How on earth could I relate to a character like Maximus? Was I a general who became a slave who became a gladiator who came back to give an ass whoopin' to the Emperor of Rome? Hell no. I was just Dori -- a married woman with a two year old child, living in a nice home in suburban New Jersey. Whatever made me feel like a gladiator?

I would learn the answer to this shortly after Russell Crowe saved my life.

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