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What has Xena: Warrior Princess star Lucy Lawless been up to since our beloved heroine signed off sans her head? TV Guide Online caught up with the actress at the grand opening of Build-a-Bear Workshop's new Hollywood store — where celebs from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Mary J. Blige created and donated personalized stuffed animals for an auction to benefit First Book, a children's literacy charity. We begin with the burning question: Will Lawless reprise her X-Files guest role as killer fembot Shannon McMahon? When last seen, the resilient robo-vixen had suddenly awoken in her watery grave — clearly leaving the door open for a return. Even so, Lawless has no plans to come back anytime soon. "I'm halfway through my third pregnancy; I'm due at the end of April," she grins. "I don't see how they can use a pregnant super soldier. So I doubt that will happen, but it was a really great experience and I'm so glad I did it. I think they can get on just fine without me." Meanwhile, the mum-to-be — who's chosen to leave the baby's sex an old-fashioned surprise — is quite busy enough chasing her two-year-old around Build-a-Bear just now. "I've been given cause to question whether I should've called my son Julius," she says, "because he's so imperious. He's a real little Caesar around the house sometimes, but only when he gets bored!" We also notice the tyke doesn't care to dress his newest pal in any of the shop's sundry teddy-bear outfits. "No," she laughs, "he likes his bears to be au naturel, I guess." For her First Book celebrity donation, Lawless says, "I dressed my little stuffed horse in Tartan trousers — and an American flag shirt, because it's just a sign of the times." The TV titan adds that encouraging kids to read is a cause she's glad to throw her weight behind: "It's very disempowering, I hear, to be illiterate. So many adults are, and are embarrassed to admit it, and kind of have to get through life coping and learning things by memory. Anything we can do to help the literacy rate is a good thing." — Daniel R. Coleridge |