THIS WEEK IN THE XENA NEWS.... TWXN #18 08/19/96 Brought to you by Xena: Media Review (XMR) XMR is a periodic annotated world press review of reports regarding the internationally syndicated television show XENA: Warrior Princess (1995 - ) and the castmembers, Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor. For a free e-mail subscription send "subscribe XMR" to ktaborn@lightspeed.net. Excerpts from the following cites will appear in future issues of XMR. Editor's whine: XMR (Xena Media Review) will rise again. Just be patient please. Instead of being weekly though, XMR hitherforth shall be "when the mood hits Kym". Unfortunately, before I start on XMR #17, I want to get caught up on the TWXN, go through the XMR mail, and then write about the XenaFest and my various revelations during my sojourn. Want to hear good news? I wrote a whole paragraph of the editorial during lunch. Can you wait? I hope so. Lots of good stuff coming up in XMR. So puh-lease...stay tuned. Thanks. [Tentative 335c] 07-22-96 VARIETY. Page 26. 196 words. "Nielsen Syndication Ratings" COMMENTARY: Mortal Beloved, 07/01/96; second release [original release 2/12/96, 5.5 rating]; HTLJ was ranked 1st action hour, overall 7th with 5.3; ST:DS9 ranked 2nd, overall 9th with 5.1; and XWP ranked 3rd, overall tied 10th with Entertainment Tonight with 4.9. No other action hours ranked in the top twenty. [Tentative 338f] 07-26-96 THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Friday. TV Notes. Page 4. 601 words. "Astrodome lauded as GOP's '92 site" By Ann Hodges and Mike McDANIEL COMMENTARY: Short blurb on the USA Network deal which allows USA to start showing XWP on weekdays starting September 1998. [ ] 07-22-96 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. Vol. 243. No. 30. Page 206. 6605 words. "Sneak previews: Spring 1997 children's books. Bibliography" By Alison Stone. COMMENTARY: In a listing of children's books scheduled for Spring 1997 release, Ru Emerson's "Xena: Warrior Princess, with The Huntress and the Sphinx" was mentioned under the Berkley/ Boulevard publishers. [ ] 07-22-96 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. Vol. 243. No. 30. Page 158. 50238 words. "Children's books for fall. Includes profiles of selected books; Cover Story Bibliography" By Sally Lodge and Shannon Maughan. COMMENTARY: In a listing of children's books scheduled for Fall 1996 release, Ru Emerson's "The Empty Throne" was mentioned under the Berkley/ Boulevard publishers and priced at $5.99 and stated that it was geared for ages 13 and up. Also mentioned was Random House's XWP Picturebacks paperback series with Kerry Milliron's adaptations of "Queen of the Amazons" and "Princess in Peril", both listed at $ 3.25 each, and geared towards the ages 4-6. [ ] 07-22-96 DRUG TOPICS. Vol. 140. No. 14. Page 30. 543 words. "What's a professional duty? Pharmacists' nonprofes- sional tasks" By Jim Plagakis COMMENTARY: In an exposee about the abuse of pharmacists, the author referred to a woman who was considered quite brave in insisting upon taking two nine-minute breaks a day. The author wrote: "She has set her feet with courage. I want to call her Xena the Warrior Princess, but I think she is settling for scraps." [Tentative 340a] 07-26-96 THE TAMPA TRIBUNE. Friday. Baylife. Page 2. 405 words. "Someone strong" By Mike O'Neill. COMMENTARY: Extended mention of the XWP appearance on Ms. Magazine's cover and magazine (tentaive XMR322). Mentioned highlights of magazine article: most faithful viewers 18 to 34; lots of young girl fans; Lawless does not consider self a feminist even though feminists identify with her character. Graphic was of Lucy Lawless. [Tentative 340b] 07-26-96 ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS. Friday. Page 21H. 334 words. "Kneel Down, Bookworm; Browser" By Bruce Barcott. COMMENTARY: Extended summary of the article about XWP found in the August/September Ms. Magazine (tentative XMR332). [ ] 07-26-96 STAR TRIBUNE. Page 19A. 734 words. "Obviously, Being a Nielsen Household Is an Incredible Responsibility; It's Too Important for Us to Record the Shows We Really Watch" By Mark DePaolis COMMENTARY: A "Nielsen household" viewer 'fessed up about his phobia of being a XWP watcher. Mr. DePaolis stated, "Obviously, being a Nielsen household is an incredible responsibility, much too important for us to record the shows we really watch. I don't want the TV people to know that we watch "Xena, Warrior Princess" every time it comes on, which, thanks to cable, is 17 times a week." His next explicit mention was, "Actually, except for 'Xena,' we didn't watch much TV this week, especially since we never watch the Olympics (I would, however, have watched every minute of 'Xena at the Olympics')." [ ] 09-01-96 MAD. No. 349. September 1996. Page 33. --- words. "Jerkules & Zima" By Angelo Torres and Dick Debartolo. COMMENTARY: Had I read this before the Cracked Monster Party parody "Eczema: Wearisome Princess" (tentative XMR295, 06-01-96), I would have accused MAD of being puerile and insipid. However, since "Jerkules & Zina" appeared afterwards, the MAD parody came off rather erudite and subtle. The piece was chockfull of jokes such as "I am Zima, the mighty princess warrior who uses all of my power and courage to really stuff a bra! Like Jerkules, I'm strong, quick to fight and slow to register any sort of emotion or acting talent! But who really cares? My Amazon legs are famous for letting me flip in the hair and getting horny viewers to flip to whatever channel I'm flashing on!"; and "I'm Zima's side-kick, Grabby! I help her battle the demons from the dark and deep depths and take on the armies of evildoers! But my most important job is to help her handle sentences of more than five words." The parody continued in the same vein, until a high point was reached: the gang, while looking for Mazola, the husband of Jergens, Queen of Moisturizers, located Crisco and Pam first. The low point was no doubt where Zima smited a highly appreciative warrior with her breasts. Interestingly enough, all the gay jokes (and there were quite a few of them) were aimed at Hercules and Iolaus and not Xena and Gabrielle. Until next time, Kym