THIS WEEK IN XENA NEWS... TWXN 115 10/11/97 The advance sheet of XENA MEDIA REVIEW (XMR): http://xenafan.com/xmr Excerpts from the following cites will appear in future issues of XMR. From the editor: 1. XMR #28 has just been released. Go to http://xenafan.com and check it out. Released in six boffo parts! Covers the media action from 09/01/96 to 09/15/96 and annotations 461 to 501. FEATURES. "Attack Of The 50-Foot Lesbians", "The Third Season Dawns", "Spanking Lawyers", "From New Homes to New Loves: What Life Online Does To Xenites". ARTICLES. Interviews: Lucy Lawless, Robert Tapert, Kevin Smith, Renee O'Connor, Anson Williams (director), Kevin Sorbo; parody; comics; Stephen Papps (See'er on ORPHAN); popular cultural references; tabloids; Battleground Earth; airings of THE GREATER GOOD, CALLISTO; Ratings: TIES THAT BIND; Meow Mix; New Zealand film economy; singer Ralph Gean; and more! 2. TWXN is becoming sparser. At the beginning of the summer I spent three days straight plowing through articles and I have now come to the very last one of them! And it is a stupid one. I must devote another couple days straight and then TWXN can start coming out in its usually manic ways for another three months or so...but that time does not look like it will be anytime in the near future. Oh well. At least I will go down editing! 3. I am going to be at CyberSmiths in Palo Alto on Oct. 13th taping an episode of The Internet Cafe (Syndicated PBS). Taping starts at 4pm. Be there or be square. And now...the stupid story: [ ] 05-08-97 THE TORONTO STAR. Thursday. Page H10. 1331 words. "Pumped-up pose pro just says no Johnny Healthy wants another bodybuilding title -- naturally" By Antonia Zerbisias Toronto Star COMMENTARY: Hey!!! That is it. A very short TWXN!!! Saints be praised!!! Hopefully next time you read a TWXN it won't be this anemic. But I wanted to promote XMR #28 and my Internet Cafe appearance, so I was forced to release this substandard TWXN. Hope you enjoy it regardless of this terrible breach of fan obsessiveness. EXCERPT: Johnny Healthy, a.k.a. John Siembida, is fit to be tried. In fact, the former Mr. Canada and Mr. North America says he's willing to pee in a cup - anytime! anywhere! - and pay 10 grand to anybody who can prove he's flexing the truth about being 100 per cent steroid-free... ...A day-long event - the power lift-off is at 9 a.m. at the Metro Convention Centre's John Bassett Theatre (255 Front St. W.) - this is the pro contest in Canada. The best three bods not only pull down massive money - including the $ 10,000 top prize - they also qualify for next fall's Mr. Olympia, where Ah-nold made his name and fortune. Winning the Canada Cup V could mean movie careers, product endorsement contracts, all kinds of rewards for bringing home the beefcake. But the contest isn't just for muscleheads. It also includes a competition for women, the Phys-Fit Canada Fitness Cup, now in its second year, where women like last year's winner, Melissa Mok, make the popular TV Amazon Xena look like the Warrior Wuss. Of course, Xena would never pose in a bikini and high heels - which these women will, much to the obvious enjoyment of men in the audience. "This is the route women who work out doing aerobics and gymnastics can take," says Toronto Pro promoter Nimrod King, a former bodybuilding champ himself. "Some of them don't want to go to the extreme as far as looking too masculine. They want to look feminine." Women's workouts are nice but the meat of the matter is the men's pro bodybuilding competition where top contenders such as Canada's Anthony Williams, Henderson Thorne, Jeff Poulin, Claude Groulx and Joe Spinello will pop their pecs and other parts in the afternoon International Federation of Body Builders judging. That's when Siembida plans to muscle his way on to the stage, with his natural physique and shut down the "roid-bot" look that many bodybuilders have.... NOTICES: All back issues of XMR and TWXN are available at (http://xenafan.com/xmr). 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). If you have never been there, you are **not** a xenafan! 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 regularly on the XenaVerse, Hercules-Xena, and Chakram Mailing Lists (thank you Lucia! I am greatly indebted to you); the forums: MCA NetForum and the Xenite Message Center (thanks Angela); and alt.tv.xena (thanks Tim). I also would like to thank sirvin@law.wfu.edu for assistance in collecting the newstories. 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".