Guests at the Los Angeles Convention 2010

MARRIOTT HOTEL LOS ANGELES - 5-7TH FEB 2010

 

Photo albums and videos with the appearance of the Xena guests

Info and report will follow for each guest. For now you can already enjoy the photo-albums.

Katherine Fugateis the first guest. And as always you do remember much more from the first guest, note muchmore then with the next upcoming guest. It is as if your energy flows directly into the first experience. Right, Katherine, she always does a surprising thing. She always gets the crowd in action. This time she tossed out prizes. One after the other flew through the air. Woaw, she has a good arm. Okay, we all know it, Katherine Fugate wrote the Xena episode "When Fates Collide". A lot has already been said and discussed about it. Many fans consider this the "true" series finale, because Xena is not dead. But there are many other reasons why it has been named the 'true" finale. So under a huge applause Katherine took the stage. What I liked about her start is that she didn't directly talked about Xena (although it is Xena convention) but she talked about the upcoming movie, called "Valentine's Day". It was due to be released after this con. She told us that she puts Xena quotes in many of her scripts. But as this script wasn't originally an ensemble piece, but ended becoming one, she isn't sure if it survived the script writing process. Let's take some questions of the audience. I took some small notes, cause in the end I like to enjoy the on-stage performances of the guests aswell.
- Motherhood changed Katherine : It opened her heart and ..............gave 10 pounds which are stuborn and won't go away.
- As for greatest achievement and biggest disappointment (in that order) : She overcame her origin, if she was a character, she'd think. "Good on you for pushing through". And she wanted to be taller. "You're not done until you're done." Valentine's Day is is now in the theater although it was put into turn around and even wasn't going to be made.
- Social media - connecting with fans : She has Twitter but only for following The Saint's (she loves football!) members. She loves Facebook and tells us that she is pretty much who she is and she says what's she is going to say, not matter who reads it. And on Facebook, well the whole world is present.
In between she mentions that for her leaving Army wives was good, so she could write Valentine's day. It gave her also the possibility to make a lesbian independant film called Room in Rome. Ah, she loves ancient Greece, I think! But I like the way she talks about lesbian films, tv-series she works on. I feel as she tells it as being a part of a normal daily job, meaning she is very open about that. Cool Katherine!
Allright, the next question brings us back to WFC, more specific about the character of Ceaser. I love the way Katherine speaks about characters, how she sees things, shares her views with us. She said that no one can re-set someone elses life. You only can reset your own. How true is that! No one could change that Xena and Gabrielle would meet and fall in love with eachother. (only it took so long to show it clearly to us, apart from the subtext). No one could change that Ceaser would be betrayed and killed by a person he trusted. And that said, well, Ceaser is a little bit stupid.
To the question if there is an actor/actress she'd like to write for, she takes us back to football. (she really is a fan!) Katherine told us that she loves The Saints as much as Xena (can't be, but when she says it .....). So she tells that she was down at a game; and because she knows the owner of the Saints (gosh, that lady has connections), and there were a lot of celebrities in the box. Suddenly an actress sat down, on the empty seat next to her. Katherine continues : I looked at her .....(and she asked the crowd and Creation : I'm a allowed to use curse words?).Katherine : She sits down and I say "Are you sh.....ing me". It seemed it was Patricia Clarkson. Well for me unknown, but I think US residents are familiar with that name. I should look up that name on the internet. So they both went out, get drunk and became best friends. Katherine mentions "Some actors act just the words, but others pmut in the subtext. A good actor can do that. Oh, but we know 2 actresses who are perfect in doing that!!! For Katherine this P.Clarkson is one of the best actors, so strong and so good.
Xena Movie : Ofcourse this is a returning question as fans finally want to know what is exactly going on, as there are so much rumours going on. So she was asked if there is any hope for the Xena Movie. And in case not, would she consider writing it as a novel? Logic questions as Katherine wrote the script for the put-in-frozen-condition Xena Movie. "Honestly, I don't know if I'm allowed to.... I think that is a legal question." How about the story line? She said that thirst of confirmation in the film as per the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle was down to ratings. That's all she said about this topic. She also said that it was a difficult story because they wanted to incclude different parts of the Xena episodes, such as Romans, Greek and Amazons, and then trying to tie them all into one good usuable storyline. Not easy, but rather difficult. Katherine told us that it is a challenge weaving all the story lines and characters. She labelled it as 'an ancient history road pic' to get both heroes back together. So no movie (yet!), but now we know they were going to include as many people, places, etc....

About Room in Rome due to come out in May 2010, hope it comes in the theater cause I would like to see that one as there are not that many lesbian movies written by writers such as Katherine. The question was if she wanted ever work with Renée O'Connor as director? Katherine said that Room in Rome is a very erotic movie. She mentioned a NC-17. I do not know what that means. I think it is a kind of rating to label a movie based on contence of sex and erotisme. According Katherine Room in Rome is based on a film called 'In the Bed". And it goes about a man and a woman who meet at a crossroad in their lives and in a foreign country. They spend the night together and have sex, etc.....
People involved in RIR are concerned that the movie will have problems, rating problems that is, as it is about 2 women. Common', we are in the 21st century. If heavy violence can be shown, why then problems when it is about love between 2 women?
I love Katherine's one liners as this one : I'm going to hell, and if anyone wanted to go to hell with me, we all can go together.
She would love to work with Renée as a director and that they talk about it. They're very good friends. Renée gave her a baby shower.
- If subtext would be main text : Katherine replied that they are pushing it as hard it could be pushed!

Katherine ended telling us ''This is the best week of my life - seeing all of you here today, and on Sunday being at the Superbowl! On Monday flying back and doing the ET red carpet for the premiere of Valentine's Day. The whole weekend is like a fantasy dream weekend. Her last words before she left " I'm so gratefull for all your support and love and helping me get there. I would never have done it with you".

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David Franklin : Well he was so active on stage I hardly could note down a thing. At first I even didn't recognize him. I had the character he played in my mind and seeing him in real life was quite a difference. I have to admit that, because I didn't like his character, I wasn't interested to see him on stage. But I was so lucky I stayed cause he is so different. I like his accent as NZ-landers and Australiers have that soft english accent, which is so easy to listen to. Simple and so entertaining english. I love it!
"Ephiny killer!" somebody shouted and that was the start of quite some entertaining moments with a lot of laughter. David was a bit estonished about being named 'Ephiny Killer'. So in his down-under-way he tried to get out with different excuses for his character. He even felt a bit guilty about his betrayal of Gabrielle. He connected to his cabaret performance later that evening. He promised that he would make it up to Gabrielle. He told about how he got into the Xena show. Through his agent (or was it a friend, I can't recall it), he was informed that they were looking for a Brutus actor. So he auditioned and later even flew over to New Zealand. Finally he got the role. David told us about his first scene on the Xena show where he was dragged by a horse and how he had to do it, and the best thing ...., there was no stunt double.
I didn't had a photo-ops ticket for David, but I purchased an autograph ticket. In the Golden ticket it wasn't included. I purchased it as he was so cute and friendly walking up and down the convention hall. He sat all by his own at the other side of the stage for the autographs. The poor guy. But he was there the full 3 days which is to be appreciated in my opinion.
And for me and my wife Karin it was a good decision to purchase the autograph ticket. He was so friendly and talked about how he was enjoying himself at the con. I think we will see him again at a next convention.
David was also present at the Charity Breakfast and yes, he was again as crazy as can be. Everybody was looking out for him. He was a guest not to be missed at your table. At our table he took an open chair and when the fan came back he simply invited the woman on his lap. He told again how wonderful it was to be amongs all these fans. How much he enjoyed it. His eyes were really blinking as diamonds!

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Hudson Leick : Hudson was the third guest. For us it was the first time to see her in real life. Personnally I was looking forward to it as to me Hudson has that mysteriouis aura about her. As licensed yoga teacher that is really so Hudson. A perfect match. And sometimes that special mysterious touch is also brought into the character of Callisto. She can touch the audience in the only Hudson way by just sitting there, saying nothing and still getting people laughing then. Do we start laughing because somebody start looking at us? Well, ain't that a lesson teached how they must feel being on stage and us staring fans sitting there? No wonder that she said : Oh boy, you are so easy!
She started teasing the audience by showing her naked toes. She wore a glittering diadem and dressed in a bronze-golden satin dress or can we call it a negligée? Bare feet, yes, she is really in touch with earth.
Then we got into the french language. I always love to hear english spoken people talking french. Hudson thought the audience how to swear in french. I just don't recall the words. She told us that she was invited to travel to France for that french film.
Hudson can jump from one subject to another. She gave us some one-liners. She and a friend want to create a line of Xena-themed vibrators such as :
- The Gabrielle one that just makes you cry : I love you, I love you.
- The Callisto one goes AAAAHHHHGGGGRRAAAAHHHHAAA all the time.
- The Xena one that is all stoic : "I want to, but I won't" and gazes longingly at Gabrielle the whole time.
About herself she said she loves being a beautiful princess (that clarifies the way she is dressed up), with long blond hair on stage and everybody loves her. But on the otherhand she is also afraid that one day she wakes up and finds out she's really a delusional large man called George. Oh boy, did she really say that? How crazy can you be!
Getting more into her personal environment, she told us she had a terrible year. The ending of a relationship, no job not even as yoga teacher or as an actor (she does both). She was in a car accident and .........well this can only happen to her ........ she got stuck in a broken elevator. But when she got out of the bad relationship, things started happening to her. The job for the french film called Paris Connection (finally I could read what I noted down), filmed in Paris.
Hudson can also use words in a special way which makes that what she says, has a very wide range. I quote "There is such a beautiful humility in life! Sometimes we get our heads handed to us, and our egos go 'no' and god says 'oh yes'. And we survive it. And that's my secret of what's going on with me right now." Nicely put into words, right from the heart. I'm convinced that she treasures life enormously.
Auction : Then there was the auction of her dress. The amount would be splitt between the JB Ellis Foundation and a young man from Haiti who was trying to locate his family and get another family member (aunt or grand-mother) to the US for medical care. The first target is okay for me cause a foundation can spread the budget. But raising money for only 1 single person is a bit far going. There are a lot of victims in Haiti who are trying to do the same and have the same needs as this one guy. What about them? In my humble opinion this was discriminating. The dress fetched 5600 USD. A nice result in times of economic crisis. But what happened then is just not excusable. This should never had happened at all. Someone (associated with the maker of the dress) came up to try push for more bidding! Unacceptable! It was as if that person was desperate! I was speachless that, this person dared to do this, instead of showing respect for the auction winner and all the fans to raise this amount. No, she simply showed non-respect. I was happy that someone out of the audience stood up and told the pushing person that seen the economic situation, people do not have that kind of money to throw around. And a realistic way would be to give fans a chance to donate money. So they did go that route. I went along with the concern of that womann regarding the push. It was really so uncool of that person to try to push for more bidding, which showed no respect, and even translated that she was not happy with the amount! I think a lot of people shared the same thought/opinion. Seriously, Xena fans are very generous people, most generous, very selfless people. There always there to help and to give. And to attack them in such a way is unforgivable. I would not give a penny to that pushing person. It was obvious that only wanted to get profit out of Xena fans! It threw a black clowd on the Hudson appearance. The fact that at the Charity Breakfast (or was it at the Dessert Party?), they got in contact with that Haiti guy, didn't get my sympathy. Either raise money for a lot of people and appreciate what you get, or remain silent and refrain from raising money. Very dissappointed in this way of pushing charity.
Photo ops : As Hudson is to ma a special woman, I had to get a photo ops with her. She is such an open-face woman. And her eyes make you feel as if she sees into your soul. I got her Belgian Chocolates as a gift! "You asked for a snack when you where on stage!, So here you go!" I said. You know how funny she reacts, and me being funny and laughing girl aswell, that connects! I asked to have a huge "Sure, no problem!" she said and so we were put onto the picture. As always, I thank her for this moment. A lot of people just leave as if it is a factory work. But we may not forget that those guest take out the time to join us.

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Tsianina Joelson : Just before we flew in to L.A. I read an article about her. There was also a picture that went along. It was about her being become World Champion Aerobics. Woaw, she was very much muscled. Much more as when saw her as Varnia, and even then, she was quite muscled. Hmm, why didn't we ask here to give a demonstration? Lol!
She is a very active woman, so she walks the stage up and down. She told us that she has a flaw that makes her forget things very fast. Tsianina didn't get much time on stage so the only thing from her on stage appearance that I remember is that she told us that she started getting back into acting and auditioning. She has been on CSI. From the CSI episode she said she was in a body bag which was a little unsettling to her family. Her oldest son (7 yrs) was also in an episode and also in a body bag. Her family was freaking out, but she didn't. Which is the name of that episode? Didn't ask her as I assume her short memory would give forfait!
At the Charity breakfast I was very well seated. Every guest sat down next to me. So when it was a bit noisy in the hall, I simply could ask a question face to face. Sitting side by side with Tsianina was a wonderfull moment. I thought to see a quite strong muscled woman, but no she was quite tiny. She is such a beautiful young woman. She got her son with her and oh boy, is he used to be amongs people wih his mom. Just so cool to see. He had his gameboy with him and showed some of our table mates how it worked. Tsianina told that her husband is also in the film/tv business. Later on, whe we took a break on the outside launch of the hotel and when taking some pictures, my wife Karin encountered Tsianina and her son again, both waiting for her car. Karin got the liberty to have a free talk, nice and relaxed. Tsianina is very kind. Karin asked her son how he liked to be her with his mom and if he enjoyed being here. He replied with a cute "Oh yes". Having respect for their privacy Karin wished her a lot of succes and said her goodbyes.

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Brittney Powell : When Brittney comes on stage, the audience allways get wild. I wonder bra..............euh why?!
She told us she is busy with a webseries and production (independent projects). And I quote "The world is perfect as it is, even my desire to change it". And then comes that super white smile.
Brittney is known for being an extraordinaire auctioner, especially when it concerns auctioning off lingerie. Brittney can do it as no other and .... she is always pleased with each bid. She thanks each bid and always respects it and is happy with final result. In 2007 her bra went for about 4000 USD (or was it 5000 USD). And the second runner up got a bra aswelll. So 2007 gave about 9 to 10000 usd. In London 2007, which was only a few months after the Burbank 2007 con, Xena fans again were generous. Two competitors got each a bra and the money raised in total was 1600 USD. This years auction, taking in consideration the economical crisis brought about 700 USD (for the Desi Geestman foundation). Nevertheless, she was mostly happy with the result. But the auction gave quite some action in the audience. At a certain point I feared that it was going out of control. Some competitors bidders started to sell necklages to raise money for the auction. It went so wild that the necklages were thrown through the crowd! How crazy can you be?
Close encounter : I also got a funny moment with Brittney. My fellow friends Xenafans, when they heard what happened did spread the out the word. So you can imagine what happened when I showed my face afterwards. It was even amazing, how people even do understand some foreign words, cause I was first telling the story to Karin in my native language Dutch. What happened is in fact cute and funny. Brittney had fun with it too! Karin and I were standing in the row for our autographs. At a certain moment a little "need" in me came up, so I left the row and went for the ladies room. I walked being in thoughts, my head a bit towards the ground. Not a single soul to see outhside the hall. I entered the ladies room. You have to know that the entrance has some corners to take before you finally get where you have to be. Get it?) Two small ladies came out, when I took the entrance. I took the first corner, head still down, then all of a sudden I bump softly into somebody. I see 2 legs and when I raise my head, a red dress comes up. BOOM! goes it into my head and I immediately raise completely my head. Brittney!!!!! Oops sorry! As much as I was surpised, she was aswell. We started laughing, had a small talk and crossed eachother. But...... we kept looking until we both were out of eachother's site. I still had fun returning to the queu. I was still gigling. And as my eyes where sparkling, Karin knew immediately that something happened to me. Such things always happen to me! When I came later on face to face (again) with Brittney for the autographs, I simply said 'Hi again'. It was enough for laughter for the two of us.
Photo Ops : As Karin and I already had very nice pictures from the London convention (which got signed this year) we took one picture, Brittney and the two of us. We also got her some Belgian Chocolates. Thanks Brittney and a lot of succes!

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Paris Jefferson and Musetta Vander : I already saw Paris a couple of times and spoke to her, that was 2007 in Burbank and London. London was the best as I could talk more to her and she surprised me naming me by my name. She is so respectfull and demands respect. When she talks she looks you in the eyes. I love Paris, she is such a distinctfull woman. She has my full respect for always, that is sure. Musetta was new to me, but as you will read it was very nice meeting her. Such an open woman. Although she is a South African native, she could be a New Zealander. No doubt about that.
Right Paris and Musetta, a dual set on stage. (Wish I had got photo ops tickets!) They answered some questions. They both had a blast and so did we. My cheeks hurt from laughter. That is also the reason why the photo album is overloaded. Musetta and Paris portrayed Ilanius and Athena. And as we are also in the lesbian nation, especially with those 2 hot women on stage, it was unmistakable that 'THE' question came up : "Musetta, what was it like playing the special relationship of a godess?" That gave electricity between the two of them and a lot of laughter in the crowd. Neither one of them admitted that their character did the first step so we got a chitchat fight on the stage. They played around with eachother and with the audience regarding that relationship. One having all the power of the godess and the other being a side kick protected by the godess. So where they romatic involved? Paris : "No!" and Musetta replied : "I did it all for nothing?!"
I noted also a Paris one-liner : Sease the day! .... and .... Fake it till you make it.
A touchy moment was the question for Paris Jefferson about Kevin Smith. She said that Kevin was noble person but when she wanted to continue her voice all of sudden got very emotional. That emotional that she simply said : It's to emotional for me!. It surely tells us how special Kevin Smith was.
If you need an on stage performance that keeps the audience interested, laughing and a life, these two women gave it all. This is what it is all about, having a good time both guests and fans. Nothing more, nothing less. Congratulations Musetta and Paris!
Paris also told us about here going back to studying, more special The American History. I was not surprised as she looks very intelligent to me. Same for Musetta, she does medical studies. For me they had to leave the stage to fast.
At the Dessert party we had the chance for some unforgettable moments. As this day was fully loaded and most of the fans were already gone to their rooms, we were left the two of us at a table of 8-10 persons. No problem! Cause all of a sudden we noticed that some guests were going from table to table. So Musetta came along and she was surprised to see only the two of us at the table! "What did you do with them?" "We simply chased them away for a tête-à-tête with you!" LOL! So Musetta asked us where we came from. We asked her how she think about New Zealand having filmed there. She told us that for nature and way of living it is almost the same. So she loved it very much to have filmed in New Zealand. It was a being at home. Musetta was also very interested in Lucy as they didn't see eachother all those years. We informed her as much as we could. But hey Musetta, we want to know something about you! So I asked her "Do you still speak South African?" "Ofcourse!" "So, als ik dan Belgisch spreek, kan je verstaan?" "Natuurlijk, dat ik je versta!" she replied with a South African accent. Oh if we only asked that from the beginning or at the on stage appearance we would have an additional super time! That was so fun to speak flemish being in the U.S., jumpint from english into flemisch with Musetta. She is such an open young woman, to bad the time is so limited when they join you at the table.
Charity Breakfast : Paris got seated next to me. When she sat down, unfortunately Steven Sears took the microphone to auction off something. It was so lowd we hardly could say something at the table. And time is so limited when the guest joins you at the table. A few people asked here why she was not a the Dessert Party. She was sick the day before, even during the autograph session A bucket was from to time to time an exit in difficult moments. I felt and thought something like that when I saw Paris at the autograph session. She was so pale at that moment. So, as my advantage was, sitting next to her, I asked her about her studies of American History. She told me that it was very interesting, especially the State of Independence. More people should do that! she said. I couldn't ask more as she had to leave the table.

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Adrienne Wilkinson and William Gregory Lee : Another double set on stage but.......no synergy at all. They shared some hilarious moments, well for them that is, and didn't take almost none questions. Adrienne was very non-active. She was so quiet. She told us about a party at Lucy and Rob's house in New Zealand. The party had cast and crew from all the shows Renaissance Pictures currently had in production in New Zealand at that time. She sat across from this man and assumed it was just a crew member from one of the shows. But .....it was ...... Bruce Campbell. As for William, excuses me but I had expected much more of him. More involved and connected to the audience and the fans. I found him in some way artificial. More busy with himself then something else.
At the autograph session he was busy talking with someone of Creation (or someone else he knew), standing up, with one foot on a chair and uninterested signing pictures. He even didn't look at you. No sorry William, that is no way to present yourselves. Therefore some of us will never be a fan of you. And I doubt another appearance at a con when you showed such a non-interest. First impression is the most important and he for sure blew it.
During waiting in the queu for Adrienne's autograph we were treated with a short film of Adrienne called Reflections. It is a kind of Roald Dahl thing and was very interested. When I came across Adrienne and had to wait to move forward I asked her if that film would come out on DVD. She told me that it was under production and to be released very soon.
Later at the Dessert Party (this was in fact the first Dessert Party we ever joined) we were surprised that all of a sudden Adrienne appeared out of nothing. We didn't know that guests also joined your table as they do at the Breakfast. We were oly the two of us at the table. Adrienne was waiting for someone of Creation to bring her some ice cream (matter to keep the sugar level in place). "You only have 30 seconds, so shoot!" she said to us. Well that was fast brainstorming. "So how about Reflections?" "Well, you can read all about it on my website. Bye bye have to go!" Well that was it! Very dissappointing! I rather loved the Adrienne appearance in London. this time it wasn't up to the performance.

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Steven Sears : Sorry Steven, but this time we skipped you. To tired and we needed a break. But I liked your Elvis performance at the Cabaret. Didn't know Steven had such a good voice.

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Cleopatra 2025 or Victoria Pratt (in the middle), Gina Torres(left) and Jennifer Sky (right). Victoria Pratt played Cyane, Gina Torres played Cleopatra and Jennifer Sky played Amarice on Xena. On Cleopatra 2025 they played Sarge, Hel and Cleo. Amazing to me was the fact that I all of a sudden recognized Gina Torres playing also in Stand-off! Cool to see her on stage. We were already treated with beautiful women at the con and we know got three more. This was a trio-set on stage. The audience went nuts! Can't blame them as I went nuts myself! LOL! This trio had a serious chemistry. It were like 3 pubers on stage. Seems they have not seen eachother for a long time and this was ofcourse a nice moment. It was such a fun to see them that crazy on stage. Gina referred to their trio as "The Pussy Posse!" One things is for sure those ladies and especially Gina, they know the right words at the right time. My photo album is overloaded. No need to tell you why!
Jennifer Sky had a hard couple of years! A little over a year ago, she had a liver transplant and last month she divorced her husband. About her liver transplant she just showed the other two and the audiance the mark on her body. Now that was the perfect moment and someone out of the crowd asked if we could now see the belly of the other two. Victoria had no problems and up went the t-shirt and a six-pack in muscles was shown. A 'aaahhhhhh wooooaaaaw" came out of the audience. Hey Gina, and yours! Gina didn't want first, telling she has had a baby. Finally she goes along and puts her t-shirt up aswell. Another six-pack of muscles! And then telling she had a baby!!!!!! Woaw, how do they do it? Jennifer got it out telling that she turned out to be gay. It turned out later on to be a joke. But from what I heard later on, a lot of people were in doubt, whether it was serious or just a joke.
At a certain moment Gina took her cellphone and she and Victoria wanted to message someone (from around me I was informed that it was Steven Sears, although I thought it was Gina's husband). It was about 'Just write anything", "We make it dirty". Now I understood this was playing a joke to Gina's husband, Victoria to send the first message and the reply of Gina on the microphone. From around me I noted that they were just bantering Steven Sears. Now, you can see how hilarious it sometimes goes when the guests do perform perfect on stage. I hardly didn't know what they said about what or whom!!!!!!!
Photo ops : The fact that they were so catchy on stage I decided to get a photo op ticket. Karin and I and the three of them. The famous five! You surely can say that.
Autograph session : I loved what Gina said when I gave her my Wild Kiwi t-shirt to be signed : "Oh wild you are!"

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