THE WOMAN

Edie Falco grew up in a very supporting and artistic household. Her father was in advertising and was a jazz drummer on the side. Her uncle was a novelist, playwright and poet and an English professor at Virginia Tech. But her biggest influence into the world of performance came from her mother, an actress who Edie often performed with in community theatre.

With an ambitious taste for challenging roles, Falco began her career with memorable film work in Hal Hartley’s The Unbelievable Truth in 1989 and Trust in 1991. She co-starred in Nick Gomez’s gritty crime drama Laws of Gravity in 1992 and had a small speaking role in Woody Allen’s 1994 film, Bullets Over Broadway.

In 1997, Falco began earning kudos for her performance as Officer Diane Whittlesey on the HBO prison drama Oz; and she stayed with the show for two years. In 1999, she landed her star-making role as Mafia wife Carmela Soprano in the acclaimed HBO series The Sopranos. She was awarded an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for her work on the show in 1999. Edie has won four Emmys, two Golden Globes and five Screen Actors Guild Awards in her career. Falco is the second actor to have won Emmys for lead acting in both a Drama and a Comedy series (the first actor to do so was Carroll O’Connor).

In 2009, she signed a deal with Showtime to star in the new drama Nurse Jackie. The show premiered in June 2009. After 7 seasons, Nurse Jackie is coming to an end this Sunday (June 28th). Falco admits that Nurse Jackie will be a tough act to follow. As the show’s central figure, she had a lot of sway for the first time in her career over how things were run. She would have been happy to continue with the show, if the decision had been up to her.

“We created a work environment on this show that is unrivaled in my life for the kindness and respect that we had,” she says. “It was not by accident. It worked for us, and it was magical.”

HER CAUSE

While still single, Edie had the overwhelming urge to raise children, so she decided to adopt and raise two wonderful kids. She is very passionate about children and donates to AmberWatch, a site that raises awareness for missing children.

Animals are also incredibly important to her, as she is a huge supporter of PETA and Animal Haven—an animal adoption site.

Her Broadway background keeps her involved in the world of the performing arts and she is a regular contributor to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

By Katherine Sharma

I’m sure you’ve noticed that self-help books are frequently best sellers. Just a glance at The New York Times’ current nonfiction best sellers finds 10% Happier by Dan Harris (how the co-anchor of Nightline used meditation to improve his life) and Thrive by Arianna Huffington (personal well-being as a measure of success, along with money and power).

I’ve read my share of self-help books, but I’ve thrown out (and forgotten) more career, health, relationship, and spiritual guides than I’ve kept. So I began to wonder which entries in the self-help genre have stood the test of time and may merit a permanent place on my bookshelf — and maybe yours. There are lots of recommendations out there, but when I combine them all together, I come up with two winners per pundits, popular acclaim and my own experience: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Harvard MBA Stephen Covey, and How to Win Friends and Influence People by super-salesman Dale Carnegie, published in the 1930s and still going strong.

Other consistently championed books are The Power of Now by philosopher Eckhart Tolle, Man’s Search for Meaning by concentration-camp survivor Viktor Frankl, Awaken the Giant Within by motivational guru Anthony Robbins, The Road Less Traveled by psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, bringing the “law of attraction” of earlier writers to new audiences. So if you find yourself troubled by basic questions — who am I, what do I really want, and how do I get from where I am now to where I want to be — check out these books. For more top-rated self-help guides, consider other picks by sources as varied as Amazon, Reader’s Digest, and Elle magazine.

ABOUT  KATHERINE SHARMA

Katherine Sharma’s family roots are in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. But after her early childhood in Texas, she has moved around the country and lived in seven other states, from Virginia to Hawaii. She currently resides in California with her husband and three children. She has also traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia, and makes regular visits to family in India. After receiving her bachelor’s degree. in economics and her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, Katherine worked as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor for more than 15 years. She then shifted into management and marketing roles for firms in industries ranging from outdoor recreation to insurance to direct marketing. Although Katherine still works as a marketing consultant, she is now focused on creative writing.

Today, although it is impossible to say that there is gender equality, there are certainly less strict gender roles than there were fifty years ago. Women have more freedom (to a certain extent, and only in certain places, mind you) and more is expected from them relationship-wise. Back then, one could argue that it was the woman’s role to wait around for a man to approach her. Today, both sexes have the power to make the first move. However, making the first move is easier said than done. Sometimes, you’re pretty sure he’s into you, so for the most part, your fear is a little misplaced. Other times, however, it’s a complete shot in the dark, in which case you might just give up on the idea of asking him out or saying the first “I love you” altogether. But a good relationship does not remain static!

What would Amelia Earhart do? Besides being one of the earliest supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment, and a member of the National Woman’s Party (basically, a feminist in her own right, so you can just imagine what’d she say about women making the first move), she set a record for the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. Her trip was reportedly fourteen hours long, and she faced harsh weather conditions and mechanical problems- but she never gave up! It just goes to show that no matter what lies in the way, or what consequences may await, sometimes you have to take that leap of faith to reap the benefits. In fact, Earhart did say herself, “The most effective way to do it, is to do it.”

By Brianna Porter

(From Never Liked It Anyway, the number one destination for all things break-ups and bounce-back! It’s the place to buy, sell and tell all things ex! Sell your breakup baggage, tell your story and join the community of rock stars bouncing back better than ever! )

“Inspirational stories for the damned” is the label given by one blinded soldier to survival tales like his in Testament of Youth — it’s also an apt description of this rousing, robust adaptation of Vera Brittain’s landmark First World War memoir. Previously adapted by the BBC as a television serial in 1979, Brittain’s 1933 tome has taken decades to reach the big screen.

The first feature film version opened in the U.S. on June 5, starring Swedish actress Alicia Vikander (“Ex Machina”) as the indomitable heroine. Vikander earned a British Independent Film Award nomination last year for her illuminating performance.

“It’s such an amazing story,” said Vikander, who worked with a dialect coach to perfect her British accent. She had read a lot about the First World War but hadn’t seen the conflict from a female perspective until she read Brittain’s book. “It is such a story about youth.”

It’s also a love story.

Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow) plays the Roland Leighton, the fiancé of Vikander.  Leighton would go on to become a soldier on the front lines, which was partially responsible for Brittain choosing to leave Oxford to become a war nurse.

When asked if he had every played a real person before, Harrington told Variety, “No, I haven’t. I thought I would have a ghost on my shoulder the whole time, but I didn’t. I was just very happy to have this source material, the book, to really find out who he was. And I had these letters he’d written, I could read them every day and remind myself of the kind of stupid and brave young man he was. He was a teenager experiencing first love while being shot at on the front.”

In her memoir, Brittain spoke for the ones who couldn’t speak, who were robbed of their futures for reasons they couldn’t understand at the behest of men who couldn’t have explained if they’d tried. Watching the final scenes of Testament of Youth, it’s clear that her stand on war is as outspoken today as it was then.

Watch the Trailer below: