MNN - Mother Nature Network

 

On an independent movie, low budgets tend to keep the carbon footprint low, too. "You end up being green when you make a movie for no money. There was no waste at all," says Dana Adam Shapiro, whose film "Monogamy" is in theaters. "You want water? Here's a hose!" he laughed, exaggerating only slightly how it was on the set. The film, about an engaged couple whose relationship is threatened when the man, a photographer (Chris Messina), becomes obsessed with a subject that hires him to take clandestine pictures of her in exhibitionist situations, stars Rashida Jones ("Parks & Recreation") as his fiancée Nat, a singer.

 

"For her, the issue is less about what he was doing away from her but just that he was away from her. The betrayal was negligence and not really what he was doing with his time. It's more about that: abandonment, negligence. Not that she would be happy to know that's how he's been spending his time but that wasn't the core issue," Jones emphasizes.

 

The role required her to sing, and she took on the challenge despite a fear of performing live. "It's just terrifying. It was kind of why I wanted to do it," she says, adding that she'd like to record an album one day but not until she has the time to focus on it properly.

 

This fall, Jones will appear in the bird-watching comedy "The Big Year" with Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin, and she has a cameo in the Justin Timberlake-Mila Kunis rom-com "Friends with Benefits," out in July. As for "Parks & Rec," she's "dating a lot" following a bunch of bad relationships. "It's my empowered sl*t phase," she laughs. "I'm sowing my oats."

 

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"I'm an avid recycler. I force all my family and friends to recycle," says Aisha Hinds, whose series "Detroit 1-8-7" had its season finale March 20. She's hoping it gets renewed for a second season because she loves her role. "I've played all different sides of the law on different shows that I've worked on but this is the first time I've played the boss. It's great to be the boss. I play the lieutenant so the work is mostly administrative. She tells them to go out in the field, and when you're on location in Detroit in the winter you know how special that part is," laughs Hinds. She's also on view in "Unstoppable" and "The Next Three Days," both now out on DVD.

 

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Johnny Pacar switched to energy saving light bulbs, "but I rarely turn on the lights because I have a lot of natural light in my place. I'm an avid recycler, I grow my own herbs on my rooftop, I go to the farmers market and buy organic stuff and I bring my own shopping bags with me," says the actor, who returns as Damon in "Make It or Break It" actor, who returns in the ABC Family series' second season March 28. "Every little bit helps."

 

This season, "a big storyline comes into play, something very interesting presents itself," Pacar hints. "My character will be singing a lot more," says the real-life musician. Off screen, he and co-star Cody Longo have a rock band called Forever and a Day.

 

Pacar will also be seen in a couple of upcoming films, "Fort McCoy," about a family that lives next to a POW camp for Nazi prisoners in Wisconsin during World War II, and "Playback," a thriller. "My character wants to be a filmmaker and I make this mockumentary about murders that happened in town years prior. I come to realize that my character is strangely connected," he says. "It'll be a good and scary one."

 

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"I'm very big on recycling and I always reuse bags," says Camille Winbush, who returns in the fourth season of ABC Family's "Secret Life of the American Teenager" on March 28.

 

"The show hits on so many topics that need to be talked about. The cast is great and we all have a lot of fun together. My character is kind of a know-it-all so it's fun to be that kind of smart-alecky, bossy person," says Winbush, who plays Lauren on the show. "I try not to be like that," she says, confessing, "But sometimes I am."

 

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Tune in: Pelicans in the Australian Outback? It might sound strange, but every ten years, when desert turns lush from rain, the water birds show up, thousands of miles from their coastal habitat. Scientists endeavor to explain this migratory conundrum in "Outback Pelicans," premiering on PBS Nature March 27.

 

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