THIS WEEK IN XENA NEWS . . . TWXN 78 06/20/97 Friday Brought to you by XENA: MEDIA REVIEW (XMR): http://xenafan.com/xmr All back issues of XMR and TWXN are available at the above site. We herein give praise and thanks to Tom Simpson for the space he has graciously donated from his spectacular, TOM'S XENA PAGE (http://xenafan.com). TWXN is the advance sheet for XMR, an annotated world press review of reports regarding the internationally syndicated television show XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (1995 - 2000+?) and the castmembers, Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor. TWXN is not available for subscription, however it is posted Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on the XenaVerse, Hercules-Xena, and Chakram Mailing Lists (thank you Lucia!), the MCA NetForum, the Xenite Message Center, and alt.tv.xena. For a free e-mail subscription to XMR subscribe by e-mail to ktaborn@lightspeed.net by stating somewhere in the subject or text "sub xmr". Excerpts from the following cites will appear in future issues of XMR. From the editor: 1. This TV guide on sale for this week mentioned the rise in the name "Xena" for baby girls. This trend has been covered in XMR and TWXN. 2. This issue covers 02/10/97 through 02/15/97. Among today s myriad references, we encounter a Xena cite in the "women in the military" debate; check out a local NZ promo for the return of Xena to their airwaves; Xena makes it on a St. Valentine's Day List even though her name is misspelled; the fanclub address is given; and a woman with a chicken named Xena is interviewed. 3. Next week in Monday's edition, we will find out that Hong Kong saw DEATH IN CHAINS in February; NZ was still promoting the return of XWP to their airwaves; a critic compared Hermia in MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM to Xena; those wild and crazy HIGHLANDER people still politely were dissing XWP; the NY Times considered a Greek myth revival; and Xena was cited as "wholesome, harmless hooey"! All that and more, on Monday. 4. WHOOSH! is going to be expanding its staff in the near future. Stay tuned for a want ad for two html coders. Details will be in a future TWXN. [ ] 02-10-97 THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (Jacksonville, FL). Monday. Page A-1. 770 words. "Gender tensions in military defy simple solutions" By Knight-Tribune News Service EXCERPT: Attorney Henry Hamilton of Columbia, S.C, spends a lot of time defending soldiers accused of romancing or harassing Army women. He believes the military has a gender problem. So does Laura Miller, a sociologist who studies how men and women in uniform get along. But that's where the two part company. Hamilton thinks the armed forces have gone to absurd lengths to accommodate and protect women. That accommodation has spawned a climate where men are sometimes wrongly accused of offenses they didn't commit, he says. Miller comes to a different conclusion. She thinks military women are repeatedly victims of 'gender harassment,' which she defines as subtle but effective methods to undermine their authority... ...But Hamilton believes the Army and other services have ignored problems caused by well-meaning policies gone awry. 'On the one hand, female trainees are supposed to be Xena the warrior princess, but at the same time, they can't contend with someone looking at them sideways without it being sexual harassment,' Hamilton says. 'If women can't deal with that, how in the hell are they going to close with and destroy the enemy?' [ ] 02-10-97 THE EVENING POST (Wellington). Page 3. 230 words. "Xena still packing a punch" REPRINT: IN SHORT What: Xena: Warrior Princess. Where: TV3. When: 8.30pm, Friday. SHE HAS to have been blessed by the gods to have gone from a guest appearance on a hit series to the star of her own spin-off in such a short time. But that's what Lucy Lawless did in Xena: Warrior Princess, and it was a demi-god who made it all happen. The New Zealand actor signed on for three episodes on the series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys during its first series. Before her stint was over, she was headlining her own show Xena: Warrior Princess. Lawless first appeared on Hercules as a feared, evil marauder who flattened everything in her path. Problem was, audiences loved her. So Xena did a quick about- face and now battles evil with the best of them. A new series of Xena: Warrior Princess begins this week. The idea all came about, says Lawless, with a phone call from Hercules' co-executive producer, Rob Tapert, who asked her if she would like a show of her own. "I said, Pardon?' and he repeated it," she says. "Then I said Ah Mr Tapert, that sounds very nice. Why don't you get back to me at a later date when it's more concreted." Obviously he did. Xena: Warrior Princess is one of the highest rating one-hour series in the United States. GRAPHIC: MATES - Xena (Lucy Lawless) and sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor). [ ] 02-14-97 THE TORONTO SUN. Friday. Page V10. 1338 words. "Dunford's Top 10 List" By Gary Dunford COMMENTARY: He spells Xena 'Zena'. EXCERPT: Smart. Strong. Funny. The Valentine's Day Sweeties List came much quicker than usual. Evidence that either (a) there are more prominent women around who match the qualities just given, or (b) I have totally lost my mind. I know which one I'm betting on... ...8. Lucy Lawless, Actress She's Zena, Warrior Princess! Leather-clad Amazon! Heroine to millions of fans, many of 'em girls. Every Cyclops' nightmare. A cynical buddy calls Zena, "Baywatch without boats." Pow, pal! You're toast! It's the highest-rated series in syndication. And its six-foot star has a refreshingly cool take on why her character rocks 'em, socks 'em with fists and kicks: "It makes Zena crotchety to be trussed up like a chicken." She hates the action figure of her character too: "They put my head on a He-Man's body!" Don't mess with her. Hercules tried that: Zena left him sputtering in the dust. The 29-year-old New Zealand actress says she thinks the idea of being a role model for girls stinks. Okay, how about being a Valentine?... ...GRAPHIC:...(8) LUCY LAWLESS [ ] 02-14-97 THE TORONTO SUN. Friday. Page 6. 34 words. "for the Love of Dunf" REPRINT: Dunford's gone to the mountain to choose his annual Top 10 Sweeties, lovebugs. (Xena: Warrior Princess ? The lady cop from Fargo?) Dunf's full report is in the Valentine's Day supplement this morning. [ ] 02-14-97 NEWSDAY. Friday. Page B43. 214 words. "Kidsday / What's Cool for Kids" EXCERPT: In honor of Valentine's Day, here are the fan mail addresses of some popular celebrities....Lucy Lawless (Xena on "Xena: Warrior Princess) c/o Creation Entertainment 411 N. Central Ave. Suite 300 Glendale, Calif. 91203... GRAPHIC:...(3) Lucy Lawless [ ] 02-14-97 MEDIA DAILY. No. 5. Vol. 4. 431 words. "Overset: Broadcasting and Cable" EXCERPT: ...For the second consecutive week (ending Feb. 2), the action-adventure series, "Xena: Warrior Princess," was the most watched syndicated show. "Hercules" finished No. 2, followed by "Outer Limits" and "Baywatch," which has seen its ratings decline 36% in the past year.... [ ] 02-14-97 THE EVENING POST (Wellington). Page 12. 255 words. "Top 10 Trivia" EXCERPT: 1 Xena: Warrior Princess returns tonight (TV3, 8.30). For whose US chat show did star Lucy Lawless break her pelvis in a stunt that went wrong?... ...Answers 1 Jay Leno's... GRAPHIC: FEARLESS - Lucy Lawless [ ] 02-14-97 THE EVENING POST (Wellington). Page 12. 373 words. "Vet puts competition to bed" By Phil Wakefield EXCERPT: THE new Friday night drama, The Vet (TV1, 8.45), could turn into appointment television. The programme's premiere won its time slot last week and its popularity should rise as more viewers discover this preferable alternative to macho action hours (like the return of Xena: Warrior Princess at 8.30pm on TV3)... [ ] 02-14-97 CHATTANOOGA FREE PRESS. Friday. Page A2. 396 words. "Quick Glance at Today's News" By Howard Cross (Free Press Copy Editor) EXCERPT: ...ENTERTAINMENT The adventures of "Hercules" and "Xena" are racing far out in front of any other syndicated television series. E1... [x062] 02-15-97 THE VANCOUVER SUN. Saturday. Page G3. 904 words. "The buck-buck stops here: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The answer, it seems, is neither" By Lloyd Dykk (Vancouver Sun) COMMENTARY: A rare non-XWP Xena reference. A woman has a chicken named Xena. EXCERPT: ....A correspondent who lives on the Gulf Islands, a librarian who fancies herself a countrywoman, writes regularly. I've never seen her estate or even met her but imagine her striding through muck in tweeds, pearls and Wellingtons, mistress of all she surveys, every inch the English countrywoman. She writes great letters that evoke the American essayist E.B. White - no minutiae too minute to exclude human interest. She has a mud-room, and chickens with names: "This summer Madonna disappeared into the woods for two weeks....Zsa Zsa, not to be outdone, laid eight eggs under a bush...Xena got some infection so I took her to the vet and she had to be put to sleep. To his credit, the vet treated her as any other pet - chickens usually get short shrift in the pet dept."