Creation Entertainment has decided that it will do a Xena Convention in 2013.
8am - 10am: Hudson Leick Yoga Class
12:15pm Steven L. Sears
1:00pm Music Video
1:05pm Adrienne Wilkinson
1:55pm Music Video Presentation
2:00pm Photo Op - Adrienne Wilkinson
2:35pm Music Video
2:40pm David Franklin
3:20pm Rob Field
3:25 pm Photo Op with David Franklin
3:55pm Music Video
4:00pm Ted Raimi
4:45pm Hudson Leick
6:00 pm Photo Op with Hudson Leick
6:10 pm Private Meet and Greet for 10 fans with Adrienne Wilkinson (SOLD OUT)
10:00pm: The Creation Celebrity Cabaret with Michael Hurst and Jennifer Ward Lealand.
8am - 10am: Musetta Vander's Qigong Workship for Fans
10:10am Melissa Good
10:45am Xena Music Video Mix
11:05am Katherine Fugate
11:45am Music Video
11:50am Jennnifer Ward-Lealand and Michael Hurst
12:50pm Yes/No Xena Trivia Game
12:55pm Photo Op with Michael Hurst and Jennfier Ward-Lealand
1:10pm Photo Op with Jennifer Ward-Lealand
1:25pm Photo Op with Michael Hurst
1:30pm Music Video
1:30pm to 2:30 pm Private meet and greet with 10 fans and Claire Stansfield (SOLD OUT)
1:35pm Jacqueline Kim
2:00pm Photo Op with Timothy Omundson
2:15pm Music Video Presentation
2:20pm Brittney Powell
3:00pm Claire Stansfield and Timothy Omundson
4:30pm Photo Op with Claire Stansfield
4:45pm Xena and Other Genre No Minimum Bid Auction
5:00pm Photo Op with Brittney Powell
5:25pm Musetta Vander
5:35 - 6:35pm Private Meet and Greet for 10 fans with Katherine Fugate (SOLD OUT)
6:05pm Photo Op with Musetta Vander
6:15pm Photo Op with Jacqueline Kim
6:30 -7:15pm Autographs
7:15pm ON THE STAGE: Renee O'Connor will be signing autographs for those with her autograph ticket
9:00pm The Costume Competition
10:30pm to ? The Great Creation Celebrity Cocktail Party and Centerpiece
Contest: Featuring tentative appearances by MICHAEL HURST and JENNIFER WARD-LEALAND, STEVEN L. SEARS and BRITTNEY POWELL
8am - 10am: Breakfast and Charity Auction with Hudson Leick, Sheeri Rappaport,
Tsanina Joelson and Jennifer Sky. (SOLD OUT)
10:00am Photo Ops with Renee O'Connor
11:30am - 12:30pm Private Meet and Greet with 10 fans and Tsianina Joelson, Jennifer Sky
and Sheeri Rappaport. (SOLD OUT)
12:50pm I"Life With Xena" An Amazon Panel with Tsianina Joelson, Jennifer Sky, and Sheeri Rappaport
1:30pm Music Video
1:35pm Photo Op with Tsianina Joelson
1:40pm The Widow Twanky makes a triumphant return to Los Angeles, as interviewed by Jennifer Ward-Lealand
2:10pm The 4th and final Xenaversity Silent Movie, "The Lost Treasure of the Pirate Princess"
2:15pm Photo Op with The Widow Twanky
2:35pm Special salute to the late great Kevin Smith (Ares)
2:40pm Photo Op with Sheeri Rappaport
2:50pm Photo Op with Jennifer Sky
3:05pm Photo Op with Sheeri Rappaport, Jennifer Sky and Tsianina Joelson
3:35pm The Xena and Genre No Minimum Bid Auction
4:10pm Michael Levine
4:45pm An afternoon with Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor
6:15pm Photo Ops with David Franklin
6:20pm Photo Ops with Lucy Lawless (SOLD OUT)
6:45pm AUTOGRAPHS with Renee O'Connor, Tsianina Joelson, Sheeri Rappaport, Jennifer Sky and David Franklin
The 2012 Xena Convention is being held at the MARRIOTT BURBANK, which should be a big improvement over last year. For one thing there are actual restaurants within walking distance. For another, the Marriott Burbank is 24 km from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and about 27 km from Paramount Studios and Universal Studios.
Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Michael Hurst will do a Friday night cabaret performance again. Tickets are $40. Musetta Vander will do a quiquong workshop Saturday morning from 8am to 10am. Attendance is limited and tickets are $85. Qigong (chi kung) is the Chinese discipline of aligning breath, physical activity and awareness. Hudson Leick's 2 hour yoga class will be Friday morning. Price is $119. Participants must bring their own mat, towel, and water. Lucy Lawless photo ops are SOLD OUT.
Plans are afoot for a 20th Anniversary Xena Convention in Auckland, New Zealand, 6-8 February 2015. It is being planned by Film-Events.com, and at this early date no details are available. Fan events are also planned for SPARTACUS, and LEGEND OF THE SEEKER.
Two 2012 Xena Calendars are now available from Creation Entertainment. They are THE JOURNEY CONTINUES PART 4, and FOR THE GREATER GOOD. Those purchasing both calendars will receive a hand-signed photo of a Xena star (unspecified).
Yet another 2012 Xena calendar is available from Calendars.com. It's cheaper than the ones from Creation at $14.
In 2005, Renée O'Connor participated in a charity car wash for the Alyssa Ruch Burn Foundation. Someone named Ro made this slideshow video.
Renée O'Connor is featured in the latest music video from JEREMY BUCK AND THE BANG. The Bang consists of guitarist Chris Hanna, bassist Joel Geist, and Mark DiBenedetto on drums. The song "You Are a Star" is the title track of their new album. This is, so far as I know, the first music video in which O'Connor has appeared.
The next Awareness Seminars with Renée O'Connor are projected for 2012 in Austin, Texas and Washington, D.C.
NETFLIX CANADA
now has all six seasons of XENA.
Gabrielle's tattoos from Season Four of Xena: Warrior Princess.
Grit Wheatley is an artist who divides her time between Birmingham Alabama and Nordhausen, Germany. Clearly a Xena fan, she has done paintings of Gabrielle, Xena, Renée O'Connor, and Lucy Lawless. Her paintings can be seen in the restaurant "Alt Ellrich" in Ellrich, Germany or on her YouTube Channel.
The first of May is the birthday of Belinda Bentley. She was one of the townspeople in the first Xena episode and it seems possible that she is related to Anton Bentley who was Perdicas in that episode. She is now known as a "Celebrity Psychic" who offers readings for $70/half hour. (I suggest that you read the disclaimer on her site before purchasing any of her services.)
On the AfterEllen.com Hot 100 List for 2011 Renée O'Connor is number 42.
Renee O'Connor and children at the beach.
TOTAL SCIFI ONLINE has published a list of the 100 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy TV shows. The list is worth a look, as it includes such worthy entries as SAPPHIRE AND STEEL, and WORLD ON A WIRE (Weldt am Draht). Xena is #35.
In the archives, ROC VIDEO CHANNEL has a two-part interview with Canadian actor Tara Samuel. Samuel has an unspecified part in THE YELLOW WALLPAPER, which was released in January 2011, a film starring Juliet Landau based on Charlotte Perkins Gillman's short story of the same name. Veronica Cartwright, who was Vera Errickson in FALSE IDENTITY with Renée O'Connor, will play Catherine Sayer in the film. The Yellow Wallpaper has had two other film incarnations: the 1977 film starring Sigrid Wurschmidt and Tom Dahlgren, and a 1989 TV movie with Stephen Dillane and Julia Watson.
Renée O'Connor attended the 2010 Freedom Awards in Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center on 7 November. Among others attending were Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Camilla Belle, Jason Mraz, Free the Slaves co-founder Peggy Callahan, Forest Whitaker, and Free the Slaves President Kevin Bales. The winners were: JEEVIKA (an Indian group that helps slaves understand their rights), Robert Plant, and Anne Keehn.
Obscurus Lupa, whose reviews of the film ALIEN APOCALYPSE and the Xena episode MARRIED WITH FISHSTICKS are on this website, did her review of AMERICAN NINJA 5 sitting in front of a Gabrielle poster.
Renée O'Connor spoke at the LA/Orange County Chapter of Media Communications Association International on 20 April. Videos have been posted at gameiohfreak's YouTube Channel
O'Connor was on the cover of the March 2011 issue of LOTL Magazine.
ROC Pictures was, in 2008, considering doing a film based on the 1996 novel LEANING TOWARD INFINITY, by Sue Woolf. There has been no further word on this project.
Woolf has written two other novels and teaches at the University of Sydney.
Commenting on the possibliity of a revival of Xena, Lucy Lawless told Out.com, "I love that character (Xena). I would do it if it was a movie. I doubt I would do it as a TV series. I can't see how you would make it fresh. By the time somebody does come up with that I'm just going to be too old." Pixel 51 would rather see a Xena sequel with Renée O'Connor as Gabrielle again, and someone else playing her next lover.
O'Connor has directed a sitcom pilot (above) called "Are You Kidding Me?". The video, with Julian Moses and Bethany Geaber as the two characters. Julian Moses, who also wrote the pilot, was in both DIAMONDS AND GUNS (Connie), and WORDS UNSPOKEN (guard). The pilot now has a Facebook page and a website.
Xena will air at 9am and 6pm on the HORROR CHANNEL UK beginning 8 December.
Renée O'Connor is now an Independent Consultant for ARBONNE. Arbonne's skin and body care products are PETA approved. Their nutritional supplements are vegan.
For numerology buffs, there is a website, Celebrities Galore, that will let you know your level of compatability with Renée O'Connor based solely on your name, sex, and date of birth. I am not sure what one's sex has to do with numerology, but there it is. Numerology is a pseudo-science that deals with the occult significance of numbers.
Melissa Wikaire, who was the script supervisor on Xena, is the producer of an award-winning Maori children's TV show called Tau Kē, and, along with Karen Sidney, is the producer of the Aroha Film Series. a six part anthology of half-hour stories written, produced and acted in the Maori language. The short clip below shows Renee O'Connor and Wikaire during the production of the final episode of Xena.
Jennifer Sky (Amarice) posted a prose poem, GIRRL IN THE BALLET FLATS, online on 30 November. Sky is now editor-in-chief of the 12th Street Literary Journal. Her work will be included in LOVE MAGICK ANTHOLOGY which will be available 14 February. The book is available now on Amazon in a Kindle edition.
Sky is one of only two actors to have appeared in both Xena and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was Heidi Barrie in Buffy Season One Episode Six and was possessed by hyenas.
"There are moments when you are acting when you have no separation from the character, and of course the goal is to have that all the time. I think it may be easier on some levels to do the theater because you can sustain this feeling longer without breaking in and out. I love these heightened moments in any capacity I can get them."
Several former Xena castmembers were nominees
at the
2011 Aotearoa Film and Television Awards
in New Zealand
Australian actor Holly Brisley, who was Tonya Smith in THE FLOOD:WHO WILL SAVE OUR CHILDREN with O'Connor in 1993, voices the character Hettie in the video game EDGE OF TWILIGHT, which will finally be released for PC and Xbox 360 in March 2012.
Brisley starred as Tara in the SyFy movie SINBAD AND THE MINOTAUR which premiered last May. Her co-star, Manu Bennett, was Marc Antony in one episode of Xena (Caesar and Cleopatra).
Foxfur is about a disturbed young girl and her travails who is gradually transformed into a female Robin Hood. It's about things like conflicting realities, belief systems and extraterrestrials...It's an end of the world within the end of the world, a schism of reality that occurred after 1982, which on Dec 21, 1982 at 11:11am is when the world really came to end.
on YouTube). She will play
Rosa in the upcoming film RENOVATION. One
of her original songs will be part of that film. And she is in yet another horror film. RESURRECTION, will be released on 1
October. Her character's name in that is Gina.
Victoria Pratt (Cyane #3 in Xena), has three films out this year. The first is SODA SPRINGS, released 15 March. It's a present-day Western set in Idaho, and her co-stars are Jay Pickett, Tom Skerritt, and Patty McCormack. The second is YOUR LOVE NEVER FAILS (first aired on the Hallmark Channel this past April). It also has Skerritt.
The best of the three is due out later this year and does not have Tom Skerritt in it. AWAY, a feature with a script made of 15 interwoven short stories set in a hotel, does not yet have a website, and I have little information about it, other than the fact that Ryan Scott Greene is in it. Greene was Brandon in 4 episodes of QUEER AS FOLK.
Renée O'Connor's cat (above) is named Kia Ora, a Maori phrase which translates into English as "shalom".
Renée Kathleen Zellweger was born 25 April 1969 in Katy, Texas, the same town in which Renée O'Connor was born 661 days later. While Zellweger went to Katy High School, O'Connor travelled 18 miles to attend Taylor High School and a further 9 miles to attend the Houston High School of Visual and Performing Arts. It is unclear if the two knew each other.
Remember the story that Gabrielle told to Iolaus when she was nursing his wound in "Prometheus" (Season 1 Episode 8)? Here is how that story went originally:
The poet Agathon held a symposium (later written about by Plato). A discussion on the theme of love ensued. Aristophanes (446-386 BC), the greatest comic poet of Athens, gave an "explanation" of why people in love feel completed by their mate. He said that in ancient times people had double bodies, with faces and limbs turned away from one another, and these original people were very powerful.
There were three sexes: the all male, the all female, and the "androgynous"(half man, half woman).
They became overconfident and conspired to depose the Gods. Zeus thought about blasting them with thunderbolts, but he decided instead to cripple them by chopping them in half. Ever since, people say they are looking for their other half because they are really trying to recover their primal nature. Those who were originally all male, or all female, sought same sex completion. Some people, said Aristophanes, think homosexuals are shameless, but they are the bravest, most manly of all, and he went on to suggest that heterosexuals are more inclined toward unfaithfulness.
Selma Blair, who
starred with Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions,
was the first Cyane, a girl from the 21st century who transported by a shaman to ancient times to rule the
Tretomlec people, a tribe composed entirely of women, in the XWP episode "LIFEBLOOD" (Season 5 Episode 16).
Cyane taught the Tretomlec to ride horses and renamed the tribe Amazons.
In 1989, O'Connor did a WAREHOUSE SAFETY VIDEO for Randall's Food Market, a chain of 116 supermarkets in Texas. That same year, in BLACK SNOW, she wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with the logo of WHOLE FOODS, another Texas-based food chain.
Renée O'Connor has not played the guitar in any of her film or TV appearances. Yet there is evidence that, at least as a teenager, she did have this skill. I cite the photo above, from a Houston newspaper, in which O'Connor is shown with another teen (whose name I cannot make out). The two of them are credited as being named "Most Talented Teens". I presume the guitar is not a prop.
Joseph Loduca wrote the music for Xena, Warrior Princess, Hercules the Legendary Journeys, Boogeyman 2, Alien Apocalypse, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and Legend of the Seeker. He won an Emmy for the Xena episode "Fallen Angel".
Sunny Doench, pictured above, originally of Dayton, Ohio, was the original choice to play Gabrielle, but declined. Her latest role is that of Nancy Wilson in GIRL WITH NO NUMBER, a thriller set in Vietnam which was released in the US 6 May 2011.
In 2003 O'Connor performed the A.R. Gurney play LOVE LETTERS, an epistolary chronicle of two characters' 50 year relationship, in London opposite Tim Omundson. Omundson was Eli (bringer of Christian Mythology) in XWP.
Thesmophoria was a three-day festival in ancient Greece. Women participating in the autumn sowing (Sporetos) festival had to fast and be chaste for several days. The first day of the Festival was Anodos (the ascent) on which married women took all the supplies they would need for two nights and three days, climbed a hill, and built leafy shelters with couches made of plants and then slept. The second day was the Nesteia or Fast. Besides fasting, they whipped each other with strips of bark. The third day was The Kalligeneia (Fair Offspring) recalling Demeter's torchlight search for her daughter Persephone. There was a torch light ceremony with a feast, and offerings were made to Demeter (usually corn, cakes, and pigs), in the hope of a good harvest.
One halloween in her youth, O'Connor dressed up as what can only be described as Wonder Woman's sidekick (although Wonder Woman had no sidekick). Amazons were very important in the Xenaverse and in Season One of XWP Gabrielle became an Amazon Princess.
Renée O'Connor does not appear on the French DVD covver of Alien Apocalypse. The woman who does appear
is probably Rosi Chernogorova (Bizzi). What I would like to know is who played the astronaut with the
broken leg who gets killed at the beginning of the film. She is not credited at all, and the character is
never addressed by name.
Gabrielle's horse, introduced in season five of Xena, was played by a gelding named Flash. I cannot find a reference to the horse's name in the series, but according to the website ARGO AND FRIENDS, it was named Amber. When she was a child, Gabrielle had a pony named Timpany, whom she could not ride. Timpany died prior to Gabrielle's first encounter with Xena.
It was Susan Wood who did the singing for O'Connor in "The Bitter Suite". Wood also sang the song "Peace In the Valley" in the Season Five episode "Lyre, Lyre, Pants on Fire". Her most recent acting role was as Anchor #2 in the 2006 film THE BLACK HOLE, which starred Kristy Swanson (the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The Scotch Plains, NJ newspaper ran an article about Wood in 1998 which describes her career in some detail.
O'Connor has a pierced navel, which is also apparently an "innie". Above is a cropped bikini photo which clearly shows the piercing.
Renée O'Connor was Lady MacBeth in the Shakespeare by the Sea production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth from 27 June to 16 August 2002. It was directed by Anna Andersen (not the one who thought she was Anastasia). Patrick Vest was Macbeth. He also has written and performed a one-man show about Henry David Thoreau, and is now a member of the NEW AMERICAN THEATER Studio Ensemble. Kent Toussaint was Macduff. He was also Kent in ACCIDENTS DON'T HAPPEN, a 2000 film with Renée O'Connor.
The first season and part of the second season of XWP were shot using 16mm film. This explains the graininess of the picture. Other series (most notably Sex and the City) have done this to save money. Some movies have used 16mm film to create an intentional amateurish effect (e.g. CLERKS).
The dubbing of Gabrielle into Portugese (for the Brazilian market) was done by Sylvia Salustti, who also did the dubbing of Sarah Michelle Gellar's character Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
O'Connor's first acting experience was at age eight in Katy, Texas with THEATER ON WHEELS. She played a caterpillar. Even made her own costume. Her first paid acting job, if one can call it that, was, at age 16, portraying Porky Pig at a Six Flags amusement park.
The above graphic shows two examples of Renée O'Connor's autograph. In both instances, he accent mark over the second e in her first name seems to be going the wrong way, like è rather than é. It also appears to be over the second e.
Renée O'Connor's shoe size is 8N. My source for this is an interview she gave some years ago, but in it she also said that her favourite colour was teal, described her eye colour as "green with a hint of blue" and her favourite birds as ducks (from whence the colour teal was named). So she may not have been entirely serious about that interview.
Gabrielle's first line in episode one season one was: "Take me. Let the others go." (To warlord attempting to abduct the young females of Potidea.) The last words spoken by Gabrielle in the last episide of the series were: "I knew you'd say that." (To the spirit of Xena.)
The name "Gabrielle" is not exactly Greek. Since the French language did not begin to take form until the 9th century A.D., it's probably not French either. That means it must come from Hebrew roots(the feminine of Gabriel meaning "strong of God"). Her sister Lila (spelled without a double L in the credits and pronounced with short vowels) has a name which means "plaything" in Sanskrit.
Ms. O'Connor some years ago starred(?) in a movie "eXtreme Reality", which was a mockumentary about a reality dating show. Don't know anything more about this one. Don't know the year or any details.
Of all the names of characters played by ROC, the only name she has had twice is Jessica, although Sue occurs once as a first name and once as a middle name. Laura and Laurie are quite similar. Bettie might be considered a duplication of Elizabeth.
Pixel51.com is not affiliated with Renée O'Connor, nor is it affiliated with any group or organization.