Prayers for Rachael. Mike Jue, the executive producer who had the original idea for the Photo Finish sci-fi pilot I worked with him on a few years ago, brought my attention to this story. It seems actress Rachael Farrokh, who is battling anorexia and whose weight has fallen to only 40 pounds, was among the actresses who responded to a casting call. She was invited to audition — a casting comment next to her headshot reads “Beauty! Looks like Jennifer Aniston” — but Mike doesn’t remember her actually showing up. I wasn’t around for the auditions. As Mike notes, according to reports she has been battling the disease for ten years. So the 2011 Photo Finish pilot would have occurred while she was on the middle of her brave ongoing fight. The whole thing is sort of a reminder of how interconnected all our lives are — how our stories bump up against and touch one another in amazing ways.

Rachael’s husband Rod posted this to GoFundMe yesterday (5/31):

This is Rod, Rachael’s husband. First and foremost, thank you for all your support! We started a GoFundMe account but because of all of the requests from around the world, we started this page on GivingForward. To be honest, we didn’t think $100,000 was in the picture for those out there to donate – we were grateful for any amount and of course if you’ve ever done something like this, at the start – $100,000 looked like a lot of money; however, after home health care and medical costs – we seriously underestimated those costs. So when the amount was reached we were overjoyed. But remember – we’re talking 3-5 years of recovery. This page was started for those around the world who want to donate – and we are so appreciative of everything – seriously! We wanted to share how fortunate we are to have you in our lives. We are grateful for the donations, the prayers, well-wishes and support. It has been our main priority to get Rachael the help she needs. We know this is a journey and process. This isn’t an overnight situation, it’s going to take some time. First an update on Rachael, we now have a wonderful Physiotherapist we are working with who specializes in eating disorders. We are all working with her to help Rachael get mentally prepared to go into an eating facility, but that’s going to take some time as she’s not mentally ready as of today. We are also working with doctors and others in the medical field to make this happen.

We were approved by Rachael’s doctor to receive home care; although some of you have expressed your opinions on this, you have to remember, we’re dealing with a physiological illness where we need to get her to the point where she is mentally able to go into a facility. So in the meantime, we are working with home care experts to treat her – these include her Doctor, nurse practitioner, dietitian, speech therapist, physical therapist, occupational therapist – and of course this medical team are going to administer an IV for dehydration as well as re-feeding here at home – so medically speaking, we are bringing the hospital to Rachael. (To read more and, if you wish to donate, click here.)

God’s blessing on Rachael and her husband Rod.