Eight years ago, its stars stepped out in front of fans at
the UK's first ever convention for The L Word to rapturous
applause, whoops and wolf whistles. The hit TV show had made
lesbian icons of its cast of largely unknown actresses. Last month,
at what is slated to be the penultimate "L Event" at the Hilton
Metropole Hotel on the outskirts of Birmingham, Leisha Hailey, who
played funny girl Alice, and Kate Moennig, the infamous
shaggy-haired lothario Shane, sloped out onto the stage, threw down
their rucksacks (kept nearby to ensure a quick escape?) and picked
up microphones to little more than a murmur from the audience of
surprisingly lacklustre fans, some of whom had paid over £200 for a
weekend gold pass.
Moennig, who turned 35 in December, sat with her legs pulled tight
into her chest, clasping a mug of lemon tea and wearing a baggy
woollen jumper and grey checked scarf. She told the audience she
was sick and everything about her lackadaisical performance at the
"Q&A session" suggested she'd rather be curled up in bed at
home in Hollywood than, admittedly very graciously, answering such
questions as, "Kate, where's your hat today?" and, "If you had a
tail, what kind of tail would it be?"
I get the impression life in the spotlight, albeit currently a
dimming one, doesn't come easily for Moennig. When I ask if she
finds it hard to deal with the interest fans take in her personal
and love life, "I don't really deal with it on my end of the
spectrum", she tells me during our chat in a Hilton boardroom
before another autograph session. "It doesn't come into my life.
I'm not confronted by the people who are interested in me on a
daily basis. I wouldn't know how I would find that stuff out… I
guess it comes with the territory. As long as that line of
respect is drawn..." She trails off, her quiet East Coast voice,
with its long, languid vowels, making every sentence seem like a
sigh.
Read the rest of this interview in DIVA's bumper
January/February issue
