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Giovanna Mercuri.

In Giovanna Mercuri’s day job is an accredited mental health social worker, she visits clients in their homes. In her other role, she makes feature films and TV shows which she sees as an extension of her mission.

The singer, dancer, actor and former schoolteacher has produced, written, directed and acted in two features, Locked In and The Target, and is preparing to shoot her third, Fine Line, next year.

In between her own projects she directed Just Ruby, a feature scripted by Damien Leith and Eileen Stapleton.

The drama stars Leith as Irish singer Danny, who meets sisters Betty and Ruby Stone (Bonnie Ferguson and Danielle Rodney) while performing at a local pub in outback Nsw. Romance and drama ensue amid a crippling drought and the resurfacing of an earlier tragedy. Mercuri’s Locked In Productions produced with Leith and Stapleton.

“The story is an uplifting one,...

Joni Mitchell is “making good progress” after suffering an aneurysm this past spring, according to singer-songwriter Judy Collins. The latter singer reported the news via Facebook, citing a “close mutual friend” as her source. Mitchell is also “walking, talking, painting some [and] doing much rehab every day,” according to Collins, who says she’ll try her best to see Mitchell while visiting Los Angeles in the coming weeks. The singer, who related a story about another friend of hers who took years to recover from an aneurysm, also said that she...