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COLD BRRR-INGS XENA OUT IN GOOSE BUMPS

Sunday Mercury
01-03-99
Page 37

COMMENTARY
A quick and dirty article about Lucy Lawless and her take on some topics.

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    THE skimpy leather costume of Xena, the Warrior Princess, is leaving actress
Lucy Lawless with goose pimples.
    The 30 year old says the bitterly cold winters of northern New Zealand,
where the show is shot, are "bloody miserable".  
    She struggles to keep warm, yet can't let it show on TV, because Xena never
feels the cold. And that isn't the only difference between Lucy and her TV
alter-ego:
    Lucy had no prior martial arts training and prefers the gentle pursuit of
yoga to Xena's karate, aerobics and street fighting.
    Xena is afraid of nothing, but Lucy is scared to death of scenes where she
has to jump on a horse. She is frightened of riding since a 1996 accident, where
she fell and fractured her hips.
    Viewers gasp when Xena throws the sharp-edged "chakram" with deadly
accuracy. Lucy on the other hand was so uncoordinated when a schoolgirl that the
other kids teasingly called her "Unco".
    Mystery surrounds the identity of Xena's father, who vanished when she was
a child. But nobody in Lucy's New Zealand home town, Mount Albert, has a higher
profile that her father, Frank. He was once the mayor.
    Although Lucy admits she is nothing like Xena, she just loves her television
character.
    She says admiringly: "Xena's strong and lives by her wits. She's not little
Miss Perfect".

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