She is known far and wide. Some years back when Bedroom Bill Clinton's right hand woman came calling, Xena Warrior Princess was the one woman she knew who hailed from God's Own.

Madeleine Albright was something of a trailblazer herself becoming the first female Secretary of State for Uncle Sam and the Warrior Princess appeared to be her alter ego given her fondness for the telly programme.

Perhaps if State Homie John Key knew how well connected The Princess' alter go Lucy Lawless was he may have given her the time of day.

Not often does an internationally acclaimed actress come calling clutching a $5,000 cheque but that is what Lawless did. She was offering him a trip to Copenhagen next month to add his weight to the climate change argument.

But the climate when she'd cleared security in the Beehive was nothing but frosty. A call to the PM's office saying she would like to see him was greeted with a cold shoulder from the ninth floor. He was not even prepared to send an emissary to see her on his behalf. It is the first time The Princess has been shunned by what she clearly believes is the weaker sex.

If the boot had been on the other foot, she affected a southern drawl and batted her eyelids, she would have opened the door to him.

The Homie says he is not going to the Danish meeting even though many of his counterparts are. It is going to be inconclusive and who wants to be associated with failure?

And of course if he did open the door to Lawless, despite her fame, he would have to open the floodgates to anyone with a cause to come calling without an appointment.

And in reality she was calling on behalf of Greenpeace and was flanked by the drooling gunslinger Labour's David Cunliffe even though she did not appear to know who he was.

When it was put to her that five grand would not quite cover the cost of a business class airfare to the Danish capital, the actress said it would if he did not bring his girlfriend.

Rodney Thick Hide was nowhere to be seen!

Barry Soper

Political Editor

Newstalk ZB