Muck Raking: Meg Foster
This month, Meg Foster, a.k.a. Hera, whispers her innermost secrets to K. Stoddard Hayes and readers of Xena Magazine.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 15
Birth Name: Margaret Wilson Foster
Nicknames: Meg, Meggie, Moo.
Favourite word: Yes.
Hometown: Rowayton, Connecticut.
Current Resident: Santa Monica, California.
Croutons or Bacon Bits: Croutons.
Favourite Salad Dressing: Oil and vinegar with garlic.
Shampoo or Conditioner? Shampoo.
Have you ever gone skinny dipping? Yes! I’ve skinnydipped from the time I was five, whenever I could.
Do you make fun of people? No.
Favourite Colour: I don’t know… Green.
Have you ever been convicted of a crime? It was in the summer of 1971 when I was pregnant with my son. My son’s dad, who was a filmmaker, myself and three friends went to a beach way out in Malibu that we were told was a public beach, and we went skinnydipping. A young girl on a pony came out onto the beach - she was really quite far away; she looked small - and she soon went back into her home. And then a sheriff’s helicopter came and landed on the beach, and the sheriff got out and said, “You’re all arrested for indecent exposure.” This young woman was 13, and we had supposedly exposed ourselves to her, you see. So we climbed up the cliff and got into the sheriff’s car where we were handcuffed, and we got taken to the Malibu jail.
When we got there the matron went to frisk us, and she said to me, “You’re pregnant!” I said, “Yes, I am.” She said, “You’re disgusting!” So we all got thrown in jail. Apparently that very day the beaches had become private property because of an ordinance, so a lot of people were arrested just for walking through them with a surfboard. The jails were filled with people!
One pillow or two? One. [Cotton or feather?] Firm.
Any pets? Two kitties: Moanie and Black Kitty.
Favourite music? Classical and jazz.
Hobbies? I pain; I run; I read poetry. I make things out of anything, and I like to spend as much time with children as I can.
Which toothpaste do you use? Either Tom’s from Maine or the one with baking powder.
Favourite food? Healthy food or unhealthy food? [One of each!] Healthy would be fish and peaches. Unhealthy would probably be frozen yoghurt. And you can toss chocolate in too!
Favourite town to take it easy in? Anywhere by the sea other than Southern California.
Favourite ice cream flavour? Chocolate.
Favourite non-alcoholic drink? Water.
Adidas, Nike, Reebok or other? Acsis.
Favourite perfume? Amber oil if it’s a pure oil.
Favourite subject in school? Art History.
Favourite sport to watch? Basketball and soccer.
What is your most humiliating moment? When I was 13 years old, my best friend Phoebe and I went into New York City dressed up how we thought young women should look: I was wearing a pair of high heels and stockings. We went to see the musical Oliver, and when we reached the main aisle of the theatre we started walking down the stairs to where our seats were in the mezzanine. I tripped on about the first step and went down on my knees, and I slid all the way down the mezzanine stairs! As I went down I glanced at the people on either side of the stairs who were already seated and nodded to them as if I were the queen! I went all the way down and had to put my hands out when I got to the bottom because I hit the wall. And I got up and I was bleeding. I was bruised; I had runs in my stockings. I took my seat and enjoyed the play, and then came out afterwards with bloody legs singing every song I could remember!
What is your craziest or silliest idea? [long pause] I very much want to work with people and be of service to them in a medical way. I definitely want to work with the dying or people who are ill, because we kept our daddy at home when he was very ill when I was young. That’s when it truly hit me that passing on it as important as being born and that one must do it with gentility and honour and respect, and make that available for the family and the one who is passing away.