THIS WEEK IN THE XENA NEWS.... TWXN #21 08/21/96 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 comments: Had insomnia tonight so look what happens! Another TWXN. [ ] 08-11-96 THE DENVER POST. Sunday. Page F-10. 298 words. "Shows can be found on Web" By Joanne Ostrow COMMENTARY: XWP was mentioned as having it's own website in an article highlighting the Ultimate TV List website (www.tvnet. com/UTVL/utvl.html). [X047] 08-11-96 THE BOSTON HERALD. Sunday. Page 030. 627 words. "Children bring adults down to their level in the summer" By Beverly Beckham. COMMENTARY: Non-XWP reference. Editorial about Ms. Beckham's friendship with two little girls named Shiloh and Xena. [ ] 08-12-96 THE ORLANDO SENTINEL. Monday. Page 3. 691 words. "3 Hotels Top Seniors Discount List" By Leslie Doolittle. COMMENTARY: In a section about Universal Studios preliminary plans to open another state-of-the-art attraction in 1998, Ms. Doolittle reported that Universal Studios will soon debut "Hercules and Xena characters who will impersonate actors on the Fox TV show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys." It was assumed that Universal was doing this to beat Disney to the punch in Disney's promotion of it's Hercules animated movie. [ ] 08-12-96 ELECTRONIC MEDIA. Page 24. 987 words. "Affordable Effects Make More Action Hours Feasible" By Greg Spring. COMMENTARY: This article explored why a special effect from two years ago cost $50,000, whereas the same affect only costs $5,000 to produce now. XWP was mentioned as a show which was taking advantage of the low cost of special effects. Mr. Spring interviewed the executive producer of Viper (Danny Bilson), the special effects specialist for Sinbad (Neil Williamson), the executive producer of Psi-Factor (James Nadler), and the executive producer of HTLJ & XWP (Rob Tapert). Mr. Spring reported that Mr. tapert's visual special effects team had located a program capable of rendering creatures with fur. Therefore, expect furry monsters in Hercules future. Tapert was quoted as stating, "Now it's all different...Things that cost us $25,000 before now cost us $1,500." In conclusion, Mr. Spring again quoted Mr. Tapert: "We keep challenging the effects guys to come up with better and better effects...Can you teach a computer to paint? Absolutely, and it will spit out 1,000 paintings a day. But it will lack a certain artistry...All the computers in the world are only as good as the people operating them." [X048] 08-14-96 AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. Page F1. 1223 words. "Bring it on Home; Austinites Share Takeout Tips as They Join the Grab-and-go Crowd" By Kitty Crider COMMENTARY: Non-XWP reference. The Xena Restaurant in Austin was in the limelight again! It was cited as a prominant eat-in restaurant with a special take-out menu. [ ] 08-15-96 THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. 221 words. "Olympics stifle ratings again" By Steve Brennan COMMENTARY: Is There A Doctor In the House (#24), 1st release, 07/29/96. Ranked as the 2nd action hour with a 4.0 rating. [HTLJ took 1st place for the fifth straight week with a 4.5 and ST:DS9 took 3rd with a 3.9.]. Mr. Brennan conjectured the low ratings were because of the Olympics. [ ] 08-18-96 SUNDAY MAIL. Sunday. Page 14. 1347 words. "She; Devil; She's lovely, she's a mum ...and she's out to rule the world; Xena Warrior Princess comes to Britain" By Ellen Grehan COMMENTARY: This was the first substantive article about XWP in the British Press. "'No one,' they said, 'wants to see a woman beat the hell out of a man.' Boy, were they wrong." The article also included such gemes as: "Its rabid fans fall into definite categories...Little girls aged eight to 15, young men 18 to 25 and women in prison. In fact, when the show was screened in Los Angeles during visiting hours at the women's County Jail, prisoners were peeved at having to choose between meeting their loved ones or rooting for Xena. A potential riot was only side-stepped when the local TV station ran repeats of the show later in the evening." The article continued with the usual quotes from Ms. Lawless about her various jobs before starring in XWP. Robert Tapert was quoted as well about Xena being "one tough cookie." The article used dated material because it further stated that "Lucy, 30, a former Mrs New Zealand, is married to school sweetheart Garth Lawless and they have a daughter, Daisy." Ms. Lawless is now divorced and she was 29 at the date of this article. That she was a former Mrs. New Zealand has only been reported in The Globe article in April 1996 (tentative XMR219); hence it was not consider reliable. [ ] 08-18-96 THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS. Sunday. Page 1C. 1939 words. "Surrender! They've taken over our culture" By Jerome Weeks. COMMENTARY: In an article about the ascendency of comic books, Mr. Weeks added that not only were comic books generating movies and tv shows, but that some tv shows "clearly have a comic-book mentality." XWP was listed as having such a mentality. [ ] 08-19-96 THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (Jacksonville, FL). Page A-1. 663 words. "ABCs of affiliation: More news; TV-21 reports to add Jacksonville flavor" By Terry Dickson. COMMENTARY: Jacksonville's Channel 21 will take over an ABC affiliation next year and replace XWP with Home Improvement and Coach, which the new general manager of TV-21 said would be better programming. [ ] 08-19-96 DAILY NEWS (New York). Monday. Page 62. 440 words. "a Star on the Strength of 'Xena'" By Christy Slewinski. COMMENTARY: In a short interview with Ms. Lawless, Ms. Sleinski covered the following: the popularity of XWP ("a complete surprise"); the grueling requirements of the her job ("I'm constantly stretched, because the writers go, 'Wow, if she can do this, then let's try this.' We all let our imaginations run wild."); her rise as a role model ("I used to be terrified, just terrified ... Up until I came here this week, and I met so many women and young girls who feel, to use their word and I'm a bit embarrassed, but it's a good word empowered, by watching. I realized this isn't a burden, this is an honor."); and her daughter Daisy ("She's not entirely sure that she likes Mommy being the focus of everybody's attention...She doesn't like to share me too much.").