Many thanks to trfan for the transcript

Chicago Sunday Tribune

14 October 2001

The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is having an exhibit on Cleopatra  that includes clips of five different actresses playing Cleopatra, including Liz Taylor, Theda Bara, and Lucy Lawless ("Antony and Cleopatra"). 

"[P]lowing through red tape for... portraits from the Louvre in Paris, coins from Alexandria and marble busts from the Hermitage in Russia was in some ways easier than obtaining images and film clips of five American actresses who have played Cleopatra- [Elizabeth] Taylor, Theda Bara (1917), Claudette Colbert (1934), Vivien Leigh (1945) and Lucy Lawless from TV's 'Xena: Princess Warrior' [sic]. 

"Why was it so tough?  Foster had to deal with Hollywood agents to get these permission slips....

"The process was only a wee bit simpler for Bara, Colbert, Leigh, all deceased, and Lawless, who was Cleopatra in one segment of her TV series last spring."


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