Kevin Sorbo
23 January 1999/Santa Monica

Kevin Sorbo, otherwise known as Hercules, headlined the first day of the convention. I have to admit that I found him more charming than I thought I would. Why? Not sure exactly...I'm told it might be a Minnesota thing (no flames....that was said to me by a Minnesotan!). Kevin was very nice and very accomodating to the fans who were there to see him. We heard many tales from fans of injured friends, absent admirers, and the like, and Kevin did his best to accomodate them all. In between, we also got some tales of life on the show *smile*. We were admonished not to hold it against him if his kicking in fight scenes isn't very high....the pants weight 12 pounds. Weightlifting as part of the daily grind, I suppose. But, I was also disappointed in a couple of things. Kevin seems to be rather bitter that X:WP is a more popular show than H:TLJ (Sunday, Lucy's convention day, sold out while Saturday did not). We were reminded repeatedly that Xena would not exist if not for Hercules. True enough, but the sour grapes are getting old. I was also put off by subtle displays of homophobia. At one point, there were 3 "Xenas" in the question line. The look on Kevin's face when the first "Xena" spoke with a male voice was classic! Then an exchange occurred with references to same sex relationships and Kevin dragged out a somewhat defensive "Hercules is a family show!" response. Gays have families, too, dude. And last I looked, H:TLJ is hardly lacking in adult innuendo ("Greece is Burning", anyone?). Kevin seemed more defensive than he really needed to be. I like the show, but the attitude was not so much fun. Whatever.

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