$21,000. No that is not a typo. At the end of the AUSXIP Charity Auction on 27 March, the amount pledged via winning biddings came out to $20,022. Now that is a mind blowing figure to begin with. Double and then some of last year's auction amount raised for Starship of $9500.

I received the latest spreadsheet from Starship this morning from Jenni, the wonderful lady at Starship who I have been working with on this. In addition to the winning bids there has been just under $1000 given as donations.

Lucy Lawless is amazed and sent in the following message on 2 April 2012

To Mary and the fans: I have been very remiss...

In not expressing my humblest thanks for all your kindness to the Starship Foundation over the past weeks (and years). You raising over $20,000 for Starship this past week shocked me. Mary, you, your posse and the greater Xenaverse have challenged my own view on my career and it's place in the world.

I honestly just took the role of Xena because the chips fell my way. Ren and I acted the words that someone else put in our mouths and wore the costumes given us. We were paid pretty well for that time and we were grateful. But, and I think Ren would agree, we NEVER foresaw the kind of community spirit that has long survived the show itself. How could we? I do not believe there has ever been a precedent for this kind of fandom.

The Xena fans are beyond generous, beyond loving and ever faithful. No wonder Bill Shatner filmed the last Con. (When's that out, by the way?) Because of your Kindness to the Starship Foundation, the sickest children of NZ have been the recipient of so much love from afar. Please rest assured that every penny is appreciated and thoughtfully spent. Brad and his team are worthy members of our team.

I love you all! I wish you peace and laughter all the days of your life,

Yours truly,

Lucy Lawless

Starship is amazed. - Read Brad Clark, CEO of Starship, message to the fans on 30 March 2012

On behalf of Starship kids and families from all over New Zealand who will benefit from your support - a huge Starship Foundation thanks to all the winners and bidders in the recent Lucy/Xena memorabilia auction!
- Brad Clark,
CEO Starship Foundation

EVERYONE is amazed (myself included)

Thank you to everyone who donated, who bid, who won and who supported. I know it's not possible without your support, without the support of the actors/writers who gave of their time and energy.

It is also not possible without the support of my right hand, Roger who has been with me on this since September 2006 when the idea surfaced and Christa who also gives of her time and energy.

Thanks everyone.

Battle On!

MaryD

I'm very pleased to welcome two new members to the AUSXIP staff. Aiglon and Olansamuelle join AUSXIP as Contributing Editors.

The contributing editor regularly contributes material for publication  but is not involved in the editing on AUSXIP. In respects to Aiglon (who has her magnificent art on AUSXIP - Look at Aiglon's Art subsite) she will be helping me with the art and other images as well as being an AUSXIP  reporter for Poland and Europe.

Olansamuelle, in addition her fantastic  Spartacus: Draw Them All comic strip will be helping with Spartacus related articles and also be an AUSXIP Reporter for Spain.

Aiglon and Olansamuelle join Mesh, Roger and Tobias as contributing editors.

Lori Boyles is Assistant editor and I'm Chief Editor.

Battle On!

MaryD

Our friends at Legendary Heroes approached me a few weeks ago about this wonderful giveaway to the Xena fans. As most of you know there was the AUSXIP Charity Auction that going to start and it was decided that we didn't want it to clash so the giveaway was held back until today! It's limited to those from the mainland states (excludes Hawaii and Alaska) and not overseas.

So today I'm very stoked to announce the Xena Warrior Princess DVD Set giveaway!

We’re giving away one Xena Warrior Princess DVD Set from Legendary Heroes, which includes ALL SIX seasons (plus bonus content) of Xena’s adventures.

Score the entire set by emailing us using the  AUSXIP DVD Giveaway Form with your name, email address, phone number, and mailing address.

Sweepstakes Rules:

THE SWEEPSTAKES ENDS APRIL 20, 2012, at which point the winner will be selected randomly.  Please note that this contest is limited to those from the mainland states (excludes Hawaii and Alaska). Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.  Thanks and good luck!

Includes ALL 6 Seasons of Xena Warrior Princess plus Xena 10th Anniversary DVD Collection
Valued at $129 USD

Showcased within a 54-disc, library-quality boxed set, each individually preserved season includes Xena's extraordinary adventures uncut and commercial free, plus countless hours of exclusive season-specific bonus material, like Lost Scenes, Series Trivia, Photo Galleries, and more.
Starring: Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor, Ted Raimi, Adrienne Wilkinson, Hudson Leick, Kevin Smith
Release Date: 07/26/2005
Director: Mark Beesley, Eric Brevig
Runtime: 6312 Minutes
Rating: Not Rated
DVD Features

• 51 disc set featuring all 134 episodes plus three bonus CD-ROMs
• Alternative director's cuts plus special featurettes, bloopers, audio commentary, and interviews
• Fully remastered in the original full frame presentations
• All-new Dolby Surround 5.1
• Bonus CD-ROMs includes trivia, Xena chronicles, extensive production designs & sketches, actor, writer and director bios

I've decided to change tack on AUSXIP Spartacus and it will now be focused on art and images for Spartacus - all 4 flavours: Season 1, Prequel, Season 2 and Season 3.

If you would like to feature your artwork on this site, please send your artwork with the following information

Submission Guidelines

- Must be your own work!
- Pencil Drawings
- Photo Manipulations
- Wallpapers
- Montages

Please Note
AUSXIP reserves the right not to publish any art submitted to AUSXIP SPARTACUS if it contains nudity and/or adult in nature.

Submit here

Hey folks, did everyone see the Lucy message last night? Amazing what this fandom can achieve. We can move mountains and your generosity just proves we can achieve fantastic things. If you didn't win an item and would like to be part of the AUSXIP Charity Auction amazing total of $20,022 then you can donate as well.

Click here to read Lucy's message |  Click here to read Starship CEO Brad Clark message

If you have not paid yet - click here How to Pay |  Donate

Good news is that last week Jenni from Starship sent me the spreadsheet of payments and over the weekend, I matched it to the spreadsheet that I had. 90% of payments have been made. I think that's a record and even Jenni commented on how fast payments have flooded in! Imagine a sea of donations just streaming into Starship - in two days they got $15,716.67! How's that for a mental image. Now that is a lot of dinars!

This week shipments will commence if you have paid up till 30 March. I received another spreadsheet this morning from Jenni and will process them. We are running into Easter which means the next spreadsheet will come on Thursday and then we go into Good Friday and the Easter break. Starship takes a break then so if you haven't sent in your payment please do so before Thursday (or Wednesday US date) so I can get the info and process it.

If you won multiple items - the items may be in several locations (either in Sydney with me, in Seattle, in Los Angeles and a few other places where fans have donated and will ship out). We will try and combine items for shipping but sometimes that isn't possible so they will come in multiple packages.

You all know one of my favourite quotes is by Helen Keller:

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” -Helen Keller

You guys prove it each and every time! This fandom runs on love.

Battle On!

MaryD

Received the following note from Lucy just now and this is in response to the AUSXIP Charity Auction that was held last week. Thank you Lucy on behalf of myself, my team and the fans. Here's Lucy's message

To Mary and the fans: I have been very remiss...

In not expressing my humblest thanks for all your kindness to the Starship Foundation over the past weeks (and years). You raising over $20,000 for Starship this past week shocked me. Mary, you, your posse and the greater Xenaverse have challenged my own view on my career and it's place in the world.

I honestly just took the role of Xena because the chips fell my way. Ren and I acted the words that someone else put in our mouths and wore the costumes given us. We were paid pretty well for that time and we were grateful. But, and I think Ren would agree, we NEVER foresaw the kind of community spirit that has long survived the show itself. How could we? I do not believe there has ever been a precedent for this kind of fandom.

The Xena fans are beyond generous, beyond loving and ever faithful. No wonder Bill Shatner filmed the last Con. (When's that out, by the way?) Because of your Kindness to the Starship Foundation, the sickest children of NZ have been the recipient of so much love from afar. Please rest assured that every penny is appreciated and thoughtfully spent. Brad and his team are worthy members of our team.

I love you all! I wish you peace and laughter all the days of your life,

Yours truly,

Lucy Lawless

I received the following message from Brad Clark, the Starship Foundation CEO about the AUSXIP Charity Auction thanking all the fans:

On behalf of Starship kids and families from all over New Zealand who will benefit from your support - a huge Starship Foundation thanks to all the winners and bidders in the recent Lucy/Xena memorabilia auction!

- Brad Clark,
CEO Starship Foundation

The 2012 AUSXIP Charity Auction has come to an end and wow didn't it go out with a bang! I'm stoked beyond belief that this year we have raised $20,022 - no that is not a typo. (tentative total, not including the donations which Starship will tell me about when it sends the confirmation spreadsheet). What an amazing figure. I triple checked the amount and then went back and checked it again. I could not believe it. To say I was floored would be an understatement. Once I got over my shock, I had a smile on my face that nothing could wipe off; I'm still smiling writing this entry. I am truly humbled by the outcome of this auction.

Last year we raised $11,859.50 and of that $9501 for Starship & $2358.50 was for the Alissa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation (Renee O'Connor's charity).

This auction was initially born to celebrate AUSXIP's 10th Birthday on 15 December 2006. The second auction we held I had enough celebrating AUSXIP's birthday and switched it to celebrate someone else's birthday in March. Since without her, AUSXIP wouldn't be celebrating anything. What's a great gift to give someone who puts herself out there and gives of herself each and every time for charity and now an Eco-Warrior?

Lucille Frances Lawless turns 44 today (29 March 2012). HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCY!

It's been quite a few months since we heard anything related to Rob Tapert's new show Noir. It was due to air in "summer of 2012" but after a flurry of news, things went quiet.

There was a Q&A with Chris Albrecht, the Starz CEO and he was asked about Noir:

MCN: What's going on with Noir, a live-action project based on the Japanese anime series about female assassins? That's with the Spartacus team of Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Josh Donen?

CA: The production challenges on that just became sort of enormous, so we've hit the pause button on that. We reworking on that because the team went back to work on Spartacus, about to start shooting season three of Spartacus. We're in a bit of holding pattern on Noir.

What is Noir About?

NOIR follows two female assassins who team up to fight against a secret society during 1960's Paris. After discovering they're mysteriously linked, the two, under the Noir moniker, have to work together until they get answers about why and how they are connected - or until one of them kills the other. Stephen Lightfoot (Criminal Justice) wrote the adaptation and will executive produce the series with Raimi, Tapert, fellow Spartacus exec producer Joshua Donen as well as Bill Hamm.

So that's the latest on Noir. Until there is more news, AUSXIP Noir will also be hold waiting for the news the show will go ahead.

Check out the AUSXIP Noir site that will remain up until the decision is made to go ahead with the series

Here is the complete Xena related Auction Items with a link to each auction item.

You need to be registered to bid on the auction. If you have not done so please register first at http://charity.ausxip.com and once your registration is approved, you can start bidding until 27 March!

Happy Bidding!