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And now, Day 2 of the con.

I was a little late today and missed the start of David Taylor's talk, as well as an Ares music video. (It happened to be our very own Xedra's "Anything Ares can do, Xena can do better" -- congratulations, Xedra! )

When I walked in, David was talking about the fact that he now works for a company that makes industrial paper bags, "because, of course, what else would a former child star do?" I got the impression he's not acting anymore, but he plays the guitar. He has been married for a couple of years; he and his wife have no kids yet, but three cats and two dogs.

David was asked about his interaction with Lucy on X:WP was different from H:TLJ (he was in Hercules and the Amazon Women). He said he had no interaction with Lucy on that, but had acted with her before on "Black Stallion." One big difference in general was that the interaction on Xena was mainly with women and on Hercules with men.

Question: How did he explain to his boss where he's going (to the con)? He said he was totally upfront but very embarrassed. His boss was totally cool with it.

Was that really his hair in the Solan eps? No, mostly extensions. He said that after seeing an episode his father said, "Who's that girl?" His comment: "Thanks dad, you just cost me an invitation to a rap party."

That was it and David left after a very nice ovation (to sign autographs). The person sitting next to me told me that he hadn't said anything particularly earth-shattering during the part I missed. He told an funny anecdote about how in his death scene, he and Lucy used to chat between takes and then once the camera rolled, Lucy would start screaming which was tough on his eardrums.

Then, after some more music videos (including one whose co-creators include two other XOC'ers -- ddfin and Jinx's Minx), it was time for...

RENEE O'CONNOR!

Renee started with a "weird story about Boogeyman II" -- there was a scene where her character, Dr. Ryan, goes down into the basement and gets electrocuted and she's screaming. She later found out that at the very same time her daughter woke up from her nap and screamed inconsolably for 20 minutes. "You always know there's a connection between mothers and children but it's so striking to know that at the same time, she woke up from this weird nightmare."

Question: What is Miles doing now?

Renee: "He's not making any movies. He's very much into picture-taking." She said that his pictures always come out topsy-turvy and it reflects his view of the world which is "flipped."

She said she has been writing a lot, including writing a film. Also, "I've been writing about my childhood, and it's hilarious. My dad ended up with this wild set of crazy antics. In our garage was this shiny red Porsche and he treated it like a race car. Raced around a square, eventually a cop car would pull us over. Stepfather would flip his wallet open and he had this fake deputy's badge, and every time he showed it he would get away with it. Ever since then I have had an aversion to shiny red racecars. When I was 16, one day the race car was not in the garage. My uncle called and said, 'Your brother totaled the car.' And I was, 'YES! The deathtrap is gone!'" They then took the brother out of town for the weekend to get him out of teh way of the father's wrath.

The next question was about Army Wives. Renee asked, "How much did Katherine tell you?" The questioner said, "She said you were the aggressive one."

Renee: "I have never been the aggressor before. I mean, I don't think I seduced Xena -- she seduced me. [laughter and cheers from the audience] Did Katherine tell you I wanted to explore my sexuality? [laughs] To me, exploring my sexuality is dancing at the Roxy in front of this crowd. This whole thing was Katherine's idea and she pushed it." She also added something about wanting to see Katherine write a really aggressive scene.

Question: "This question was asked of Lucy in Chicago and I'll ask it of you -- of all the 6 seasons of Xena, what was the best kiss?"

Renee: "The best kiss in all 6 seasons? Well, I think Ted Raimi is pretty hot. [laughter, groans] So, between him and Lucy, it's a tossup."

Audience member: "Lucy said it was you."

Renee: "She did? Well, I'm gonna say Ted. Funny story -- the day before we were supposed to kiss, Ted had been eating onions and I said, Ted, don't worry, I've been eating garlic."

She was asked about similarities between her and Gabrielle and asked people to name some of Gabrielle's qualities. "Spiritual? Yes. Sentimental? Yes. Falling in love easily? No." She also said she was "bouncy and giggly."

Steve Sears, who was standing by the side of the stage, said, "You can cook with her juices." Renee didn't get that at once -- it was repeated twice and she finally had to come up to Steve for him to tell her up close. She laughed and then said, "Speaking of her juices, let me introduce Lucy."

LUCY LAWLESS

Lucy looked great (she was wearing a blue pantsuit -- don't know if there are pictures posted already).

She greeted the crowd and remarked on the fact that there more men in the audience. "We're growing."

The first question asked her to retell the story of how she got some spilled makeup on the back of her pants just before the Chicago concert, and Renee had to clean it off for her. So she did. She was asked about Battlestar Galactica and said that she was not going to give out any spoilers. Then, don't know what prompted this but she told a fairly long story about how she had a collision with a deer in her Prius (she thinks the deer was all right; "being hit by a Prius is like being hit by a bulldozer made out of cake") and while it's being fixed she has been given a "monster truck" as a replacement.

The next at the microphone was a young woman who said that she and her friends from the Canary Islands, Spain wanted to help a friend fulfil a dream but need her cooperation. She asked Lucy to give the friend a hug and a kiss. Lucy told the girl to come up and hugged and kissed her while her friends took pictures. Later, another fan asked her (I think -- her voice was rather hoarse and not very audible) why she couldn't do that for all fans. She explained that there were security issues and unfortunately they encounter some strange people.

She talked about how fans have rallied around Kevin Smith's family, and mentioned that Jennifer Ward-Leland is selling the Ares costume. She said she often thinks of Kevin when doing those singing gigs, she asked him for advice about going up onstage and singing before an audience and "he helped demystify it for me."

After that Renee came up.

LUCY AND RENEE

Question: Does it bother your sons that you have such a large lesbian following?

Lucy: "They wouldn't mind unless I minded. I don't teach them to hate people just for being people." (Renee: "Good answer!")

A woman who later said she was a singing teacher told her she was "getting better, I didn't like it when you were using the whiskey voice." She then asked, "If you were offered a part in an A movie, would you take it?"

Lucy: "No. I hate A movies. I've turned down several. [laughs] Of course I would unless there was something unpleasant about the part."

A fan came up who said Lucy had babysat his sons as a teenager. He showed her photos and Lucy kissed him.

They were asked about their favorite costumes. I didn't catch what Lucy said. Renee said her least favorite was the first Gabrielle costume -- "I would trip over the long skirt." The bare-midriff ones could be a problem in cold weather.

Q: How would you have ended Xena?

Lucy: "In a trailer park, settled down, lots of dogs --"

Renee: " -- marshmallows roasting on an open fire --"

Lucy: "Beer cans all around... Kind of like Betty Page."

The next question was a guy who said, "I like watching Xena in just my socks. Do you think that's weird? Because my wife sure does." I did a total double take on that -- like, OMG, a perv! -- and then it turned out to be Ted Raimi, sticking his head out from behind the curtain where he was waiting his turn. Lucy said something like "Ted, you're an ass and you always will be."

Our very own MartineXena asked, "Suppose all of us fans were sitting at a campfire and you two showed up -- what would you do to surprise us?"

Lucy: "We're not doing any of that fan fiction stuff, if that's what you mean."

Question: "Several years ago, a crazed fan asked Renee O'Connor a question at a convention. So turnabout is fair play. What was it like to kiss Renee O'Connor?" (Took me a few seconds to figure out that she was referring to when Lucy was at the con disguised as a fan.)

Lucy (leaning forward): "It was musky and deep. [laughs] No, that's fanfiction again. How do I describe it?"

Renee: "It was amazing!"

Lucy said, "I'll tell you about the worst kiss I ever had" and talked about kissing an old aunt whose eyes were rheumy and a drop of liquid fell from her eye as Lucy was kissing her on the cheek.

The next person at the microphone said that apparently Lucy likes to use the word "truckers," and so she wanted to give Lucy some "trucker" T-shirts -- they were handmade T-shirts that said things like "Truckers make better lovers," "Keep on trucking," "Truckers do it in shifts," etc. -- I guess Katherine's joke caught on after all. Lucy said that it had started when she said "Come to the concert smelling nice, not like truckers," and it has just caught on -- Katherine Fugate has picked it up and keeps texting everyone saying "Keep on trucking."

Someone asked them to comment on the Coffee Talk discussion in which Renee said she didn't know her sexuality until she worked with Lucy. Renee explained that it was because Xena was a character who was so comfortable in her sexuality.

Lucy: "What made you think I was 'comfortable in my sexuality'? The fact that I was walking around in that outfit?"

Renee: "Yes!"

Lucy: "I was so embarrassed the first two weeks walking around in this little short skirt!" She said she eventually got used to it -- "it's like being a stripper, right, gals?"

With that they wrapped up and received a long standing ovation.

TED RAIMI

Some people left after Lucy and Renee wrapped up, and Ted good-naturedly remarked that "it's always like this" -- a full house for Lucy and Renee and not quite so full when he's on.

This time around he didn't talk much about his role on Xena at all and only took a few questions. Most of his time onstage was taken up by a skit of a mock audition -- he said he was going to show people what it was like to be an actor and a producer. Two people volunteered to be "the producers" and got to sit on chairs on stage; the third was Steve Sears. Then he called for six "actors," three men and three women. One of the volunteers was our very own Meg the Tramp.

At first Ted and the "producers" had some funny back-and-forth about what the budget for the "movie" should be. One said "$10" and Ted said that's more like a TV episode. The guy asked, "Can you shoot a TV episode for $10?" and Ted said, "In Bulgaria you can." The "producer" then said, "I saw 'The Man with the Screaming Brain' and that looked like it was made on a $10 budget." Ted pretended to look hurt.

The "actors" were split into male/female pairs and each had to audition by reading a deliberately hokey script in which the pilot discovers that the plane is about to go down but then saves the situation. The stewardess is the love interest. I think Meg was definitely the best of the women who read, but unfortunately the guy who was with her was kind of lackluster. When the producers were asked to pick two "actors," Steve asked, "Are you sure we can't get Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor?" and Ted said, "quite sure." The winner was a pair in which the guy was in costume as an ancient shepherd with a staff, even though one of the "producers" said she had a hard time seeing him as a pilot in that costume.

Ted then explained, "This is about 10% of the humiliation actors actually go through." Someone asked how he gets through the nervousness of going through auditions. He said, "Eventually you become so humiliated and beaten down, it doesn't matter anymore -- you say, 'There's nothing else you can do to me.'"

RJ Stewart and Liz Friedman

Liz: We figure, because we can't write anything --

RJ: She means because of the strike.

Liz: We figured that we'd let you ask the questions.

Questin to RJ: Rob says you're the one who wanted to keep Xena dead.

RJ: "Rob is such a good guy. Yes, it was my idea." He explained that many great myths end in tragedy -- the death of the hero, in spite of all the good things she had done. Also, the series was about sacrifice for friendship, and there is no greater sacrifice than that.

Liz: "You'd better check your car for explosives before you leave."

Another questioner said that FIN seemed to be validating vengeance -- the 40,000 souls will not be released unless they are avenged.

RJ: "To me, it was about sacrifice. When Xena started out in SOTP and she's burying her armor, she's so torn about her villainous past. It all became about sacrifice -- sacrifice for her beloved Gabrielle, but also for mankind." (paraphrasing a bit)

Question: How do they feel about their portrayal on the Hercules ubers? (Actually that was for Liz only, RJ was not in those)

Liz said that of course it was great to played by Hudson Leick, but the portrayal captured her habit of fidgeting a lot. "I really do fidget and to see that onscreen was an excruciating horror."

Some discussion of "The L-Word" -- Liz says she's hooked on it but it's a really bad show. "The thing about Xena, and RJ and I are biased, but we think it was a really good show."

RJ recalls being told, I think by studio people, "You're writing those scripts much better than they have to be. They don't have to be so good." Liz said the feeling was that it's a syndicated action show, no one cares about the writing as long as people get hit over the head.

To Liz: Was she disappointed that Xena and Gabrielle never kissed?

Liz: "No, not really."

RJ: "I know Steve is."

Liz: "Deeply." Then, on a serious note, "No, I think we did what was right for the show."

Question: What was it like being the only out person on the staff and was it a problem?

LF: "The only out person, as opposed to the hundreds of closeted persons? ... Steve? [laughter] I assure you, I mock because I love." She said being gay was never an issue and she was always open about it, even wearing a "Queer Nation" jacket in her first week at work. She also said, "I was the one who assured everyone that no one would ever think Xena and Gabrielle were gay."

RJ said that initially when speculation about Xena and Gabrielle being lovers began on the Internet, Liz didn't like it. Liz said she was worried that the show would have to backtrack from it and work too hard to get away from it. "Ultimately of course we ran head first with it."

At some point (not sure about the order since I didn't write down this part) someone asked about the "Alexander the Great episode" that he and Eric Gruendemann talked about in the Fallen Angel commentary. RJ explained that it was just a practical joke and he never thought it would actually end of on the DVDs.

Question: Did Hudson Leick play Callisto the way RJ envisioned her?

RJ: Once Hudson came in to audition for the part, everyone knew she was going to be the one. She was scary -- not the way some actors are, but scary in character.

Question: Why haven't they created another great show like X:WP?

Liz: "You mean, are we too lazy to do it? It doesn't just happen. A lot of things had to come together for X:WP to be created. If Vanessa Angel hadn't called in sick then Lucy would not have gotten the part of Xena. If wasn't for the fact that "Vanishing Son" had a one-hour slot after Hercules and no one was watching it, and it was canceled but they still had that one-hour slot to fill because they had a contract for an extra year, the studio wouldn't have suggested doing a show about Xena. So it took a lot of coincidences at different steps of the way to make X:WP possible. To some extent, it was a miracle."

Our own elsie austin asked, "Was Gabrielle meant to be a warrior?"

RJ didn't initially quite "get" the question -- he thought that she meant in the sense of predestination or something. elsie clarified that she meant, was it the right path for her.

RJ: "Maybe in a perfect world, she would have fulfilled her calling doing something more peaceful. But as it is, she was a fabulous warrior."

Question: When did the relationship of X & G become central to the show?

RJ: "It was very important from the beginning. That was one reason I was interested in doing the show, because the relationship of these two women gave this action series an emotional hook and set the stage to tell gripping stories. However, in terms of the depth and complexity and nuances of this relationship, it was a continuing evolution and it never ceased to amaze us how rich it was in possibilities."

Q: An episode that isn't exactly a fan favorite but I like it very much -- Crusader. One question, how did Xena manage to kill all of Najara's men with only one of them even making a sound?

RJ: "Oh, she's very good at that. She committed a lot of massacres that we didn't even cover, all very well documented." He mentioned that he also likes Crusader but apparently fans don't like it when someone comes between Xena and Gabrielle.

Question about favorite scenes/episodes. RJ said he loved the campfire scenes, and also one of his favorite episodes is the Season 4 finale. Yes, he actually forgot the title of Ides of March until someone called it out from the audience. Liz said one of her favorites was the ending of Many Happy Returns.

Afterwards RJ and Liz graciously agreed to sign autographs even though it wasn't in the program. Too bad I didn't think ahead of time and bring my Crusader script. Oh well, I now have nice signed photo montages of RJ and Liz.

And I guess I'll report my embarrassing fangirl moment. When RJ was signing the photo for me, I not only told him that I love his episodes (which is fine... ) but also that Rob had recently mentioned (in the Q & A at Talking Xena) that RJ was always very concerned about being fair to the Xena/Ares fans and that as an X/A fan, I want to thank him for that. RJ actually seemed quite moved, he said something like "Yes, that's true" and thanked me.

Because of the signing, I missed much of the celebrity cabaret -- only heard the tail end of Steve Sears singing (very well! talk about a man of many skills!), but I did hear Ted Raimi. There's a couple of video clips coming up.