If you know the movies “I Can’t Think Straight” and “The World Unseen”, you know that Shamim Sarif is a talented director. You might even know that she is an equally talented author and screenwriter, having written novels, music lyrics, and the screenplays for both of her movies. But did you know that she also writes witty and charming blogs? If not, here is your chance to catch up on what you missed.

Sarif’s new book  “Wrote the Book, Made the Movie, Raised the Kids, Now the Blog!” is a collection of blogs and pictures from her website and her Facebook fan page, respectively. It also includes more than 70 previously unseen photos from the sets of “The World Unseen” and “I Can’t Think Straight”. 10% of all sales will go to Lisa Ray, who was a lead actress in both movies and also wrote an introduction for the book, to help in her battle against a rare form of cancer. More information on the book and how to order it can be found here.

In the unlikely case that you have not seen Shamim Sarif’s movies, you can no longer blame it on not being able to get a hold of the DVDs. Both movies as well as the soundtrack of “I Can’t Think Straight” are now available as downloads from the official website of Enlightenment Productions, the production company of Shamim Sarif and her partner Hana Kattan.

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Miriam Meckel, author and professor for communication but to most people best known as Anne Will’s girlfriend, has written a book about going through burnout syndrome. “Brief an mein Leben” (“Letter to My Life”) was released today, and throughout the week there has been a lot of media coverage on the book, the author, and even her relationship with Anne Will and their outing two years ago.

For example, Meckel told German news magazine “Der Spiegel” that by being open about their relationship, she and Anne Will did not intend to revise common clichés about lesbian couples (they both look very feminine, as the reporter noticed), but they just wanted to have the chance to show up at an event together. (For a video clip of an interview with Miriam Meckel, go here.)

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Good news for fans of Laura Innes. The actress who played lesbian doctor Kerry Weaver on “ER” has mostly been working behind the camera for the last couple of years, but as AfterEllen reports with reference to The Hollywood Reporter, she will be back in front of the camera for a new TV drama called “The Event”, a conspiracy thriller in which she will “the mysterious inmates’ leader at a secret facility”.

Laura Innes as Dr. Kerry Weaver

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And last but not least: Apparently, we owe it to actor Ed Helms (“The Office”) that Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi got together. At least that is what he told Ellen on her show this week: Ed Helms the Matchmaker.

That’s it for this week. If you missed something, or have questions or ideas for the column, let me know in the comments.

Pictures: Das Erste; Venice; Enlightenment Productions

If you know the movies “I Can’t Think Straight” and “The World Unseen”, you know that Shamim Sarif is a talented director. You might even know that she is an...

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