Rachael Leigh Cook

Robin Bronk: If you had five minutes in the Oval Office with President Obama, what would you discuss with him?  What issue would you like him to know about?

Rachael Leigh Cook: I would feel guilty if I didn’t mention the war, the need for job creation and further avenues to advance green technology. But if I had five minutes, I would have to speak about Women Deliver (www.womendeliver.org), a conference I attended recently in D.C. focusing on Millennium Development Goal No. 5 — Improving Maternal Health.

I was shocked by the ramifications for the 20 million women who have no access to family planning or pre- and postnatal care. In developing countries, an estimated half a million women die per year die as a result of childbirth, and the statistics about infant mortality are very bleak as well.
This epidemic troubles me most because it is preventable.

RB: If you could give President Obama one piece of advice, what would that be?
RLC: I wouldn’t call it advice, more of a fervent hope. The word “idealism” is thrown around like a withering epithet these days, but many of us wholly disagree with that connotation. Your dreams of a better world are infectious and inspiring. Please continue to dream big, think big, and don’t let people whose lives are run by fear be the ones to steer our military or economy.

RB: If you could ask President Obama one question, what would that be?
RLC: What do you wish the American people could understand about your position as president and the terrific struggles that come with it?

RB: Would you ever consider a political career?
RLC: Yes. Right after I win a Nobel Prize, complete “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” volumes one through five, learn all the words to “Mack the Knife” and realize my dream of raising alpacas. You did say “consider,” right?

Rachael Leigh Cook began her career as a model at the age of 10 and also appeared in the famous anti-drug TV spot in which, armed with a frying pan, she bashed her way through a kitchen to show the disastrous effects of heroin.

When she reached L.A. in her early teens, Cook nailed her first audition (for the part of a budding entrepreneur in “The Baby-Sitters Club”). She divided her time between Minneapolis and Tinseltown, shuttling from school events to movie shoots with her mother in tow.

Cook’s star status crystallized in 1999, when she starred opposite Freddie Prinze Jr. in the Pygmalion retelling “She’s All That.” Her onscreen transformation from ugly duckling to ravishing beauty won several awards and made Cook a hot commodity in Hollywood. Plum follow-up roles included that of a troubled adolescent in Sylvester Stallone’s “Get Carter,” a frontier gal in “Texas Rangers” and the lead in the live-action version of “Josie and the Pussycats.”

Cook owns her own production company called Ben’s Sister Productions. She’s an activist who travels frequently to Capitol Hill and around the country to encourage public funding for the arts and arts in education.

Bronk is a seasoned Capitol Hill strategist and advocate. She started her career at The Creative Coalition, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group for the arts and entertainment industry, in July 1998. During her tenure as CEO, Ms. Bronk has taken The Creative Coalition from a New York-based entity to a national organization. www.thecreativecoalition.org