Claudia arrived at the bar around 8:30. She looked lovely as always, in a long black dress and black jacket. Hmmm, perhaps she has been spending too much time with the Psi Corps?
As this was a small, informal gathering, she didn't have a prepared talk for us but immediately opened the floor to questions. As always these were initially slow in coming, but soon accelerated.
On request, Claudia started to translate lyrics from her "Taboo" CD, but soon became embarrassed. I won't record any of the translations here, for the benefit of any readers of a sensitive disposition. She did give us a short rendition of "I Only Have Eyes for You" and also her, by now legendary, impersonation of Captain Janeway.
When asked about her least favourite role, she picked the film "Arena" for its sheer corniness. She also went on to recount her first scene in a film: stripping in "The Hidden". No one had told her about the concept of "closed sets" at that stage and so she performed in front of an audience of ogling off-duty crew members!
With regard to more recent appearances, she has filmed a sex scene with Jim Belushi for a TV pilot and also played a small part in a film called "Snide & Prejudice". It was the latter she had been promoting in Cannes, allowing her to stop off for this Audience on her way home.
In answer to a question regarding her literary preferences, Claudia told us that she enjoyed historical books and was currently reading "The Burgermeister's Daughter". She has also herself written three screenplays, two and a half novels and an entire series of children's books.
Music was next and she expressed a preference for 50's jazz singers; but only actually hates Country & Western and Acid Rock. The former is apparently an effect of growing up in Texas and doesn't stop her from writing C&W songs!
Around this time in the Audience a good line was spoken which I will enjoy taking out of context: "I'll show you the way to God!".
Returning to the subject of B5, someone asked whether she would have liked Ivanova's relationship with Talia to have been developed further. Choosing to interpret this as "Would I do Talia?", Claudia told us a tale of how she and Andrea Thompson had managed to render jms speechless by "rehearsing" a nonexistent love scene. She said that she and Andrea definitely gave the men "a hard time"...
Claudia also expressed some concern over jms' lifestyle: drinks Coke all day, eats lots of red meat and doesn't sleep. [Well, I guess he has a career in the computer industry waiting if he ever gives up writing. - ed.]
Asked about how she got on with other members of the cast, Claudia said that she socialized primarily with Bruce and Mira (and their other halves), but had talked with Peter Jurassik about the possibility of them doing a two person play at some future date.
The questions reverted to the subject of music again and the DJ put on "Fishheads" from Bill Mumy's album. "Boggled" would probably be a reasonable description of Claudia's reaction. Gillian Anderson's single only managed to elicit "is that it?" when her vocals could eventually be found in the song and, of course, we had to hear a song from "Taboo".
Not particularly impressed by a question about why actresses, achieving a certain level of fame, felt the need to record songs, she did point out that she had recorded a (jazz) album at the age of nine.
After the questions had been brought to a close, Claudia endured a large number of autograph signings and photo calls before departing after a total of about two hours in the bar.