(Carna Orosco Interview, LightDiamond Media Corp., Los Angeles, CA)

Hollywood-beat reporter Bernia Gallager interviews Carna Orosco about her roll in the recent film The Divine Shepherdess. She has been nominated for "Best Actress in a Leading Role" by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The interview is scheduled for syndication throughout media outlets in the run up for the Academy Awards.

Gallager: The film The Divine Shepherdess has caused quite a stir in some circles, yet your performance as the principal female, Lavinia, has generally resonated positively with the public. Especially women. You must be proud of that.

Orosco: I am mainly pleased with the response, yes. More important to me is how this film has gotten people to look at women and their undefeatable strength. Power from independence is what comes through and I'm proud that my role reflected that.

Gallager: What do you have to say to the critics who imply the film is anti-religious or even blasphemous of the Church? You, after all, depict a rather rebellious character caught in the roll as model of the Virgin Mary in a painting.

Orosco: There's been this religious controversy you speak of. Some people are just not comfortable with the shift from seeing a woman depicted as an attached symbol of something over to herself as a real flesh and blood person. The fact that this character can be admirable . . . and at the same time heroic in her own life . . . despite how others want to deify her, was too much for some, I guess. The idea was hinted at in the film Girl with the Pearl Earring, another story about the model of a painting. And, of course, Scarlett Johannson really nailed that role.

Gallager: And got an Academy Award!

Orosco: Please, don't remind me [laughter].

Gallager: So you agree with the film's premise that a woman can take center stage, despite the context she is in-in this case an 18th century pastoral painting of Christ with his mother?

Orosco: I absolutely do. There's a need for this recognition in women themselves, who feel they must have someone else's connection, a title, or some grand institution like the church to define them. I believe this paradigm shift is overdue in most societies where women's vast potentials are sadly overlooked and unappreciated.

Gallager: You believe that is still going on so much today?

Orosco: Most certainly! As a journalist competing for assignments, don't you feel it sometimes? The lack of respect afforded women for their talents and abilities is appalling. It has to be above and beyond this incomparable potential we have for child producing and rearing. It's been a major sticking point between the sexes. Something like four million years?

Gallager: Right on sister! [Laughter from both]. What did you think of the script and storyline of this film-which is also up for 'Best Picture'? What were your reactions when you first read for it? (We must inform our readers who have not seen the film that you play the woman from a village whom a renowned Mexican artist chooses as the Virgin Mary in his painting. It becomes a holy icon, rumored to cause miracles and then she must somehow live with the stigma of that).

Orosco: This image Lavinia fights through the curse of her permanent association with 'La Divina Pastora' is very ironic, yet symbolic for all women. As you know I have been keen on women's issues throughout my career as an actress. And I really wanted this role. I feel very blessed to have pulled together what the producers and director, both themselves women, wanted in the audition for it.

Gallager: A 'Hispanic' actress chosen as 'Best Actress in a Leading Role' will be a first if you win an Academy Award on Oscar night. How do you sum up your chances in light of that challenge?

Orosco: Let's not forget Rita Moreno won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in West Side Story. She was a Hispanic American.

Gallager: Yes, but that was back in . . .

Orosco: 1962. But look. This racial-ethnic-categorization thing has always baffled me. Am I a Latina? A Mexican American? A Hispanic female? I got that line of questioning in high school and a lot while growing up doing theater in LA. But not when I went to Yale on a scholarship to really study acting. I consider myself in one category . . . as all actresses must . . . simply a woman. Regarding my chances . . . I've never been one to build up my hopes too much. I've come this far . . . and I'm proud of that. I'll be up against some very talented ladies in March. May the best one of us win on that amazing night. And who ever she is . . . I hope she feels a sense of camaraderie for her sisters. Not only those who competed with her, but with women everywhere. We are all winners!

Gallager: It's rumored that you've been a generous donor and advocate of various female-focused charities these past few years. Can you talk about that?

Orosco: Yes, There are some outstanding women out there today working hard to make the plight of women and girls better on every continent-a very large and silent effort. I'm happy now to say. As a member of this international network, I give of my time, energy and resources to one of their NGOs called Antiope's Daughters. It's been active in establishing schools for girls in places where females have only recently been given the right to study. And often that right is challenged. The organization also provides "safe houses" in Europe and the Americas where females of any age may go as victims of abuse or sex trafficking. These are huge problems women and girls face everyday. Antiope's Daughters is a very worthy cause and anyone who wishes to get involved with us can find links on the Net.

Gallager: Any new cinema projects in the works?

Orosco: There's a film in the planning stage I'm quite excited about. It involves courageous women from the ancient past and, of course, the eternal battle of the sexes. The details at least for now are all top secret . . . so please don't ask me more [more laughter].

Gallager: Sounds like they've found the right person.

Orosco: I hope to be heavily involved at some level. Directing has always interested me. Especially since the completion of my last three films. The Divine Shepherdess taught me a lot about work on both sides of the camera. Hopefully, I'll be able to put that to work someday.

Gallager: Well, we're looking forward to your appearance on Oscar night. And we wish you the best with your always exciting career, Carna.

Orosco: Thank you, Bernia. It's been a pleasure.

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While back in their dorm room at the American School, Nicasio and Daniela remained non-communicative. They routinely moved about, arranging their belongings, ostensibly to leave for America in the morning-though both of them knew that due to the Athens strikes that would not happen for at least one more day. As Daniela entered the bathroom to take a much needed shower from the day of traveling, she saw Nicasio lying on the bed reading. She knew, however, this was only theater on his part. In keeping with their past years of erotic habits, he was only concealing his high hopes of making love with her, now that she had returned.

Following her brief shower and some flirtation with lotion and perfume, she approached the bed with only a towel around her waist. Trying not to look up, Nicasio simply asked if she was hungry and wanted to go with him to the cafeteria. She remained silent in response to this hollow request and instead approached the small Acropolis alarm clock near his head. She picked it up and turned on the FM radio option. Nicasio remained quiet and continued to not look up as she selected a lively, Middle-eastern sounding melody playing over the airwaves. It was strongly reminiscent of belly-dancing. She soon commenced to move around the room trance-like to the syncopated rhythm and exotic music.

Nicasio began to watch her as she swayed her body to the sensual sounds and moved her hips suggestively with her back to him. She danced around in increasingly wider circles, bare-breasted, and ever closer to him. He watched now intensely, almost mesmerized while Daniela gracefully twisted her hands in the air and shook her hips suggestively. She was near enough to the bed for him to touch her, when she began to caress her breasts lightly with her fingertips. Expressionless, she looked down and made eye contact with him.

It was a look that said, "At this moment in time, I hold all the power here . . . and it is my choice what will happen next . . ."

As the tension and anger they had earlier for each other began to actively dissipate into the academic walls of the room, Daniela slowly removed her towel, which, in keeping with her impromptu persona as "Eastern seductress," was the final step in bringing Nicasio back to his primordial male self. He now seemed willing to call a temporarily truce during their ageless battle-just long enough to satiate both combatants, and disguise the imperative that the greater war, though at times quiet, would never end.

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