OK, here we go.....

1.  You are suddenly granted a reprieve from a death sentence.  What's the menu for your celebratory banquet? (You have an unlimited budget, and the services of any celebrity chef you wish.)

First of all, in TEXAS?!?!?!  HA!!!  But in the snowball's chance in hell this were to happen, I don't need no stinking celebrity chefs.  All I need is a limitless lobster, crab, shrimp, Caesar salad and Pad Thai buffet with gallons of Cherry Coke.  YUM!  YUM!

2. You are suddenly given one million dollars to spend on charitable works. Who do you help, and how?

Ah!  This is NOT a hard question.  I am a sucker for animals and have often said that if I could pick up every stray dog I saw, I would.  So, I would have to donate money and/or food to some of the smaller animal shelters who don't have the high profile exposure of the Humane Society or SPCA, or just build a shelter myself.

I am also huge into community theater and know that many theaters are suffering.  Many community theaters settle for low rent facilities that are not necessarily up to building codes and whatnot.  In fact, I have been in some that should just be downright condemned.  I would either pay to have the necessary repairs made to existing facilities so that they are usable or I would pay for a theatre company to move into a new facility all together.

3.  Rufus (ie George Carlin) shows up at your door with the time-traveling phone booth and gives you the chance to go to five different places/times for drinks and conversation with anyone you wish.  Alternately, you can gather them together for a serious cocktail party/symposium.  Who's on your list?

I did a survey called Celebrity Dinner that was really similar to this question.  Here is my list of who I would want to eat/socialize with and what I would talk to them about:

Mary Boleyn:  circa 1520.  What did she really look like?  Was she better looking than her sister (I think so), and what was it about her that made two of the most powerful men in the world take notice of her?  She was a very forward and independent thinker in the end.  After being made to do the bidding of her family for so many years as the Mistress to Francois I of France and Henry VIII of England, she ended up marrying for love to a man who had no peerage, and married him secretly.  They were together till she died.  I would want to ask her how she felt about being a political pawn for her family and if she felt she was making a statement marrying without permission.

Queen Mary I of England (Mary Tudor):  circa 1555.  Mary has always been a fascinating figure to me.  She was the first woman to rule England in her own right (as opposed to being Queen Consort) and she developed the horrible moniker "Bloody Mary."  If you look at the person she was, I think history has been very unkind to her.  Bloody Mary was very much a term applied to her by her political foes.  But in her lifetime, she suffered horribly at the hands of her father who bastardized her, forbade her from seeing her mother if she would not sign the act of succession declaring her mother's marriage to her father invalid, and was made to serve as a lady in waiting to her younger sister, the future Queen Elizabeth.  But throughout the mental and psychological abuse, she remained steadfast in her faith in God and the Catholic Church.  As monarch, she was described as being extremely kind and generous.  She was very concerned about making good marriages for her ladies (something Elizabeth forbade for many of her ladies) and had genuine concern for the well being of her people.  Although I am not condoning her for her sanctioning of the burning of protestants, I understand that she believed that what she was doing was trying to save these people from eternal damnation.    But I digress.  I would love to have Mary over for tea and just chat about her stress and what she could do to overcome her anxiety.

Katherine of Aragon:  Circa 1520, because she was always graceful, always patient, always pious, always dutiful, always endured and never complained.  I would like to tell her how much I admire her.

Cleopatra:  I didn't really mean to have all this royalty on my list, but who wouldn't want to have her over?  To meet the woman face to face would be immeasurable.  I would want to ask her about her plans for her children and what was her secret for wooing two of the most powerful men in the world.

Jesus:  I think this choice speaks for itself.  I would also want to have a video camera handy so I could prove to people that he did not have blonde hair, blue eyes and didn't speak with a British accent.

4.  As an actress, what role have you always wanted to play but never had the chance?

This is a really hard question because there are so many great roles out there so I have to name a few.  I don't have just one role.  Eleanor of Aquitane in "A Lion in Winter", Rita in "Prelude to a Kiss", Louisa in "The Fantastiks" and I would LOVE to be able to do opera, especially Cherubino in "Le Nozze di Figaro".

5.  Name the strangest items in your music, book, and film collections.

Hmmmmm, In my music collection it would have to be the companion soundtrack to one of my husband's video games, No One Lives Forever II.   Its groovy baby, yeah!  In my book collection I have some books about torture and medieval punishment which I don't think you find on most people's bookshelves.  In my movie collection I have a Sci-Fi Russian film (in Russian) about a serial killer called "Stalker."  I don't think you will find that in many people's film collections either.  I WOULD like to get a copy of "Freaks."

So there are my five questions.  if you want five original questions from me, feel free to send me an email or a leave me a note.   I leave you now with my song virus du jour....

....So, like... take off... to the Great White North...Take off... it's a beauty way to go... Take OFF! YOU ... HOSERS!