1. SNVIEWPOINT SHEPPARTON NEWS, MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2015 11
Emily Browning
Picture: EPA/Warren Toda
Today’s Birthday is
Australian actor Emily
Browning (1988-).
Browning is best known for her
award-winning performance in
Sleeping Beauty and Lemony
Snicket’s A Series of
Unfortunate Events.
As opposed to most child
actors, Browning’s start came
almost by accident.
She was spotted in a primary
school production by a
classmate’s father who had
experience in the industry.
Her parents were wary to sign
their daughter to an agent, but
Browning soon showed her
talents in the Australian TV
movie The Echo of Thunder
(1998).
She cut her teeth further in
Australian soaps, children’s
shows and cop drama Blue
Heelers before her big film
debut in Billy Connolly’s The
Man Who Sued God (2001).
Browning won an Australian
Film Institute Award for her US
film debut in Ghost Ship (2002)
and later joined Heath Ledger
and Orlando Bloom in the
remake of Ned Kelly (2003).
Worldwide fame came her way
soon after when cast as co-
lead in the film adaptation of
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of
Unfortunate Events (2004).
However she found living in
Los Angeles for nine months
with child actors, who had
never gone to a normal school,
disconcerting. She returned to
Melbourne to finish high school
and considered a career other
than acting.
Well over a year after her
graduation, she was back in
the States in front of the
camera for US horror film The
Uninvited (2009).
She turned down the lead role
in the Twilight saga, but has
worked steadily since 2010.
She had roles in Pompeii
(2014) and God Help the Girl
(2014).
Browning played the wife of
one of the London gangster
twins the Krays in biopic
Legend (2015), in what she
called her most complex
female character yet.
She lives in Los Angeles.
Let’s keep conversation going
elaine.cooney
@sheppnews.com.au
ELAINEELAINE
COONEYCOONEY
‘‘White Ribbon Day gets
everyone taking about dom-
estic violence, but we should
be talking about it every
day.’’
When domestic violence
survivor Lani Brennan loo-
ked me in the eye and said
those words, I felt a massive
pressure.
I knew she was expecting
me to step up to the mark as
a journalist and continue
the conversation year-
round.
And I do so as much as
possible, but I’m also aware
that by the media not only
opening the lid on domestic
violence, but shaking the
contents out on the pages of
our newspapers, on our tele-
vision screens and our air-
ways, it may saturate our
minds to the point we say
‘‘enough to the media
reports’’ instead of ‘‘enough
to the violence’’.
While I will continue to
report and empty every little
piece out of that container, I
reached saturation point last
week.
My friends and colleagues
looked at me in disbelief
when I admitted that I did
not watch Sarah Ferguson’s
Hitting Home documentary.
One of my girlfriends has
sent me several texts to ask if
I’ve watched it yet because
she is bursting to talk about it.
Another told me she
wanted to host an art exhi-
bition about male violence
against women — and her
ideas were powerful.
This was all because she
had enough of women being
killed by their male partners
— ‘‘That’s more than one a
week now’’ she said on the
brink of tears.
Over a few glasses of
wine, my friends began dis-
cussing past abusive rela-
tionships, and no-one
batted an eyelid . . . there
were no gasps, hugs or
empathic looks, it — sadly
— was just a regular topic.
And I believe the media —
whether it is overdoing us or
not — is playing a huge role
in making such conversa-
tions easy.
I then wondered why I felt
such pressure from Lani’s
comment because we were
already talking about dom-
estic violence every day.
I decided to make note of
how many times the issue of
violence against women was
discussed in my daily life.
In the newsroom, canteen
and at the water cooler, the
topic was mentioned several
times every day, so I marked
off how many times it was
raised outside of work.
I was pleasantly surprised
that there is at least one tick
on every day since I spoke
with Lani on November 26.
I can’t take credit for initi-
ating all of these conversa-
tions — actually I rarely
started them following my
saturation point.
Every conversation on the
topic was meaningful and I
believe this openness will
go a long way to help
decrease family violence.
Such conversations bring
what is happening behind
closed doors out in the pub-
lic arena, which makes
speaking about the issue as
frequent as the number of
emotional, physical and sex-
ual assaults women face
every day.
This transparent approach
has helped me to have that
difficult conversation with
friends who I fear are being
abused by their partners at
home.
Before the media lifted the
veil on domestic violence, it
was much harder to ask
women if they were suffer-
ing abuse at home — I could
barely get the words out.
Now they flow as if I have
just asked them if they would
like black or Earl Grey tea . . .
and that alone is worth
reaching saturation point.
● Elaine Cooney is a News
journalist.
Probe over death and overdoses
Beware: Police release a picture of pills thought linked to the death of a man at
the Stereosonic music festival in Adelaide on Saturday.
IF YOU WANT TO BE 100
PER CENT CERTAIN IN
RELATION TO ILLICIT
DRUGS, IF YOU WANT TO
BE SAFE, THE MESSAGE IS
CLEAR — DON’T TAKE
THEM.
— NICK XENOPHON
Picture: AAP/SA Police
ADELAIDE: Police are investigat-
ing if pills taken by a teenager who
died at the Adelaide Stereosonic
music festival were linked to drugs
taken by two other people who
remain in a critical condition.
The 19-year-old man died in hos-
pital on Saturday, just a week after
pharmacist Sylvia Choi, 25, died of a
suspected drug overdose at the festi-
val’s Sydney leg.
Two other festival goers at the
Adelaide event, a man, 20, and a
21-year-old woman, were in a criti-
cal but stable condition in hospital
yesterday.
Police Superintendent John De
Candia said officers were frustrated
that despite repeated warnings, trag-
edy had struck again.
‘‘I specifically said before this
event, police did not want to be in
the position of advising a family of
such a tragedy,’’ he said.
‘‘This is the worst possible out-
come for them and the wider com-
munity.’’
He said police investigating the
teenager’s death would look at the
origin of drugs found in his posses-
sion and if they were linked to those
taken by the two other people in
hospital.
At the Adelaide event, six people
were evicted, 34 were refused entry
after being detected with drugs, two
were detained for drunken behav-
iour, 23 were issued with drug diver-
sions and 34 pills were seized.
At Melbourne’s Stereosonic event
also on Saturday, 60 people were
arrested for drug-related offences.
The festival deaths have sparked
calls for drug testing services to be
allowed at Australian events, so
users know what they are taking.
The mother of a Melbourne man
who died after taking drugs at a Vic-
torian music festival in 2012 has col-
lected 33 000 signatures so far in her
Change.org campaign for drug test-
ing services at festivals.
‘‘Until we wise up and accept the
reality that drug testing services are
the only way forward, kids like my
son and the most recent man in
Adelaide — another mum’s poor
son — will continue to die,’’ And-
riana Buccianti said.
Superintendent De Candia said
such services were a matter for gov-
ernments.
‘‘If you want to be 100 per cent
certain in relation to illicit drugs, if
you want to be safe, the message is
clear — don’t take them,’’ he said.
South Australian independent
senator Nick Xenophon wanted to
know what duty of care the organis-
ers felt they had to the young people
at the festival.
‘‘I have heard from people whose
children went to this event . . . that
there were people snorting drugs off
people’s foreheads . . . that there
were so many people that were com-
pletely out of it,’’ he said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
sent his condolences to the Adelaide
man’s family, after he announced
$300 million in new funding for
treatment, prevention and education
to tackle the ice scourge.
SA Opposition Leader Steven Mar-
shall said pill testing would send a
dangerous message to young people
that drug taking was safe when it
was not under any circumstances.