What Jodie Reads

The New Zealand Woman's Weekly appeals to Shortland Street fans this week with cover girl Anna Jullienne explaining her "shock move" to Australia following her on-screen character Maia's exit from the popular soap.  It's really not that shocking that she's simply chasing her dream across the ditch.  Many of her fellow Shorty Street alums have made similar moves, and you never know... we might just see her playing a sexy American doctor in a new medical drama based somewhere in tropical South America soon like this guy .  Elsewhere in the mag, TV3's Nightline presenter Rachel Smalley speaks out about the importance of water safety - following a spate of tragic drownings around the country over summer.  She confessess a near-death drowning by a close family member led her to the pool with her son Finn at just three months old.  Along with the obligatory Royal story (this week it's Kate Vs Zara as "battling brides"), an Angelina to adopt ...

Every now and then a story comes along that touches your heart.  In July last year I caught a story on TV ONE's Close Up about Haiti earthquake survivor Nelsonian Emily Sanson-Rejouis and her daughter Alyahna.  They had both survived the massive earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010.  One-year-old Alyahna miraculously survived 22 hours trapped beneath the rubble of their Port-au-Prince apartment.  Now, I love a good story of survival (Castaway, Alive, 127 Hours) but, what broke my heart was the news that Emily's husband Emmanuel and two of her daughters, Kofie-Jade, 5, and Kenzie-Jaz,3, weren't as lucky and sadly lost their lives that day.  I wept.  Not only for the unfathomable tradedy of such an event, but for the incredible strength of this woman on TV speaking about the day she lost them, her grief and the miracle of Alyahna's survival.  She also spoke of her efforts to rebuild a school in her late-husband's h...