Lucy Lawless loves you

It's been well established that gay men love Xena, but now we know: Xena loves you back.

At Saturday night's Human Rights Campaign awards gala in San Francisco, I told Lucy Lawless she had a lot of fans on her our website, and her face lit up. "Really? That's wonderful," she said. "I’m always counting on the women, but I love beautiful men. I love doing things with beautiful men, so I say bring it on. And bring your friends."

Lucy swept into the media reception before the dinner wearing a low-cut black evening gown, changed into a shiny catsuit, and then appeared on stage in a sparkling golden gown that would have been perfect on Rita Hayworth in Gilda. She posed for photos with keynote speaker Elizabeth Edwards, HRC Equality Award recipient George Takei, and HRC president Joe Solmonese, before providing a little self-described "comic relief" and serving as the world's most glamorous auctioneer at the fundraising event.

On stage, she cajoled one bidder into forking over $5000 for a luxury cruise ("His name is Brian, he's with AT&T, he's single, and he's at table 6") and even offered to sit on laps to get the bidding up before the final gavel dropped on a five-figure gourmet catered dinner for 14.

Right about now you're saying, "Crush on Lucy Lawless much?" And of course I do. But I'm not alone -- and it's not just lesbians who do. One of the MCs, Greg “the Gay Sportscaster” Sherell, said he'd "jump the fence for Lucy Lawless." George Takei said she was "fantastic." A young HRC volunteer gushed, "I'm in love with her!"

How does that work, I asked him, seeing as how you're, you know, a gay man?

"She's a blonde bombshell," he responded. "Gay men always love bombshells."

I'd say a lot of gay men loved her in her dark-haired Xena-leather days even more, but either way, we'll all be seeing more of her in months to come, when she returns for another season as Cylon D'anna Biers on Battlestar Galactica.

What about the US version of Footballers' Wives, which she was supposed to star in? "I don’t know," she said. "They picked up our options. I can’t bear to give my heart away again. It took a long time to say, 'Oh, yeah, here’s a series I want to be committed to.' So, if it doesn’t come back out, I’m not going to be heart broken again. I’ve been bitten. Put it that way, I’ve been bitten."

Photos by KT Jorgensen.