Eliza Dushku wastes no time when she gets a chance to return to Boston.

On a recent weeklong trip, she filmed her part in the movie “Valediction,” went to a
Red Sox game, spent time with friends and made the rounds to see all her relatives.
On the day of this interview, she was in the car driving to visit her uncle before
heading back to Los Angeles.

“I love this city,” she said. “I will be back and living in Boston at some point.”

Dushku described “Valediction,” which also stars Ben Barnes, Brenda Fricker and
Sarah Roemer, as a contemporary psychological thriller.

“First and foremost, it is just a beautiful script,” she said. “It centers around this
young couple in a horrible car crash with their 6-year-old daughter. I sort of play the
other woman.” The film is due in theaters next year.

On July 22, Dushku returns to the set of “Dollhouse” to begin shooting the second
season of the Fox drama. Dushku is delighted the show, from executive producer
Joss Whedon, was renewed. She was returning from a trip to Uganda when she got
the word.

“When I landed in Boston, I turned on my phone. The first message that popped up
was from Joss and it said, ‘We’re back, kid.’ It was really kind of sweet to touch
down and get the news.”

“Dollhouse” struggled in its Friday night time slot but did well in DVR and online
viewing.

“It’s alive because of the fans and because people found the show. This show is
back because it’s a new era. It’s not just a Nielsen world any more. We really feel
like the show was starting to find itself. If we hadn’t gone back, it would have been
such a mean little tease. We found our rhythm, and we know what worked, we know
what didn’t work and now we get to really get dirty.”

Her company, Boston Diva Productions, is about to begin production on
“Mapplethorpe,” a movie about the famous photographer that will star her brother,
actor Nate Dushku. Director Ondi Timoner (“We Live in Public”) is attached to the
project.

“We have the support of the Mapplethorpe estate first and foremost, which is just
unbelievably valuable, and we really want to do this right,” Dushku said. “This has
been in our life for eight years now. We’re about four weeks away from starting to
bring in cast members. We’re definitely on the fast track.”

Dushku spent some of her time off from “Dollhouse” traveling to Uganda on a
socioeconomic tour with the group Global Exchange. While there, she saw firsthand
the plight of former child soldiers.

“It’s just remarkable, especially after living in Hollywood land,” she said.

She and boyfriend Rick Fox are putting together a video of their time there that they
hope to post soon on MySpace [website].

“We want to give people a better understanding of what we were doing there,” she
said. “I don’t think people realize how much they can contribute.”
The Hub is No. 1 in Dushku’s heart
by Roland Hansen
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Eliza Dushku shows off her Boston t-shirt on the Letterman show