Issue Number 996 | Sarah Shahi | Advocate.com Sarah Shahi  |  | Advocate.com

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Sarah Shahi
Sarah Shahi won our hearts playing the ooh-la-la lesbian Carmen, Shane’s left-at-the-altar DJ girlfriend on The L Word. Now she’s winning our admiration for her post–L Word acting range: She made us laugh in her cameo as a vapid morning-show host in For Your Consideration, made Tony Soprano nearly see God in The Sopranos, and now makes criminals (and viewers) sweat as no-nonsense cop Dani Reese in the new NBC TV drama Life. The 27-year-old Iranian-Spanish-Texan -- a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader! -- checked in with The Advocate during a recent shooting break.
From The Advocate  November 6, 2007
Sarah Shahi

You show a lot of skin in the first episode of the series -- first when you’re putting on clothes after a night of anonymous sex with some dude, and later when you make your cop partner help you strip off your shirt and shower.
It’s all for the ratings. The shower scene? There was a cocaine explosion, and when cocaine gets in your eyes, apparently -- I don’t know this from experience -- it stings really badly and you just want to get it off you. Let’s be honest: If it were real life, I probably would not take my clothes off, but it’s network TV and we’d like to stay on the air, so I figured, Why not?

Well, it worked.
It worked -- there you go. See, you’re talking to me, so I got some kind of something out of it.

In 2006 you were number 66 on the Maxim Hot 100, but this year you were number 5 on the AfterEllen.com hot list. That means lesbians have better taste in women than straight men, right?
Of course! Lesbians do everything better.

Thanks for the endorsement! By the way, my gaydar went off when I saw your scene with that other woman cop in the new series.
Lieutenant Davis, played by Robin Wiegert.

Was my gaydar on-target about her?
No, the character’s married; she has children. I think you’re trying to create something that isn’t there.

Oh, wait, Robin Wiegert -- she played the lesbian-like Calamity Jane on Deadwood. I guess it’s delayed gaydar. OK, but what about the sexual tension between you and your partner Charlie Crews [Damian Lewis]?
I guess it comes into play without he and I knowing it -- it’s not the intention of these characters to have that feeling toward each other, at least in the beginning. If there’s to be anything between Dani Reese and Charlie Crews, I hope it just becomes tantalizing. I hope the audience never fully gets what they want from it, because then the imagination is over, you know?

Well, you left little to the imagination in the sex scenes you had with Kate Moennig (Shane) or Mia Kirshner (Jenny) on The L Word, nor the one with James Gandolfini (Tony) on The Sopranos. You can tell us -- who was the hottest?
Oh, you can’t ask that! The imagination is often wilder than the actual answer. Girls offer one thing, and then Gandolfini offers something very different. All three were great! [Laughs] 

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Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

  • Name: Sarah Hughes
    Date posted: 2008-09-21 3:34 PM
    Hometown: Wigan

    Comment:

    Hi Sarah Shahi my name is Sarah Hughes i am a lesbian are you a Lesbian please can i have your email and i want to get to know you more.


  • Name: Sarah Hughes
    Date posted: 2008-09-21 2:05 PM
    Hometown: Wigan

    Comment:

    Hi Sarah Shahi My name is Sarah Hughes and i think you are really pretty and sexy and please can i have your email address and do you have msn and i am a lesbian and i am 16 years old and i want know you more.


  • Name: azoz
    Date posted: 2008-09-02 7:26 PM
    Hometown: kuwait

    Comment:

    hey sweety well im 1 of ur fans n i really like u u so pretty n i wish 2 have ur email by the way im lesbian & i wanna know u more


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