Right now, for instance. Unconcerned she might touch off a mob scene, the 26-year-old O'Connor, clad in jeans and a sky-blue sleeveless turtleneck, blithely breezes through a pack of freshly-scrubbed teens in the lobby of her Austin, TX hotel like a wholesome prom queen. Didn't anyone stop her? "Yeah," she sighs. "One of the kids in the elevator on the way down asked me if I was with the student council convention."
Such anonymity may not last for the actress, who plays Gabrielle, the spunky sidekick to the title character on "Xena: Warrior Princess." In just the past year, the syndicated show has had near-epic success, going from cult favorite among teens and middle-aged men to a hit that surpasses even "Star Trek" in viewership. PEOPLE Online users voted her one of the Most Intriguing people of last year and one of the Most Beautiful of '97.
But until now, O'Connor has had little taste of stardom. "Xena" films on location in New Zealand nine months out of the year. The series only recently began airing on television Down Under, so the cast is fairly unrecognized there, and fans tend to be reserved.
"New Zealanders are very English -- they restrain themselves," O'Connor says. "If they recognize you, they're more likely to look at you with a funny expression so you think you've got ink on your shirt!
"Americans are much more out-going and apt to come up to you," she says. "I was in Houston a few days ago for my high school reunion, and the fan reaction was overwhelming. There was this one girl who didn't know what to say to me -- she was so excited that you could see her body shaking.
"The attention made me very embarrassed, but it was great, actually. And it's strange, but a lot of people want to hug me, I guess because I play the kid sister on the show."
If O'Connor is surprised by the success of "Xena," in which she and star Lucy Lawless battle demons, right injustice and match wits with the gods each week, the show's heroic tone may be explanation enough.
At an informal meeting with fans in Austin, O'Connor was royalty. "She is my inspiration," says Diana Palmer, 48, who brought her husband and three children to meet her heroine. Palmer, who is deaf, adds: "When I watch the program I am encouraged to reach for my goals."
Marilyn Gabrielle Ramirez, 6, of Austin, was completely tongue-tied when she met O'Connor, whose character shares her middle name. Later, she shyly confided that the chance to meet the star was "better than meeting Santa Claus."
While she's happy that fans have taken
to Gabrielle, O'Connor says she's
nothing like her gutsy TV alter ego. On
a recent trip to Tanzania, "We climbed
Mt. Kilimanjaro, but it wasn't anything
like you'd expect," she says. "When I
got to the summit, I didn't feel heroic. I
didn't even feel healthy. I had to crawl
to the summit and, when I got there, I
tried to go to sleep. I was exhausted, just
miserable. I'm lucky I didn't toss my cookies!"
The attention has taken some getting used to. "The fans are still pretty much of a shock to Renee," says stepfather Eddie Wilson, who's been compiling scrapbooks filled with fan letters and newspaper articles. "She's surprised that anybody turns out (to see her)."
O'Connor has been able to meet more fans online. She recently appeared in an AOL chat and launched her own Web site, staffed by two fans to help her respond to e-mail. The pair puts in 14 hours a week, scouring through 80-100 e-mails a month. "I have an obligation to at least respond if they've taken the time to write me," she says.
Letters often bring story ideas and pitches for scripts (which O'Connor avoids), but she's been intrigued by the speculations some fans have about her character, not the least of which suggests the leather-clad Gabrielle and Xena are actually lesbian lovers. "I find the whole thing fascinating," she says. "We're talking about two women with a strong friendship. People see into that all sorts of things. It's become a cult unto itself. We accept it (the lesbian connection) as a subtext. I mean, there is a love between us, and as long as we play the innocence of that ... people can believe whatever they want. We like to keep them guessing."
O'Connor makes no bones about her real life interest in men -- and her current flame, a towering charmer she met eight months ago while shooting the series in New Zealand named Steve Muir, 29. Muir, who runs a restaurant and bar in Auckland, accompanied O'Connor back to the States to meet her family. "They all love him. He's amazing," she reports.
O'Connor's mother, Sandra, is clearly tickled by her daughter's success if a bit addled by her overweening interest in acting, which began in grade school. "I thought she'd grow up someday and quit playing make-believe," Wilson says, shaking her head. "I guess not."
Not that O'Connor has gone Hollywood. She still travels without an entourage. She registers under her own name in hotels. And she doesn't do limos: During a fan reception at Threadgill's World Headquarters, an Austin diner owned by stepdad Wilson, she strolled over from her hotel, unannounced. (Wilson, a legendary promoter in Austin music circles, doesn't share O'Connor's reserve. He draped 50-foot banners across the exterior of his diner, each proclaiming: "Renee O'Connor We Love You!")
And, for now, her unassuming nature sets the tone at these brief meetings with fans. At Threadgill's, she gamely personalizes photos, signs baseball caps and T-shirts, and poses for snapshots for two and a half hours for the 75-100 fans who've heard about the unofficial gathering. A balding man in shirt and tie smiles broadly as he spirits away his trophy -- a photo that reads: "To Gene: Love You and Mean It."
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