People talk 2/10/03

Convention shows fans still keen on Xena

PASADENA, Calif. -- Her television adventures may be over, but "Xena: Warrior Princess" still attracts a crowd.

A talk by the princess warrior herself, actress Lucy Lawless, was the highlight of the annual Xena Convention, which ended Sunday and was expected to draw 5,000 over three days. The TV show's final episode aired two years ago after six seasons.

Appearing with Lawless on Saturday evening was Renee O'Connor, who played "Xena" sidekick Gabrielle.

On Saturday, mostly young and middle-aged women mingled around tables of "Xena" merchandise, scripts and autographed pictures.

The convention also featured talks by other former cast members, and clips and spoofs of the show.

"We hang out and watch the stars," said Stephanie McCarren, 19, who has attended Xena conventions for three years.

'Solaris' remake helps director deal with loss

BERLIN -- Remaking the Russian science fiction movie "Solaris" helped director Steven Soderbergh deal with his father's death 15 years ago.

The film, one of 22 vying for the Berlin Film Festival's top prize, is about a recently widowed psychologist sent to investigate mysterious happenings on a space station orbiting the star Solaris. The psychologist, played by George Clooney, comes to understand the behavior of the station's crew members only after he encounters his deceased wife.

"Often, making a film is a way of working through some experience," Soderbergh said Saturday at the movie's festival screening. "My father died in 1988 and that was my way of working through a very disorienting experience."

Rapper turns from drugs and violence to Allah

LOS ANGELES -- Gangsta rapper Napoleon has a new name: Pilgrim.

The rapper, who real name is Mutah Wasin Shabazz Beale, is joining other Muslims worldwide in making the annual hajj to Mecca, birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and home to Islam's holiest shrine.

For Beale, the trip to Saudi Arabia symbolizes his emergence from a world of drugs and violence.

"Before I didn't care about living or dying," said Beale, 25, who lives with his fiance and 3-year-old son. "Now I recognize how beautiful life is. I love to have another day to pray to Allah."

Saturday was the start of the five-day pilgrimage, required once in a lifetime for all Muslims who are able-bodied and can afford the trip.

Beale was a member of the rap group Outlawz and a protege of the late Tupac Shakur.

"I don't regret nothing in my past," Beale said in Saturday's Los Angeles Times. "People respect me more because of it. It shows that only God can humble someone like me."

-- From wire reports

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SAN FRANCISCO -- "Star Wars" creator George Lucas hopes a $300 million special effects campus for his film company will help San Francisco rival Hollywood as a producer of movie magic.

"San Francisco's always had a quality of filmmaking that most people haven't been able to recognize, we always get shoved under the title 'Hollywood,"' Lucas said Saturday at the project's groundbreaking.

"I think this will begin to put a stake in the ground for San Francisco as a filmmaking community, as a creator of world cinema."

The campus, for the digital arts project of Lucasfilm Ltd., will be near the Golden Gate Bridge at the Presidio and is expected to help make the national park economically self-sufficient. Congress has mandated that the Presido break even by 2013.

"We're really very, very grateful to the commitment that George Lucas has made," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who represents the area in Congress and attended the ceremony.

In a letter released Saturday, the Telegraph Hill Dwellers neighborhood group said extensive commercial development isn't needed for the Presidio's financial well-being.

The 850,000-square-foot project is scheduled for completion in 2005 and eventually will house 2,500 workers, Lucasfilm officials said. Lucasfilm's headquarters, Skywalker Ranch, is across the Golden Gate Bridge from the Presidio in Marin County.

-- From wire reports