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Part one

First the disclaimer. This account is a record of what I saw and what I heard at the con. I write up notes but I certainly don't get everything down. Lucy is particularly hard for me to get because I enjoy watching her and listening to her and thinking about what she's said. So it's not unusual for me to be zoning out a bit, maybe remembering things she's said in the past or done in the past that's reminiscent of what she's just said or done and next thing I know, she's saying something that to me has come totally out of the blue. And I'm looking down at my notes with a tragic, stunned blazingly fast glance and left wondering what she's talking about. And of course, Lucy often DOES just say something out of the blue anyway, so it's possible I hadn't missed anything really, it just appeared to me that I had.

I do put some stuff in quotes when I write these up. The gist of them is USUALLY correct. But I don't write down all the words even for the stuff I put in quotes-I can't write that fast. So this is what I think she said, what I think I heard, sometimes it includes comments from people who are neither she nor I but people who are just talking around me and sometimes with the roars of laughter, appreciation and high level giddiness, it's a wonder I get anything down at all.

I reckon at some point, when I'm REALLY old, I'll just be making everything up.

Okay-here we go.

Lucy came out in jeans and a kind of grey sweater top with an overthing draped over her torso. I personally think she's WAY hotter and much sexier in this outfit than in her little girl's swimsuit bottom/fishnet stockings/chaps, but as one of my friends just this minute said to me, "Thus speaks the straight girl".

Lucy came out of "door number one" to HUGE roaring screams. SHE got a standing ovation.

It's always fun to see her after she's already done a show because well, we all have something to talk about then but also because she shares with us what didn't work and laughs over things that happened.

Lucy asked who had been to the show the night before and lots o' people threw their hands enthusiastically into the air, while screaming and stomping.

She told us that we had been a great audience the night before. And added, "I'm ripped this morning, let me tell ya."

She looked at us and smiled a high wattage smile and said in a somewhat fruity voice, "How lovely to meet you all." Then she declared, "We'd better start with questions-I'm brain dead". Sharon Delaney immediately jumped in with the first question which was, "Is that supposed to be something different?" Lots of laughs-seems people LOVE it when people who know Lucy tease her.

The first SERIOUS question to Luce was if she had any guilty pleasures. Lucy thought for a minute and then said, "Prisoner" to which the London audience yelled out, "Prisoner, Cell Block H". That's not the name it had when shown in New Zealand, so she started to explain what the show was about but people in the audience were saying they knew. Well, not all of us did but I've been informed that it is an old Australian "women in prison" TV series that was known as "Prisoner" in En Zed and "Prisoner, Cell Block H" in England. *I* had been thinking it was "The Prisoner" with Patrick McGoohan which is of course a very good show and would hardly be a "guilty pleasure". My local informant tells me "Prisoner" without the "The" has strong lesbian overtones. As the "women in prison" genre always does of course.

After we got all THAT settled, Lucy added, "Every so often I buy a whole bag of tabloid magazines. But I never buy one with a celebrity's kid on the front. 'Suri'. It's like branding the kids." She added that perverts would put them on the cover and/or maybe it was perverts who would buy them.

There was a question about if she'd ever had any Shazam moments. She thought for a bit. Then she said something about Shazam moments, adding, "I'd like to get through tonight without screwing up "Be My Girl".

And then she said, "This is a shazam moment. It's been really intense. This is day 4."

You know, this audience was one of the noisier ones I've ever experienced. After Lucy said, "This is day 4", there were conversations around me and folks were growling out the words, "Jet lag" to each other.

This audience didn't just take in Lucy's words, they felt that they had to interact with her words also-chew them out with each other and taste their meaning and then tag what Lucy had said to their own experiences.

A guy read a question from a piece of paper. I happen to be on a list where somewhere suggested to the list that this would be a good question to ask Lucy if anyone was going to the con. And now here it was! First the guy said that Lucy had said once that she and her best friend Marissa were going around on college campuses asking questions of the students. (I think there was something about age in there when she talked about it before.) The question was about what they were asking and how and where could we see the finished product.

Lucy broke into laughter and said that things hadn't gone real well on that project. "Marissa and I had the BIGGEST fight of our lives!"

I'm not sure if Lucy ever said what the project was but she did say that she and Marissa had approached it from different angles. They'd ask a question. Lucy said she would get all involved when the students would spill their guts out on camera. She said, "I'm going. . .(and here she put on an intense, somewhat open-mouthed listening face and made little affirmative and absorbed murmers in a 'Wow-keep going' tone of voice),
". . .Uhh. Uhhh. Uhhhh." But Marissa, when the students got intense, would say, "Nothing here-keep it light! Keep it fluffy!" and walk away. Which ticked Lucy off. Lucy imitated Marissa's voice, using a bit of a big east coast city voice.

"We didn't speak to each other for three weeks!" They have vowed to NEVER work together again.

Question: "What was your funnest or most mortifying moment on Xena?"

Lucy thought for a moment then started to laugh a bit. She said, "Tsunami. We were underwater for days."

ACK! I HAVE TO RUN TO THE AIRPORT! MORE LATER!

KT

(Just figure I've written up the usual whining disclaimer about how hard it is to get these things right.)

Question: "What was your funnest or most mortifying moment on Xena?"

Lucy thought for a moment then started to laugh as she said something like, "Oh, the one where we were in the water in the ship". Helpful folks yelled out the name of the ep, "Tusnami". She nodded and most likely only pretending she remembered, she repeated, "Tsunami."

"We were underwater for days. I felt bad for those kids who did 'Titanic'". She said she, Renee and Bruce were in the water only a few days while those kids were in the water far longer, for much of the film. Actually, Lucy claimed that Ted was there with them also, but he wasn't in that ep. (Unless he was snorkeling the whole time. And I wouldn't put it past him.)

She told the story she's told before about how the water was kind of tepid and there were rotting cabbages floating around in it and how she and Renee and Bruce had made a deal that the first one of them to get cranky, or rather, to SHOW that they were cranky, would have to pay the other two $5,000. (I think each.) And talked about how she and Bruce would wait until the camera was on Renee and then push those stinking cabbages her way so they'd float right by her.

"I said something sarcastic and sharp to an A.D." Then she demurred a bit and said it wasn't all that bad, just a little bit snarky. But indicated that this made her lose the bet. "And I never paid it." She gave her cackly laugh and shook her head and I think repeated that she'd never paid up. She may possibly have said she felt bad about that.

It's possible that there was a question something like did she realize while doing the show that it would mean so much to so many people, that we'd all still be so strongly engaged by it so many years after the show had ended.

And she gave the answer she always gives, "I was just feeling lucky to have a gig."

She added that she feels the fans who go to cons are not celebrating the show. Rather, "Fans celebrate the feeling of the show. I'm here because I've come to respect the great majority, 99% of the fans." She talked about our generosity in giving to charities. She said earnestly, "Share the love." And she talked about how we had become a community that gave each other support. "Cyber support".

We all basked in the glow of Lucy bragging on us. I don't remember, but I wouldn't be surprised if we applauded ourselves like mad-we usually do applaud ourselves at the slightest whiff of praise from one of the stars.

She was asked if she had met Renee before they worked together. I think Lucy said in answer that they met the first day of shooting. But I could be wrong--in the past, she and Renee have talked about first meeting at lunch I guess in L.A. because someone, the studio? Rob? wanted to have them meet before they started working together. I think they'd said the purpose was to see how they got along, if it looked like they would be able to work well together.

Lucy said, "Renee is younger than me. And we were working in my home town", explaining that she had some advantages over Renee's situation. When they met, "I looked down at her-WAY down. . ." We all giggled at Lucy pantomiming looking WAY down at an invisible Renee. Lucy said something along the lines of Renee being shy or diffident and how she came over to them on set in a mindful, careful, respectful kind of way. Lucy said, "She was practically kowtowing."

After that line, all I have written down in my notes are the words, "Shut up". I'm not sure if Lucy said she was saying that to stop Renee from being so obsequious or if, as she's said before, it only took Renee a few eps before she was over her awe of Lucy. So perhaps she was talking about Renee telling HER to shut up.

Next question, Lucy was asked if she minded that the music industry didn't take her seriously.

"I don't expect them to. And I don't care." She said singing was challenging for her and "The more challenging singing is makes it that much scarier. And therefore more awesome."

Next she was asked about being the first girl and the first granddaughter in her family. Was she treated like a warrior or a princess?

"First came the princess. Then came the warrior. At first my brothers thought I was real cute-then I became a pain in the ass. Then it was just about being funny. And lots of fighting."

She told us that her family was really witty and that's how you had to hold your ground with them. Then she told us that the kids did a thing they called "Razz making".

"You go, 'Nyah-nyah, nyah-nyah' right in their face." And she was poking and pointing with her hand at the mythical brother who had to take it. "If you touched one hair on his head then, rightfully, it was-BAAM!" and she threw a punch into the face of the nyah-nyaher. (It was a good looking, fast, big punch-grrl's still got her stunt fighting moves down.) "If there was no touch, you just had to take it. But if you touched them-you were meat."

She was asked how long it took to shoot the three in a bed scene from Ares' Farm.

"It took a long time. And it was a bit uncomfortable." She began to talk about Kevin, about what a tragedy his death was and how much he's missed. She told us he'd been a great sports player in New Zealand. She seemed to be indicating that he was a professional player?

She said that he was on the cusp of making it big (in Hollywood) with the film he'd been making when he died.

She said, "We'd do a kissing scene. And then say, 'No schwing.'" (Note: In the word schwing, the "w" is pronounced as a "v" in English.) "Totally and regretfully, it was non-sexual. Now that he's gone-I go 'DAMN!'"

Question: "How did you feel when you heard the last "Cut" on Xena."

"The last thing we shot was a fight sequence." Next my notes say either, "Dubbed on for ages" or "Doubled on for ages"

"The very beginning and the very last few episodes of any show are very taxing. You work 80 hours. You're running on empty. I went to the wrap party and I fainted."

"It wasn't the party you expected." (I'm not certain at this point if the "you" in that sentence refers to a generic "you" or if the "you" refers to the questioner and or to us specifically.)

I think she was then asked how she felt the next morning. "I don't think I woke up the next morning." She said that after you've worked on a show for so long, "You have to be rehabilitated back to life. On set, you give up all control. You're told what to eat." She talked in general about like being told what to wear and where to be when and other things like that. And that with the long hours and doing nothing but working and sleeping, "Your friends stop asking you out."

This con, we were back to having people come up to the mike to ask questions. A woman dressed as Xena was next on line. She said, "Hello, Lucy." Lucy looked at her and said, "Hello, Xena." Then she looked out at us and said, "Which is the real one? Good cozzie, mate!"

Xena's question was, "On Battlestar Galactica, did you know you'd be back?" (Perhaps Xena is getting a little antsy, waiting for the movie that gives her her resurrection, eh?)

Lucy said, "There was always a good chance she would."

A guy came up to the mike. Lucy asked him, "Were you the really vociferous guy from last night?" I think the guy said no. Lucy turned to us and laughingly told us "At the concert last night, this guy had been yelling out, 'FUN! FUN!' And this morning I thought, "Damn. He's right!"

Question: "When working on Xena, did you keep a journal? Will you write a book?"

"No, I did not keep a journal."

"Do you wish you had?"

"Nooooo."

"It would have been really boring. All the action was on screen-you saw it. If I wrote it, it wouldn't be saleable. It wouldn't have been of interest to anyone but a die hard fan."

Then she began to talk about an autobiography by Julie Andrews in which she said that Rex Harrison had farted. Lucy said that because of the way Julie Andrews looks and how she acts, "How odd it is to hear her saying something like that." Then she suggested, "But like me saying Kevin farted all the time", (wouldn't be near so surprising for people.)

And on that little spurt of methane remembrances, let us end part two of this report.

KT