First of all Laurel entered the auditorium and it was like we were in a dream. Everyone was clapping their hands and screaming. Laurel was as beautiful as ever and breathtaking.
And then she speaks

Laurel: There's a lot of people i thought everybody was still asleep!

- You had that storyline with Henry in the season 3. Do you know why they included that storyline, why they have her (Tina) do that?
The story had affected the fans, they had negatives and painful thoughts, eventhough Kit Porter doesn't seem to be dropped for being heterosexual…what do you think about that?

Laurel does know why they did that storyline. It was Ilene Chaiken idea, because it was a story that she had seen before, which happened in her community.
Laurel thinks that in a certain same sex partnership, when you’ve been married and you have kids, you are a little more immersed into an heterosexual culture because you have children and you’re surrounded by straight parents. Ilene Chaiken knew couples who have been together for a very long time and then they split, something happened and then the woman went for a man.
She thinks that it was also very accurate that it would happened to her character because Tina was apparently bisexual. She was with a man and Bette was the first woman she was with and then she gets betrayed by a woman but she thinks that Tina will never be betrayed by a man.

And then the reason Ilene Chaiken said to Laurel was: « Are you really looking at the dynamic between Bette and Tina and Henry and Tina».
Tina becomes much a blossom person with Henry. Because she’s still having troubles with Bette. Bette’s too alpha and she’s very suffocating in the relationship which she controls.
Henry is a « new man », Henry is comfortable with his mothers work and he dosen’t try to invade her, working in around the time Tina does her work. And she’s getting comfortable with the balance between motherhood and her work.
And Laurel thinks that in all that ways it changes the dynamic and it’s not until later when Tina & Bette become friends that Tina dares to finally to Bette: You’re a control freak, it’s hard to be with you. And at that moment Tina realizes that she is not in love with Henry but she grows.

For the second part of the question Laurel answered that it was sort of the point they wanted to show the character excommunicates from her community and « the feeling of » loneliness and then trying to figure out what her true self was and exploring, she did not want to be « friend » with Henry’s friends and she realized who her friends were and maybe it wasn’t the right place for her.

Laurel’s first question, and things that she argued were that she thinks the relationship between Henry & Tina should have had explored more and she thinks it’s the problem if you’re a man on The L Word you’re not « explored » and she just felt that sometimes they needed more males characters because all of her lesbians friends also have a lot of male friends, gay and straight so she just wishes that the relationship between Tina and Henry would have been explored but there were a lot of new characters this season and Ilene Chaiken thought that wasn’t what people want to see in The L Word.

-Were you afraid that it was gonna last forever, you and Henry?

Laurel: No. I knew that we gonna get rid of him.
She thought that the actor was a trooper !
Because the first day he came to the set they had a sex scene and it was like: « Nice to meet you, we’ll be having sex against the door, my name’s Laurel ». It was very fast.

- She (the girl who asked the question) was talked about the effect the show has for Young lesbians. (the girl is 25 years old and knows since she has 17 years old…). The show helped her to come out and so she wants to say thank you about that and do you feel the amount of emancipation it provoked for people, for lesbians from everywhere?

Laurel: Congratulations!
She knows that and for her it’s one of the more satisfying part of the job. There’s so many television shows to be on if you’re an actor and there’s very few where there’s so many people that come up and say thank you with such truth and emotion and for her it’s more satisfying to be on a show that touches people in this way (than to be dying crime scene investigation).

She sees the profond affect that they have on people and she thinks that it’s incredibly Reading to be a part of that.
But she had a look (about) that after Two Girls In Love but it was a small independant film and it riched a smaller community and to be on television with the show is so much more rewarding that it riched so many people and so many countries.

- The serie is going to end. Are you as sad as we are? And what are your projects?

Laurel has mixed feelings. She’s sad that it’s over, but as an artist, as an actor, she’s ready, she played Tina’s character longer than any other job. Six years is a very long time for a character and she thinks it’s nice […] and they celebrate that success. They just wrapped shooting about four weeks ago so she’s trying to sleep and rest and be with her two young daughters.
She would like to do something after this Christmas but if it happens before she’ll take it but she would like after The L Word to be very passionate about the next thing she’ll do. She wants to look for a character that affects people and play a strong woman.

- Apparently there will be a spin-off with Alice, are we gonna get a glance of Tina and Bette in there?

That will be up to Ilene Chaiken and then their Schedules.
Anything is possible, the pilot is shooting on December so after the pilot the show will have to be picked up which it hasn’t yet so it has to be made but she would like to think that she (Ilene Chaiken) will bring various characters back.

She heard that it’s a very different show.
It’s [a spin-off] from The L Word but very different. And at the end of the 6 th season the script wasn’t written [they had ideas about that] but it might be now.
Leisha is exciting.

-The L Word is in many countries, are there different reactions?

Mostly the same, it’s very similar so… she knows some of the girls (Jennifer and Kate) just went to Japan this summer and it was huge about the enthusiasm and they all were in different countries but she doesn’t feel in measure to be able to know it but generally it is just the same type of enthusiasm.

*************************************

Thanks to Phoebe for sending us her report

There were actually about 200 to 250 tickets sold for each day of this convention and the price for a one-day pass was 49 euros ( which included 1 autograph and 1 picture taken with an actor ). Laurel's photos and autographs were not included in the price of the ticket because she was announced as a special guest less than a month ago and so most tickets were already sold ( that being said, I believe almost everyone got at least one picture taken with Laurel and one autograph, even the Queer As Folk fans ). They cost from 10 to 25 euros each.
But this is not the point, so a one day-pass cost 49 euros and a three-day-pass 99 euros. But there were also 8 "VIP-backroom" passes that were sold 499 euros each. They included an evening in a Parisian club with the three actors, a dinner with the actors, and a ten to fifteen minute "tête-à-tête" ( Ok, I think "private meeting" would be the expression in English ) with each actor.
And now you're going to tell me : well, 500 euros is not that much for a dinner, a night at a club, and a private moment with Laurel, huh ?
But one of those VIP passes was actually put on eBay and the Australian woman who bought it had to pay over 1 700 euros !!! No, I kid you not !

Laurel, as the special guest of the event, opened the convention this morning. Erin Daniels ( and Randy Harrison from Queer as Folk ) attented the convention this afternoon.
I'm sorry but since this is the spoilers/speculation thread, I'm not going to talk about Erin here ( even though she was hilarious and gorgeous and so nice !!! ), I'm going to try and focus on what Laurel Holloman said.

Just before I begin though, I wanted to say that Laurel was very nice to everybody and very talkative, and she smiled a lot. She really was sweet and adorable. However, I must say that she seemed pretty shy and intimidated ( well, there were close to 200 people though... ). And she looked a bit tired as well ( which is not surprising considering she must have flown from California like yesterday and with the jet lag and the cold and the probably very busy schedule... )

The first thing that came as a shock was that she almost immediately said that they were very seriously talking about making an L Word movie with Ilene Chaiken, so if there is one, and that's definitely a possibility, Laurel will be in it.

She also said that they wrapped up the shooting of the final season about a month ago and they were all incredibly sad because they had become like a family. In fact, Laurel added that when they were shooting the show most of the time they'd spent much more time together than with their families and some days when they had to be on the set at 5 AM and went back home at 10 PM they didn't even see their families so she became really close friends with some of these actresses.
But anyway, Laurel explained that Mia was the one who finished shooting first and she cried A LOT. Then Laurel and Leisha finished on the same day and they were very very sad too. So sad in fact that they ended up getting drunk at the airport ( she said she and Leisha had to spend the whole evening at the airport when going back home ).

On a lighter note, she also made everyone laugh when she explained that her daughter is only one week older or younger ( I don't quite remember ) than Olivia Windbiel, who plays Angelica in the show, so last year they started playing together and they became good friends. So much so that when Laurel would mention going to work, Lola would ask her if she was going to see Olivia and when Laurel said yes, Lola would enthusiastically say : " I wanna come work with you ! ".

Anyway, I was very lucky that I got to ask Laurel two questions : the first one being if we would finally learn something about Tina's family in season 6 since we don't have any background on Tina and then I asked her if it was frustrating for her, as an actor, to not know her character's history, her background... And that's when she started revealing things ( even though she's obviously not allowed to give away the storylines... ).
She said we are actually going to learn things about Tina's family at the end of season 6, and there is, according to her, a VERY GOOD REASON why we haven't learnt anything before.
As for being frustrated with the script as far as Tina's background, she said SHE did know Tina's past. Her father is ( I think she actually said WAS but she was already talking in the past tense so that doesn't mean he's dead ) a very conservative republican. But she added that it was indeed a bit frustrating that her background story was never developed, never processed in the show.

Again, about season 6, when asked how the members of the cast had found out about Dana's death in season 3 and if she had thought for a moment that they could have killed her character off too, she said it was horrible since it meant Erin was going to leave the show, but she said she never really got to worry about Tina because she had already shot most of her scenes and she knew where they were going with Tina... BUT she added that another character could get killed in season 6... Maybe... She wore her best mysterious look and said it was a possibility... At that particular moment the audience went : "Ohhh !" ( which actually meant Ohhhh, sh*t ! ). And the interviewer answered back to Laurel : " but if you were approached to work in The L Word movie, it means that at least it won't be Tina who will get killed off, right ? " and she gave a big REASSURING smile... And that to me said : " yes, it won't be me ! ". I mean, don't worry, it was pretty clear to me it meant Tina will be OK in the end.

At the very beginning of the Q/A session, she was asked about her character in Angel, Justine ( probably because there were a lot of fans of Buffy and Angel in the audience ) and I don't quite remember what she said, to be honest, except that the first time she was offered to audition for Angel she actually turned it down for she didn't know the show, she had never watched a single episode and wasn't particularly interested in making a series. ( She had mostly been working on independant movies up until then ), but her agent insisted that she would read the script and go to an audition and she said that she must have been doing something right during said audition because she was called back only a few days later to say she had the part, and apparently it never works that way. Usually, it takes many auditions and months to cast such character. I guess you all know the rest of the story, huh ? She ended up doing many more episodes than she was originally supposed to. The producers and especially Joss Whedon, the creator, really liked what she brought to her character and to the show.
In fact, she said it was actually funny because when she started working on the L Word ( for the pilot, at least ) she wasn't completely done working on Angel ( they had called her back one more time ) and since she just had had her hair bleached to play Tina in TLW, when she went back to the Angel set the last couple of times she had to wear a wig ( since Justine was a brunette...).

Anyway, she was then asked how it had been to go from a very strong female character such as Justine ( and apparently they said Joss Whedon writes a lot of very strong female characters ) to the desperate housewife that Tina was in The L Word season 1.
This particular description made Laurel smile, btw, but she seemed to completely agree that in season 1 Tina was exactly that, a desperate housewife.
She explained that actually season 1 was the most difficult, most challenging season for her to play for exactly that reason. Tina was very co-dependant and she let herself be smothered by Bette's strong personality and she was the exact antithesis of what she, Laurel, was.
But in the end, she didn't regret taking up that challenge because again she said that she must have had done something right because that was the season that got her an award, and not just any award, a Satellite Award, which is something very rewarding for an actor.

Then, the interviewer said that, unfortunately, in season 2, when Tina seems to want to get her autonomy back after being cheated on by Bette, she falls for another control freak, Helena, and that's really too bad because she had just started working again and she was successful at what she was doing so this should have boosted her ego...
Laurel nodded and said that indeed she could have started changing and growing then, but Tina was a "relationshipper". With Tina, things become very serious very fast. In fact, she said Tina followed the very same pattern with Henry as well, and of course that's a pattern she had to break.
She then added that, to her, Tina only started growing and changing at the end of season 4 when she left Henry, and more importantly later, in season 5, when she started dating other women. She concluded saying ( and smiling ) that Tina really was a late bloomer.

Oh, and at the beginning of the Q and A she was also asked how she had found out about The L word, how she had been approached by the creators and producers, ...
And she said it was very funny because obviously she was first called to audition for TLW because she had done The incredibly true adventure of two girls in love, but that's also why they first auditioned her for both Tina AND Shane and Laurel was so funny there because she raised both her hands in the air, and she repeated : " Shane !!! " and her facial expression meant :" Shane ??!! WTF ?!! ". And of course right from the beginning she knew she didn't want to play Shane, she wanted to be Tina.

Too bad I didn't get to ask her then what character she would have chosen if she had been offered to choose between Bette and Tina, just like JB was.
I have a feeling she might have said Bette back then...

Anyway, the last questions were asked by the audience and of course the first one was, I'm sorry, but a silly one if you ask me. This young woman asked her, and I quote : " if you were attracted to a woman/an actress in the show who would it be ? ". She smiled of course and said a bit sarcastically : I love these questions !! And everybody laughed.
But she said that she couldn't answer that question because she knew all these women so well now, but to try and answer the question, she still said Angelina Jolie and she went on repeating that anecdote she had told a couple of years ago ( in an interview that Fablu re-posted on Ourchart a few days ago, I think ) about she and Angelina auditionning for a movie called Foxfire 12 years ago and them kissing for the audition.
But actually, when the interpreter was done translating what she had said she said she wanted to take back what she had just said, she said that there was actually an actress that she could be attracted to in TLW and she was actually even French... And that was hilarious because she didn't say the name right away so I believe we were all thinking of the same person : Karina Lombard, and at the same time, it seemed really weird since everybody now knows she wasn't very much liked among the other actresses, and then Laurel said : Elodie Bouchez ( who played Jenny's gf in season 3 finale and in the first episode of season 4 ). And she went on explaning that she had first discovered her in a movie that she had absolutely fallen in love with at a film festival a few years back called La vie rêvée des anges ( the daydreams of angels was the American title, I think ) and that she loved French cinema ! And of course she made the audience so proud that she earned herself another round of applause !

Seriously though, I think that's part of what I enjoyed the most at this convention ( well, besides the fact that I got to see Laurel, Erin and Randy ) : There were people from all over Europe ( Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, UK... ) and even a few Mexican women so that was really great.

The interviewer was making a comment about how unusual for a show it was to have opening credits shot specifically for that. I mean, extra shots that were not shots from the show itself ( like it usually gets done ) and Laurel said that the directors/ authors/ producers had a pretty specific idea of what they wanted for the opening credits, that's why they hired a Canadian crew who was used to making music videos and she said they wanted something provocative, and sexy and different, etc. But actually she didn't shoot the opening credits with everybody else because she was actually in the hospital giving birth to her daughter, Lola, when the rest of the cast did that. So basically she ended up acting alone before a green screen in an LA studio later on. But everything was computerized anyway. And the use of green screens would allow them to easily replace things in post-production.
And the interviewer proceeded saying that it was probably meant to be since there are a lot of "disappearances" in The L Word and Laurel smiled and gave one of her famous eye rolling to that comment and added something to the effect of : " and a lot of new characters too ".


One more thing I forgot to mention was the questions she was asked about how difficult it was to work with babies and little kids ( since she and JB have been having Olivia Windbiel as their "co-star" for 3 or 4 years now ).
And Laurel's answer was very funny again ( even though she had told that story before ) because she said babies were actually very easy to work with since, unless they're crying, you can pretty much do whatever you want with a baby, but last season, Olivia, who was 3 at the time, started becoming a little too "independant" and she would leave the set in the midst of a take if she felt like doing something else or if she got bored, and more importantly, she would start talking when Laurel and JB were supposed to deliver their lines (she mentioned the car scene from season 5 finale again), so they had to improvise a lot when they had scenes with the kid, for she was very unpredictable.

In fact, come to think of it, in the very beginning of the interview Laurel also said that this was one of the things that were very new to her when she first started working on TV shows. She was used to making mostly movies previous to that, so she always had had more than enough time to practice her lines and try different things and maybe "readjust" her acting a little bit, but when she took up the role of Justine in Angel she realized TV actors couldn't afford themselves that kind of luxury. They have to be perfect the first day of shooting because they don't have time to try many different things.

Laurel didn't get to say a single thing about season 6 today. But you'll see in my report (which will be coming very soon) what she answered when asked about season 6. That was a nice rhetorical "pirouette", as we say here...

As for the atmosphere at the convention today... In a word : It was fantastic, even more than friday. Laurel looked exhausted, but she was way more relaxed and at ease than friday and she was very funny. In fact, she really seemed to be enjoying herself during the conference. Erin was hilarious too and they made a few jokes together and "highfived" a couple of times ( but I'll tell you more about that in my report ).
At any rate, Laurel charmed everyone and she had the longest standing ovation ever when she left tonight.

Laurel was asked about her current and future projects and apparently she remained a bit vague as far as her career. She said that she was planning on spending time with her family and taking care of her children mostly and she wouldn't be working at least until the end of this year. But after that, she said she would be very open to offers and she didn't have any specific plans.

Onto a totally different subject, a few people also reported to me that she had said she had actually been "fighting" ( well, not actually fighting of course ! ) to have more men in The L Word or at least to keep the few male characters they had on the show, because it seemed to her that each season they picked a male character just to be able to say that they had one, you know, but everytime he would disappear at the end of the season and you would never hear about him ever again and they would replace him with another one the next season,... It's like men were thrown away like tissues in this show... Well, I don't believe those were her actual words, but I guess you got the idea...

I'm afraid that's pretty much all I could get from the conference BUT... I was told about last night's dinner and the party at the club the previous night.
Well, honestly, I wasn't told much about the party at the club except that Laurel was very nice and funny and at ease with all the ( 8 ) "VIP fans" and she danced with them. She was very relaxed and she even danced to silly choreographies with them. In a word, they all said she was "so coooool !".
All the more cool that Randy Harrison was at a concert some place else so he couldn't come to the club, and Erin showed up after midnight ( the party started at 9:30 PM ) so Laurel was "alone" with the fans, the organizers and the interpreter most of the time. Well, they were not alone in the club of course...
Anyway, so it seems the party went really well, but the craziest stuff actually happened last night when the dinner took place...
All three actors were actually given the address of this fancy restaurant in the heart of the GAY Paris ( a quarter called "Le Marais" ) where they were supposed to have dinner with the 8 VIPs again at around 9:30 and I believe Randy Harrison and Erin Daniels took a taxi to get there, but Laurel and her husband decided to walk to the restaurant and get there by themselves ( which seems like a great idea on paper ). The only problem is Laurel's hubby, Paul, didn't get the name of the restaurant right or at least there was a confusion somewhere because the poor couple got a bit lost ( apparently they were very close to the place and even walked past the restaurant, but without knowing there were actually there ). So anyway, at some point, the brave Laurel Holloman caught sight of a "girls bar" ( hahaha ! ) and she recognized two girls she had seen at the convention on the same day ( keep in mind that she had seen them once ) so she walked up to them ( in a girls bar ! ) to ask for directions.
I guess you can guess the rest of the story ? The girls didn't know the place, but they offered to help them find it and as they walked out of the bar, more than 20 women followed Laurel outside ( I was told they were all like : OMG !, That's Tina !!! It's actually her ! ) and of course they made her even more late. In the end, I didn't exactly got how they had finally found the restaurant ( I believe they went back to their appartment at some point and the organizers had left them messages since they didn't have Laurel's personal number or something ), but don't worry, ladies, they got there safe and sound ! The only problem is Laurel was a bit desperate when they arrived because they were almost 2 hours late and if there's one thing she hates, it's being late. Apparently, she's never late anywhere.
But afterwards, she apologized to everybody ( and trust me, everybody gladly accepted her apology, they were so happy to have dinner with her !! The only thing is the organizers worried a lot about Laurel and Paul because they didn't know how to get in touch with them, and they knew she's always on time ) and the rest of the eveving apparently went amazingly well ! The VIPs had brought presents for the actors : macarons for Erin, a bottle of wine for Randy ( I think ), and since they didn't quite know what kind of food Laurel liked the most, they gave her a nice bottle of Champagne. And it seems when she saw the bottle she said (with a big smile on her face) something to the effect of : " I like the way you think " or something like that.
As for the dinner itself... Well, Erin and Laurel chatted A LOT with the lucky fans and Laurel talked for a long time with a woman seated next to her who had gone through adoption too some time ago, so they talked about how hard it had been and about the children of course, and it seems everybody was very emotional ( especially Laurel and that woman ). They almost cried.
Furthermore, it seems Laurel and Erin hadn't seen each other in a while so they were very happy to have the opportunity to talk and they laughed a lot.
To sum it up, the fans who were there all said Laurel was adorable and a very smart and open-minded woman.
One of them told me she was "délicieuse" which in this case could be translated as " charming " or "delightful ", I think, but it's definitely more than "charming" and I don't quite know if "delightful" or "delicious" mean more than just "sexually attractive" in English, because in this case "delicieuse" has much more to do with her personality than with her physical appearance ( even though he obviously found her very beautiful as well ).

All right, are you bored yet ? Because I didn't even start reporting on today's "events" so you have to tell me if I bored the L out of you already, guys... Also, do you get my English or am I making a fool out of myself ?

So, as I said before, unlike friday and yesterday where the actors answered a few fans questions, but were mostly interviewed by the organizers of the event ( who are fans of the show anyway... ), today it was fans/audience questions exclusively. The idea was that during the first two days of the convention the fans put the questions they didn't get to or didn't dare to ask the actors in a big box ( the questions were for the most part anonymous ) and today the interviewer and the interpreter opened the box and asked the actors all the questions ( well, except when a question had already been answered of course ). So, obviously the actors were warned right from the beginning, that some of the questions could be silly or daring and they really didn't have to answer if they didn't want to.
But, as you'll see, the questions were not that silly after all...

Of course I'm going to focus on the questions asked to Laurel here, but some of them were also directed at Erin and Randy ( and, by the way, Laurel was the one who had the largest amount of questions, I think, then Erin and then Randy ) :

- Laurel, how did you and Jennifer react when you found out that Bette and Tina were going to get back together in season 5 and do you think the fans or you and Jennifer influenced IC's decision to put them back together ?
Laurel said that obviously nobody could influence IC's decisions because if it were the case ( she turned to Erin and gave her a smile ) she wouldn't have killed off the most liked character in the show... But she said that Jennifer and she "passionately wanted" for Bette and Tina to get back together, they always have, but they also wanted for them to learn to treat each other with more kindness ( those were her actual words ) before they did.

- What is your favorite movie ?
L : It's hard to choose one, but I've always been a fan of John Cassavetes, so I'd have to say A woman under the influence... Or Opening night. But yeah, probably A woman under the influence, because it feels so real and that's the best thing you can say about a movie, to me.

- Laurel, how and why did you decide to support and "promote" Doctors without borders ?
Laurel's answer here was very long. She told all the story, so I obviously don't remember everything, but basically what I do remind is that she said it all started with the people who created her site LaurelHollomanonline.com and Rachel Shelley' site ( it's the same people ) and she chose "Doctors without borders" first because it's a big international organization, so she knew they were "serious" people, but also because it's one of the few organizations that doesn't have any political label and that's very important for her.
And then she explained that on her birthday they decided to raise money on her site and the fans raised $ 20 000 and that was perfect because Doctors without Borders were working on so many projects in Africa back then and then she somehow ( don't ask me how coz I really don't remember ) she linked that to the adoption of her baby girl which "happened" pretty much at the same time. Anyway, it was a beautiful story.
She added that the link to make donations to doctors without borders was still open on her site and she said that there was also a link to Mia Kirschner's charity "I live here" and she talked a little bit about Mia's book that Mia's currently promoting all over the world.

Then the next question ( which the interpreter who read it said was an excellent one before translating it into English ) was, and I quote :
- " Laurel Holloman, don't you think it should be forbidden to be as amazingly talented as you are ? "
Laurel blushed slightly ( as you may have guessed, everybody was applauding then ) and she replied looking for the person in the audience who had written the question : "Do you have a job for me ?... I can start working soon ! ".
And of course she made everybody laugh with that comment...

- For you, as an actor, what was the most interesting season to play ? And as a viewer ( if you watch the show ) which one is your favorite season ? ( this was actually one of my questions. I was so proud she got to answer it ).
L : The most interesting season for me to play was season 5 and parts of season 1 and my favorite one is season 5, though I actually don't watch the show. I'm sorry, but I don't. It's really hard for me to watch myself. I don't like that. I see all the "imperfections" and I'm like " why was I wearing that thing ? " or "OMG, I put much weight on when pregnant !!"...
And again, she had everybody laughing with that comment...

- Are you sad that the show is ending ?
L : I have mixed feelings. I'm both sad and relieved... But it's been great to get to do this job for so long. It was a blessing.

- Are there any French actors or directors you would like to work with ?
L : - Elodie Bouchez, I loved La vie rêvée des anges aka The daydreams of angels ( she had said that friday as well and I suspected she said that to please the audience but at any rate, that worked for she earned herself yet another round of applause of course ! ).
- André Téchiné. She loved a movie called Thieves with Catherine Deneuve too.
- And she loved Ponette but couldn't remember the name of the director ( Jacques Doillon ) and I certainly can't blame her for that for the movie is not that well known, and almost nobody in the audience could remember his name either.

OK, end of part one !

Part 2 of the Q and A coming soon...

Part 2 :

- You probably ( obviously ) earned yourself a lot of compliments for your work on this show, but have you ever been criticized for your work ?
L : Well, me personally, no, but when Tina went back to men ( through Henry )... Well, I remember after season 3 had just aired, I went to the Dinah Shore weekend and I got booed a lot.
But then again, when I was working in Angel, a few days after the episode where my character, Justine, cuts Wesley's throat had aired, I walked into an office and someone threatened to kill me.

- If you were offered to choose between the part of Bette and the part of Tina, who would you choose to play ? ( actually this was again one of my questions, but the way I had written it, it was slightly different and longer. The question was : Originally, Jennifer Beals had been offered to choose between two parts in the show : Bette and Tina. If you had been offered the same choice, who would you have chosen to play back then ? Bette or Tina ? ).
She thinks about it for a minute and then she explains that she was actually trying to picture herself in Jennifer/Bette's clothes, which makes everybody laugh...
Laurel : Tina ! Because, you know, we complement each other so well that I couldn't imagine myself playing Bette. I couldn't imagine anyone else playing Bette and Tina. However, Jennifer and I are actually both very different from the characters we play.

The thing is the way the question was asked made Laurel talk in hindsight. What I wanted to know was back then, before the show started and if no one had been cast in the role of Bette yet, would she have gone for the challenge of playing Tina who was soooo different from herself or would she have chosen to play Bette who was more similar to her in terms of personality, by her own admission, but also so much more fleshed out as a character.
But anyway, I can totally see why she said Tina ( and I'm relieved that she said that ) and I couldn't picture anyone else in any of those parts either of course.

Then the next question was actually addressed to Erin, but Laurel jumped in at one point and it was quite funny, so basically it went :
- I know that most actresses in the show are straight, but playing a lesbian for 3 or more years, and having to make out with women for the show... Has anyone "switched" to being lesbian ?
And Erin instantly replied : " yes, I'm with Laurel now ! ".
And Laurel of course played along with her. She put her head on Erin's shoulder and confirmed : " yes, we're together. Actually, I followed her here. "
Everybody laughed out loud or cheered them of course...
It was so funny, but the joke became even funnier later on as you'll see.
But actually, Erin added that, seriously, it was actually a good question because, indeed, if anyone was confused about their sexuality in the beginning, after working on the show they were absolutely sure of their sexual orientation. And Laurel nodded to everything Erin said.

- And finally the question I HAD TO ask, no matter what, was picked :
Laurel, are Bette and Tina going to stay together the whole time in season 6 ?
I confess I was a bit surprised that many people didn't seem to want to be spoiled and said "shhh !"
L : You know, just after we wrapped up the shooting of season 6, Ilene gave me a pill and I forgot everything about it.

- Do you have any hobbies ?
L : Yes, it's called childcare ! ( she smiled ) Seriously, I don't have time for anything else now that I have kids...
Then Erin said she played piano and Laurel took her microphone again and added :
L : When the kids are busy, I try to paint. I paint as much as I can.

- Do you know any of the songs by Uh Huh her ?
Not that well, but I have heard them for sure and I have the CD in my car and my four year old loves them !

Part 3 :

- Laurel, you said in an interview ( not only on the show ) that Tina was technically bisexual, but politically a lesbian. What do you mean by "politically a lesbian" ?
L : I was paid to say that !... ( She takes a minute to think about the question...)...
Well... Tina is attracted to both sexes, but Bette is the love of her life and socially she feels part of the lesbian community, she feels comfortable in the lesbian community. However, I would say that she's label-less. Sexuality is fluid for her.

The next question was actually a proposal for Erin ( an anonymous one obviously ):
- Erin Daniels, will you marry me ?
She blushed a little and said with an embarrassed look : "I'm taken". And Laurel jumped in and said : " yeah, she's with me ! " And she put her head on Erin's shoulder again. And Erin added pointing at Laurel : "I'm sorry, she was here first."
They were hilarious. Everyone was having so much fun at that point.

- The next question was asked to all three of them :
How do you feel about Sarah Palin ?
And all of a sudden you could read disgust on all three faces, but none of them actually said they hated her.
Erin did an hilarious impression of her. Accent and all. She said something about going moose hunting with her. Actually, I think she was doing an impression of Tina Fey making an impression of Sarah Palin, but that was hysterical all the same.
And Laurel added that she didn't like Sarah Palin, but she made her love Tina Fey more and more and recommended checking out her videos on youtube.

- What did you buy with your first paycheck ( from the show ) ?
L : A house. I had actually just finished working in Angel and we had shot the pilot of The L Word. I had been living in a small apartment in New York until then, so that money helped pay my house, granted in a not-so-fancy neighborhood of L.A., but a house nevertheless.
And right after, I adopted a dog.

- What is the craziest thing a fan has ever made for you ( good and bad ) ?
L : I've been blessed in that I don't have crazy fans. I only have fans with very healthy boundaries ( Erin had just said she had been stalked and that was scary ). And frankly I don't know an actor who doesn't love to hear " I love what you do !".

And that's how the conference ended, ladies !

That's also when it was announced that Laurel had to leave ( the other two actors still had a photoshoot and an autograph session planned ) and the audience gave Laurel a great long standing ovation.

Speaking of autograph sessions, this morning I asked Laurel to sign my copy of Loving Jezebel and she said "Oh, I love that movie !". I thought I would mention it because she didn't make such a comment for The myth of fingerprints ( which I personally love, even though Laurel has a small part in it ) nor, even more surprisingly, for The rising place.
But the funniest part was when someone would ask her an autograph on a DVD set of The L Word, cause guys, I have to say this, our region 2 DVD sets are usually much prettier than the region 1 ones ( though the contents of the DVDs are the same )...
And so I asked her to sign my season 1 and my season 2 DVD sets and each time she would look at everything in detail and say : "Oh, look at thaaaat !".
She was so cute !!

This time I think I'm done, ladies. I told you pretty much everything I can remember.


Oh, no, one more thing ( even though I'm not sure how interesting this is ) : at some point Erin was asked if working in The L Word had somehow changed her look on lesbians, if it had allowed her to see things from a different perspective, and she said yes, it had. There were a lot more things she understood now and there were things she thought she knew, but found out she didn't and in fact, she now knows that she still has a lot to learn about lesbians and gays.
And Laurel nodded all along and added that she too thought she knew gays and lesbians pretty well for she had a lot of gay friends, but she said she had never realized before she really didn't know all that well how lesbian relationships worked and she learned a lot as well. There were questions she had simply never asked herself before.


Hahaha ! I thought this one could make you smile : I just read on a French L Word board some fans saying that, besides being beautiful and sooo kind, Laurel smelled great ! Fans really are crazy ! But I guess that's always good to know, right ? Honestly, I didn't smell anything, but then again I had a bit of a cold, so...


saturday's auctions :

- So you already know about Tina's DIOR bra from Stir-fry sex ( 380 euros ), and about the boots ( 370 euros ). The white jacket that Tina wore in season 2 ( though I still don't know which one they're talking about ) was sold for 370 euros, the T-shirt 200 euros and the reproduction of the singing plant/flower that Alice never got a chance to give Dana at the hospital 170 euros.

The funny part part is another reproduction of that singing plant was given to Erin the next day.
Right after the sunday Q/A finished and Laurel and Randy left the auditorium, Erin was asked to stay in said auditorium with the interviewers and the audience of course, and the VIP fans gave her the singing plant ... You know, the one that moves and sings : " You are my sunshine, my only sunshine "... And that was funny because they shut all the lights then and the lyrics were shown on the big screen and everybody ( including the interpreter and the interviewer ) sang the song aloud and when the lights came back on Erin was like : " awww, that is so cute ! " and she hugged the interpreter and interviewer that were on the stage with her. That was sweet, really.

And some fans also said on the forums that originally Laurel wasn't even supposed to come to the auctions for she didn't have to, but she personally insisted on coming because she felt really comfortable and they all said she DEFINITELY helped raise the prices.
However, most posters seem surprised that the bra was sold for only 380 euros. Someone over on that French site even wrote : " come on, there is both Laurel and JB's DNA on that bra !!! ".

Anyway, they all said Laurel seemed genuinely surprised that the prices went so high so fast.