THIS WEEK IN XENA NEWS.... TWXN 50 12/11/96 Brought to you by Xena: Media Review (XMR): http://www.teleport.com/~gater/IAXS/IAXS.html 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. From the editor: 1. XMR is BEHIND ahead of time! Don't be shocked if you DO NOT see XMR #20 in your mailbox on Friday. 2. WHOOSH #4 will be released on or about January 1, 1997. We have decided to have a more conventional release date. Call us, innovative! 3. The next TWXN will begin coverage of that exciting Xena action figure removal of clothes controversy. 4. I have my room reservation for the January 12th Xena Convention....do you??? 5. I have decided not to be wordy this TWXN. More reprints, less Kym! 6. I watched STAR TREK: VOYAGER tonight and got confused and thought I was watching ALIEN for about two seconds. If only Ripley were the captain of the Voyager. Things would be mighty different. [ ] 11-26-96 THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. 158 words. "Kiwi Production Lifts Trade Data" By Phil Wakefield COMMENTARY: Update on New Zealand's booming film & television industry helped greatly by -- what else? But, XWP, of course. REPRINT: New Zealand's film and television industry's foreign exchange earnings jumped 28% to a record NZ$119 million ($84 million) in fiscal 1995-96, largely due to offshore productions using New Zealand as a location. Locally shot productions include ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,'' ''Xena: Warrior Princess'' and ''The Frighteners.'' They boosted the level of foreign investment in the industry to NZ$115 million ($81.6 million), from NZ$69.1 million ($48.9 million) in 1994-95. Jo Tyndall, executive director of industry export group Project Blue Sky, said the results confirmed ''the high level of global interest in what we are doing (in New Zealand).'' Most of the foreign exchange earned by the industry, however, was through production investment rather than sales of completed films or programming. [ ] 11-28-96 WAIKATO TIMES. Page 1. 195 words. "New Act for Xena's Double" By Geraldine Jacobsen COMMENTARY: Meet Lucy Lawless' stunt double, Geraldine Jacobsen: "She expects extra work while Lucy Lawless recovers...from a broken pelvis." REPRINT: Xena's stunt double Geraldine Jacobsen has become Paeroa's petrol pumping princess. The xendo kai blackbelt, who grew up in Paeroa, does most of the stunt work for Lucy Lawless -- Xena in TV3's Xena: Warrior Princess. But during a break from filming she has been filling in for a friend, who broke his arm, as a forecourt attendant. She says the work has been a change from staging fight scenes with barbarian warriors. She goes back to the set in Auckland this week. Her work involves long hours, lots of waiting between scenes, and getting to do things that many people would pay to do -- such as bungy jumping. She expects extra work while Lucy Lawless recovers in the US from a broken pelvis. Ms Jacobsen said she is barely recognised as Xena when she's not in costume. "We actually look nothing alike. I'm a lot shorter. She's got blue eyes, I've got brown." Ms Jacobsen became Xena's double 18 months ago after she did a one-off stunt as Xena in an episode of Hercules. Now she spends nine months a year as a Lawless double. GRAPHIC: PAEROA'S PETROL PUMP PRINCESS: stunt double Geraldine Jacobsen in her Xena costume. [ ] 11-28-96 THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. Thursday. Page G01. 369 words. "Stuffed with turkeys" By Sara Pearce COMMENTARY: Turkeys dressed up as Xena! You heard it here first! EXCERPT: Whew! You came through. Last year, there was such a sharp decline in entries for Tempo's Turkey Dressing contest - a mere 2,418 vs. 4,706 in 1994 - that we thought this bird might be on its last leg. Wrong. You entered 4,172 gobblers in our eighth annual feature and used just about everything - feathers, glitter glue, beads, faux jewels, dried leaves, macaroni, fabric, stickers, sequins, ribbon, Barbie clothes, dirt, buttons, you name it - as dressing. There were a remarkable number of cross-dressed Dennis Rodmans. Also hot: Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear and Woody (the film was released after last year's contest deadline) and Mike Tyson (maybe it was the pose). There were fewer sports turkeys (including just one Marge but a dozen Dave Shulas). A slew of pop personalities - real and fictional - debuted: Garth Brooks, more than 101 Dalmatians and the evil Cruella DeVil, Xena (Warrior Princess), an X Files alien and Agent Dana Scully, The Magic School Bus' Ms. Frizzle, The Brady Bunch's Marcia and the Village People. Icons such as Elvis, Madonna, Michael Jackson and The Beatles live on - as do politicos and commentary on local issues such as sports stadiums, meter- feeding grannies and The Enquirer's delivery service. A whopping 98 schools sent entries. The students at Delhi Junior High School (the envelope with the turkey stamp was a nice touch) and Franklin High School continued to wow us. As did those at St. Louis School (loved those tissue-paper leaves), Holmes High School, Whittier Elementary (A+ for organization), the music class at Sunman-Dearborn Middle School, Hays Elementary and New Richmond High School. Thanks for making the holiday so much fun. Who knows? This bird might fly long enough to make it to age 10. [ ] 11-29-96 THE BOSTON HERALD. Friday. Page S03. 1234 words. "Movies; the Road Well Trekked; the Starship Still Soars, Though it Seems a Little Low on Enterprise" By James Verniere COMMENTARY: A reference to STAR TREK getting "its butt kicked by - be still my heart - the far lustier 'Xena: Warrior Princess'" EXCERPT: While Bill Clinton is busy building a bridge to the 21st century, the rest of us have long been getting beamed to bridges in the 23rd and 24th, thanks to the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. But some of us have begun to wonder when this "Star Trek" voyage, now entering its fourth decade and spinning out its eighth film, "Star Trek: First Contact," is going to end? And have we been making any progress? Or has the franchise been chasing its own tail since it was resurrected by Paramount Pictures, the film and television studio that seems bent on milking every penny from this cash cow without giving filmgoers or TV viewers much to cheer about in exchange?... ...The new TV series, or what I've seen of them, are either updates of classic "Star Trek" episodes or New Age morality plays with enough psycho- and techno-babble to launch a thousand naps. Kathryn Janeway (Katharine Hepburn sound-alike Kate Mulgrew), the bun-wearing captain on "Star Trek: Voyager," comes across as the schoolmarm of the Starship Lollipop (notably, the show often gets its butt kicked by - be still my heart - the far lustier "Xena: Warrior Princess").... [ ] 11-30-96 THE PRESS (Christchurch). Page 22. 414 words. "TV3's New Year Line-up Varied" COMMENTARY: New Zealand will be having new episodes of XWP to look forward to. EXCERPT: ...Coming back: new episodes of American drama series such as NYPD Blue'', Melrose Place'', Baywatch'', Murder One'', Beverly Hills 90210'', Hercules'', and Xena''. New episodes of sitcoms: Murphy Brown'', Ellen'', Home Improvement'', Grace Under Fire'', and Men Behaving Badly''....