"After Xena ended in April, I had to take a break. I felt like I had been chasing a greased pig, trying to grab the brass ring in pursuit of the Holy Grail in Hollywood," she says.

Though she returned to the cameras to guest in the two-part season premiere of The X-Files, which airs Nov. 4 and 11, she's spent recent months mainly "re-evaluating what I want to do with my life," she says. "It wasn't to be on the cover of every magazine. Such re-evaluation has been especially true since Sept. 11."

She reports that being so many thousands of miles from America hasn't made New Zealanders immune to the effects of last month's terrorist attacks on our country.

Over the long horn from Auckland, she reports, "People here, like people everywhere, are fearful about the future. The rug was pulled out from under us all, our sense of security collapsed with the attacks -- knowing that if it can happen in the U.S., it can happen anywhere."

Lawless will head to these shores at month's end to promote her X-Files appearance, and she says she and her husband, Xena executive producer Robert Tapert, will return again with their son and daughter for Christmas in his home state of Michigan.

At least "those are the plans," she says, "if all is going well."

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