September 1st 2002: OMG, its been a while since the last update! Anyways I've added 4 new pictures to gallery eighteen. The last pic is somewhat bizarre but ohh well.

Also I found this interesting article on charisma-carpenter.com, that i thought would be a good read for you guys

Charismatic For The People

First she was the bitchy cheerleader in Buffy, but now Cordelia Chase is ascending to new heights on Angel. In an exclusive interview with Impact, Charisma Carpenter tells John Mosby why � despite the rumours � she won�t be leaving the show any time soon.

In her time, she�s faced down demons, stood up to vampires and tackled the merciless tragedies of being caught wearing last seasons fashion, but it�s fair to say that Cordelia Chase has had her toughest year on Angel. The actress who plays her has also found that tackling an army of expectant fans is just as daunting as any supernatural nemesis. She�s just come off the stage from an appearance at the Homecoming Convention in Glasgow and it�s clear that though she�s enjoying the experience, it�s not something she�s particularly used to. Tony Head and James Marsters might be natural raconteurs, but Charisma finds it amazing so many people have turned up to meet her. That can be daunting. After all, this isn�t performing behind the mask of a character, this is being �yourself� and a thousand eyes focus on your every move and answer.
"They�re here to see Charisma talk about Cordelia. What�s that like? Strange. I did have to say yesterday �You do realise this is just a character right?�. I was probably going to say that I�m not into the character as much as they are, probably, but that�s not true because I live the character all the time and make decisions based on my characters interests, choices on her behalf. But I go home at night and I�m Charisma. I get on the floor with my dogs, or be with my man, or my family and that stops. It�s a job. I�m paid to do that," she admits. "A lot of my personal life has been narrowed down to a very small quarter of my pie, but I like to take time off and be me. But I do understand that I have to come, I have to show up and be, to some degree, the something they are expecting. I want to look my best, I want to look somewhat stylish, have my lipstick on and be in order...because I think that�s what they would want. Maybe they just want me to be me, but this is me. It�s like, you don�t go to the Oscars in your tennis shoes. I feel I owe it to them to look my best."

Though she speaks at length about her enjoyment of the show itself, she also fully admits she can find the pace tiring and relentless. The show has a tight schedule that can vary between being mentally tough and physically exhaustive. It�s fair to say that on such a good day it can be hard work but great fun to be on such a show with this level of attention.
"I still feel that�s really the way it is. But the good thing about being on TV and being on a show that has momentum...it was smooth going, coming over from the success of Buffy and a well-oiled machine is always better to work on. Sometimes there is so much work to be done on an episode that we have to go to a second unit to pick up other stuff. Often the people working on the second unit are just �day-chequers' - and so then it�s not smooth and things take a little longer. It�s all very stop and start. Sometimes good days are harder just because you woke up that way...sometimes it�s just a word that proves difficult, or you have the giggles...there are lots of us doing scenes and everyone, once in a while, has their �moments�."
Though Buffy has continued to be in the public eye (with outstanding episodes such as Once More With Feeling getting the critical attention), it has come as something as a surprise to see that Angel has not been getting the same kind of promotion � despite the fact that it has recently been arguably stronger of the two series overall. This would seem to have some connection to the animosity that was evident last year when Buffy migrated to UPN and The WB held onto Angel. That stopped any overt crossovers between the two shows, but it also has affected the way The WB promotes the programme, or rather doesn�t. Last year the show was put on Monday nights in the US, far from a prime placement for the show. It was partnered with 7th Heaven, a show that was hardly an obvious stablemate. Extra episodes of Angel were scheduled (effectively giving one episode and one prominent repeat each week) and then suddenly dropped without explanation. For over a month, Angel was pre-empted by another WB show called Glory Days. That show was pretty much a ratings disaster, but by the time this was confirmed, Angel and his team had been off the air for over a month. Momentum had been lost and a serious recap was needed. So what happened to the hellspawn? Just why had The WB made such decisions about the scheduling of a show with such an obvious fan-base?
"Yeah, what was that about? I don�t get it! I don�t know what�s happening...it�s all a WB thing. I was shocked. I just don�t know what�s happened with the relationship with The WB, but the message I�m getting as an actor � not from any one person or any face to face engagement - is that (the show) could use a little support. There�s no advertising, there�s no billboards for Angel. They only advertised our show on 7th Heaven (the hour before) and then it�s sparse. They are really behind the other shows like Gilmore Girls, but for some reason they don�t do our show. They do advertise Charmed. I don�t understand it but I try not to take it personally," Charisma shrugs, then adds "I wondered about that. Especially with the pre-empting with Glory Days. The rumour-mill was that Glory Days was being cancelled, that they had five episodes that they had paid for and weren�t going to air. They wanted to put it in our time-slot because it made more sense at that hour and give a big boost with 7th Heaven in front of it. This obviously isn�t my forte, so I can only speculate about it."

The end of this season saw Cordelia being summoned by The Powers That Be to another realm and supposedly leaving this existence forever. Naturally, while the ascension may have looked angelic, it actually required some serious harness work for the actress. So far from heavenly, was this a painful experience?
"No, it was probably my best experience in a harness!" she laughs. "The worst experience I�ve ever had was actually on Buffy. We had to be strung up by our feet (for the second season episode When She Was Bad). All the blood goes to your head. It took an incredibly long time to shoot that scene and we had to remain strung up between takes. There was five of us on this long metal bar. That was the most painful experience I�ve ever had. But that was when I was more na�ve and I thought this is what I need to do. Now I�d be �Get me out of this, please!� I�d be less co-operative!"

Ask anyone who works on Mutant Enemy shows and almost no one has a bad thing to say about the head honcho Joss Whedon. They often talk about his inspirational ideas and personality. However, though Charisma admits that she has enormous respect for him and all the work he�s done, she isn�t as close to him as many of the other actors who perform on his shows.
"Y�know, I really don�t know Joss all that well. He�s closer to some other actors than he probably would be me. We have a more stand-off relationship. By that I mean, I don�t engage in his level of conversation because I don�t banter, I don�t do those quips. I�m sort of his audience. When he�s around I feel inspired...to shut up and listen. That�s my inspiration," she admits. "I�ve been on the set where he�s written an episode and he is pacing and the sound guy comes up and says �What are you thinking about?� Joss just replies: �Oh, third season, sixteenth episode!� He�s incredibly intelligent but still young though. He�s not one of those cerebral recluses. He engages, he�s goofy, he�s silly, he plays practical jokes yet he�s very devoted. That�s a difficult thing to balance, a formula to have. He�s passionate about it. I know he�s in love with his wife and he balances all that. I know his father worked in television, so maybe that�s something he picked up on. To be honest, in my little scope of life, how I contribute to the show, it�s extremely limited compared to his. There are times when I think I�m going to break. It�s demanding. It�s hard work. There are long hours and you are spending a lot of time with people who are a replacement family. Sometimes you�re reciting monologues thiiiiiiiiiis long at 4:00am and it�s cold. It can be very hard. In that sense it�s not glamorous. But I love it."

Given her exit at the end of the season � and her disappearance for several pivotal episodes this year � there was speculation that Charisma would not be returning to the show and was dealing with problems off-set. She says that�s not true and confirms that when the series returns, she�ll be back too.
"We start shooting again in July. Oh yeah, I�m contracted for the whole of next season � as far as I know. It�s funny...Joss said he heard that I was leaving the show, and the way I went out as this season ended, I was kinda having a stroke, dead on the floor for a second wondering! I told Joss I wasn�t leaving and asked him if there was something I don�t know! I�m actually contracted for another two years."
Though on the show Cordy was off comshukking with the Groo, it was said that (the ironically entitled) The Groomsmen (a comedy that Charisma shot last year in South Africa) was the reason the actress took time off from Angel. Charisma corrects this saying that she was just taking a break and that work on The Groomsmen was completed some time ago.
"No. The Groomsmen was a film I was doing last year in Africa. I wasn�t there to shoot the film, just to visit my boyfriend (at the time). They hadn�t cast a part and I said I�d do it. The episodes I took off (this season) were just a holiday. I�m kinda glad you asked about the film because it�s been misstated on the Internet and some press have said I was the lead actress in it. I�m not. I�m playing the girlfriend of one of the lead characters. My ex-boyfriend is in the film and he narrates it. It follows and tracks him. I play the other guy's girlfriend. It�s basically about a wedding and all the shenanigans that go on between the bridesmaids and the groomsmen and �one wanting the other one who doesn�t want that one� It�s a comedy and it�s hilarious. It was at Cannes and I think it�s just found a distributor. The interest in that from my fans has been very flattering."

The immediate future means more work for Angel Investigations in LA (actually Stage 7 at Paramount Studios) That success has meant little time for her to capitalise on the attention the show receives, though this summer she�s actively tried to make the most of her profile.
"I�m back to filming Angel in July. You have to have a good agent and a willing actor. I�ve never been willing in the past to work over the summer. Over this summer I�ve been very anxious to do that. I�ve had some auditions. I�ve had an offer that I may still do. There was one film that I wanted to very much be a part of but that probably won�t happen. It�s a better idea to start auditioning around January and February. It depends on the load of work at the time. I�m really a one-meal-at-a-time, I don�t do combination platters very well. I do better when I focus on one thing."

Cordelia Haven: http://www.truly-immortal.com/cordy