Sheila Kuehl
When Kuehl was elected as a Democrat to the California Assembly in 1994 a Republican majority was seated for the first time in 20 years. This was due largely as an out-flowing of the enthusiasm stoked up by Newt Gingrich's strategy supporting Republicans for the Federal Legislature. Kuehl recalled "The Republican majority was quite a different kind of Republican, not a moderate, not a Rockefeller Republican. They were primarily Bible-thumpers and very right-wing. So it was not the most welcoming Republican group, though they loved Zelda Gilroy, and it was very difficult for them because they already liked me so much…. And to their surprise, we all got along very well. ...The Republicans were pretty horrible about LGBT stuff. They all virtually said stuff like, 'Well, they're all spawn of the devil, oh, but not you, Sheila….'"
Esha Deol
In 2004, Deol made her debut in Tamil cinema by playing a French teacher in Mani Ratnam's political film "Aaytha Ezhuthu" opposite Suriya. She earned critical acclaim for her performance. Sify.com defined her as "surprisingly fresh and sparkling". In order to prepare for her role, Deol learned nuances of the language with Mani Ratnam's assistant R. Kannan. After completing "Aaytha Ezhuthu", Deol started filming the Hindi version of the movie titled "Yuva". In "Yuva", Deol repeated the same role and was paired opposite Ajay Devgn. Prem Panicker of Rediff wrote "Esha Deol is the surprise package among the troika. While hers is the least developed character, she still manages to show flashes of her inherited acting genes." Taran Adarsh wrote "Esha Deol justifies her part, but her role doesn't demand histrionics either." Both movies were released on the same date but could not attain success. "Yuva" had a below average opening and flopped at the box office.
Deol finally got her breakthrough with Yash Raj Films' action film "Dhoom" opposite Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Uday Chopra and Rimi Sen. It was Deol's first action role and she was paired opposite Chopra. The film had a decent opening and became a hit at the box office, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing movie at the box office. Deol did not get much scope in the film but her performance earned her a nomination for the IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 6th IIFA Awards. Critics considered Deol and Rimi Sen's performances to be nothing more than beauties and their purpose was defined as providing sex appeal. Surjyakiran Das of Planet Bollywood wrote "It’s most fitting to mention actresses Esha Deol and Rimi Sen while discussing the music and choreography; they seem to turn up in the film only when the heroes feel like crooning a tune and shaking a leg with a loved one. Both actresses do convincing enough work in their roles, but their real purpose is to provide sex appeal." Rajesh Karkera wrote "Esha Deol and Rimii Sen only need to look beautiful in their limited presence in this sweat 'n' leather flick."