Fiona Shaw

Fiona's wife is Sonali Deraniyagala, who used to be married to a man.

Tragic story there. She, her former husband, and two kids were vacationing in Sri Lanka when the 2004 tsunami hit, and her huband and both kids drowned. She survived by cliniging to a tree.

And now she's married to a famous actress. Incredible.

Yeah, she was pretty serious with Saffron Burrows for a bit too. I don't think she hides it; she just does her thing.

Saffron Burrows is much different from Fiona's current wife.

Sonali is an economist in her late 50's, and Saffron, well... isn't.

Fiona and Sonali going casual.

I still can't believe she was in Pixels. And that I watched it.

She's always been rather a ham onscreen, hasn't she?

OP doesn't seem to grasp the notion of what being an actress is: a person who portrays a character in a performance.

She's one of the great actresses of her generation.

Her stage work is phenomenal.

Watched her in Mrs. Wilson on PBS last night. Oh my God I hated the character intensely. A very good actor.

R9, I will watch it.

thanks!

She's a standout as MI6 boss Carolyn Martens on Killing Eve.

She screamed lez in Three Men and a Baby

She's the only reason to watch The Black Dahlia. She gives an insane performance. De Palma must love to let his actress run free.

Mrs. Wilson was excellent, I watched it twice. Enjoy, R10

Jesus what a life her wife has had.

I remember when she was with Saffron Burrows. She was great in My Left Foot, and had an insanely campy, histrionic role in Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia" that I fucking loved. She seems like a low-key person; she's also a Catholic lesbian which I find interesting.

Well, she is Irish, R16. I'm a lesbian from Italian heritage. I'm not utterly devout and don't make it to mass regularly, but it's hard to break away completely, even when I disagree with some of the doctrine.

Same here R17—gay man, raised Catholic—maternal grandfather was Irish/Swedish but very Catholic, and my mom was raised in it as well. My dad is an atheist and I'd describe my mom as a cafeteria Catholic (like most are), so I wasn't raised in a strictly dogmatic household or anything. I do think there are beautiful things about it and it's been a running theme in my life. I ended up going to grad school at a Jesuit university even. Technically speaking, Catholicism does not condemn homosexuality, they only condemn sex acts that don't produce children, so every Catholic who has masturbated is as "bad" as every Catholic who has had sex with birth control, or same-sex intercourse. All of the sex stuff is really silly and antiquated.

Someone needs to start a “Mrs. Wilson” thread. Enjoyed it immensely.

She’s got some swagger. I like it.

Fiona could easily have played "Dolores Umbridge" in Harry Potter, and she would have done equally well as Imelda Staunton, if not better.

Is Mrs. Wilson only showed in Britain?

I've never heard of it here in the U.S.

I consider her to be in the same league as Smith, Dench and Mirren.

R21, it showed on PBS in the US. It may be on their passport service to stream or may re-run. Based on the actress Ruth Wilson's crazy family history.

I know her pretty well through work. She's great and has some great stories to tell. I'm really happy she show's up everywhere these days., PBS, Killing, Eve, SYFY Channel and more. She has a studio apartment in NYC in Chelsea that she uses while in the US. I'm glad to know her. Most Brit actors are really down to earth unlike their US counterparts.

Fiona seems like she'd be a lot of fun.

She plays an upper class straight woman, so very well.

I don't think she's British.

She was born in Ireland, R26.

Like Mountbatten?

[quote]Technically speaking, Catholicism does not condemn homosexuality,

Catholicism condemns homosexuality. Leviticus is accepted as the word of god by Catholics — it is a part of the catholic bible.

"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." Chapter 18 verse 22

"If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them." Chapter 20 verse 13

[quote] Leviticus is accepted as the word of god by Catholics — it is a part of the catholic bible.

We aren't fundamentalists.

Only fundamentalists (baptists and other crazies) believe that the bible is the literal word of God.

We (Catholics) believe the bible needs to be INTERPRETED. Which is the entire reason that we need interpreters (ie priests), and we don't believe (as the reformed Christians do) that one ONLY needs the bible and nothing else.

It’s a shame you studied Catholicism for so long and learned nothing about it. Committing homosexual acts is a sin. Period. Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2357 to 2359.

The only way a homosexual person can avoid hell is to either practice chastity, or heterosexuality.

Bootsy,

I know tons of gay priests. The Catholic church is full of gay people.

And as in any religious field where interpretation is part and parcel of the belief, there is a progressive wing within the church working on changing what the current "accepted" interpretation is.

You'll see it one day. It will be in our lifetime.

Post-Vatican II, the Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality is rather progressive—they acknowledge that it is innate and not a choice, which cannot be said for any of the holy rolling Protestant divisions. They only consider same-sex intercourse "sinful" because it doesn't result in procreation. They have this same stance on birth control and masturbation, which your average Catholic does not abide by. This why so many gay Catholics have historically joined the clergy, because, according to the church doctrine, engaging in gay sex violates their stance on sex; so instead of pretending to be straight, the idea is that gay men can live a chaste life in the church. Unfortunately this is also extremely unhealthy and results in sexual repression that surfaces in malignant ways, i.e. priests sexually abusing adolescent boys. I'm not saying I agree with this—it is extremely antiquated and stupid, but at the least, the church does not believe being gay is some devious choice people make.

R31 the Catholic church has never (at leas tin recent history) advocated for gay people to "practice heterosexuality." They don't endorse or believe in conversion like insane Pentecostals, and have never urged that gay people have heterosexual relationships. Their answer (albeit a shortsighted one) is chastity, hence why gay men have historically joined the priesthood. As R33 points out, we have unfortunately seen how well that's gone over. I think R32 is right in saying that the church will eventually change their attitude on this.

Fiona Shaw gave one of the hammiest performances ever seen in the dreadful “Black Dahlia.”

What a bunch of apologist nonsense in r32 to r34. It’s lovely that the Catholic Church says “being gay isn’t sinful.” But if you actually have homosexual sex, you’re going to hell.

That’s like saying, go ahead, be a fisherman. But if you actually catch any fish, I’ll shoot you. Yes, that’s a very progressive attitude toward fishermen!

Let’s admit the only reason the church says that having homosexual thoughts isn’t sinful is because if that were so, the entire priesthood would be innate sinners.

[quote][R31] the Catholic church has never (at leas tin recent history) advocated for gay people to "practice heterosexuality."

I didn’t say they did. I said that’s one of two ways homosexuals can avoid going to hell. The other is to be chaste. This is because the Catholic Church sees acting on one’s homosexuality as sinful and damned.

Catholics appropriated laws not meant for them in a language they didn't understand and so misinterpreted for their own power and control.

I never said I agreed with it R36. I am gay, was raised Catholic, and I think it's backwards and ridiculous. This is part of the reason I am not a practising Catholic. All I meant was that the religion is less hostile toward gay people than most Christian denominations. There are many, many other churches that wouldn't even let you attend if they knew you were gay.

My main point was that Catholicism is not sternly anti-gay, they're just anti-nonprocreative sex—which, again, I do not agree with—but that doesn't mean I think every tenet of the religion is trash. To say that is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. According to Catholic doctrine, straight couples using birth control is just as "bad" as two guys having sex—and I'd say 90% of straight Catholics use birth control.