

Your music has great Catholic undertones. What made you decide to make more religiously inspired songs rather than become a secular artist?

Thanks for talking with us Marie!