THIS WEEK IN XENA NEWS.... TWXN 75 06/13/97 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. It's Friday the 13th! Like, I have to tell you???? I am soooo proud of myself for getting TWXN out this week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I had mondo problems getting #74 to post on NetForum. I will keep on trying until it sticks. I will try my darndest to keep to the M-W-F schedule all summer...this is my bit towards fighting off XWS (Xena Withdrawal Syndrome). 2. Check out the July-August 1997 issue of CINESCAPE on page 60. Xena article alert! Both WHOOSH/IAXS and the The Center for Scholars of Xena are mentioned. Way to go Lisa Thanh Ellis! 3. Today's TWXN is meaty for a change. We start with a debate whether XWP is a better role model for children than Sailor Moon, currently the most popular children's show in the world. Then we segue into a short but sweet Kevin Sorbo interview on CNN which was made basically to showcase some footage that CNN had left over from the January 1997 Burbank Hercules/Xena Convention. To only abruptly end with some Canadian high-jinks. Nice way to end a week. 4. Looking into the immediate future, I see coming up an article about Roma Downey (Hippolyte in HERCULES IN THE AMAZON WOMEN), some news from Auckland, a People Magazine blurb, and say, do you remember that show called "Nikita"???? [ ] 02/01/97 SATURDAY NIGHT. February 1997. No. 1. Vol. 112. Page 83. 1771 words. "Babes in Toyland; Xena Versus Sailor Moon" By Mark Kingwell EXCERPT: "Sailor Moon" is all the rage, but a butt-kicking Amazon named Xena is a better role model for your daughter.... ...Based on a hit comic book, "Sailor Moon" is a Japanese cartoon fantasy that has quickly become the most popular children's show in the world...it has a growing, passionately loyal audience, about sixty per cent female... ...According to its supporters, "Sailor Moon' is doing something unprecedented in children's television: providing a strong role model for pre-teen girls: "The issue of a girl being empowered is a wonderful theme you just don't see in American animation," says Andy Heyward, president of DIC Entertainment, the California-based company that adapted the show for North America. "There's very little, if anything, out there starring a girl."... ...There's a better answer out there to the lack of TV role models for girls, though it might seem an unlikely one at first. "Xena: Warrior Princess," shown on most of the same stations as "Sailor Moon," is a live-action fantasy show centering on a strong female character whose belief in justice is matched only by her ability to swing a sword, perform dexterous back flips, and land brutal roundhouse kicks. A reformed mercenary, the beautiful Xena (Lucy Lawless) now uses her warrior abilities for good rather than evil, slapping miscreants into shape and treating cruel rulers to her gleeful brand of Amazonian butt-kicking. The series is like a Marvel comic book brought to life, complete with wisecracking hero, adolescent cleverness, and background of garbled lore. In one episode, the mythological figure Sisyphus appears as an evil magician trying to get Xena to take over his eternal rock-rolling fate - an incident missing from my edition of Bulfinch. On the other hand, who cares? "Xena" is good fun, and its cartoonish wit is drawing a fast-growing, enthusiastic teenage and young-adult audience, male and female, as well as the main target group of pre-teen girls. Its more loyal fans, who call themselves "Xenites," watch the show in groups while consuming Xena's favoured snack of nut bread. Inevitably, the show has spawned a number of sites on the World Wide Web, including one called Whoosh!, after the cheesy sound effect used in the series for everything from sword thrusts to Xena's back flips. The site boasts a complete episode guide, an "Encyclopedia Xenaica," and apparently serious articles on such subjects as "Visual Metaphor in Xena: Warrior Princess,"and "Xena: Warrior Princess: A Native American Perspective." I'm not making this up either. So maybe some grown-ups have way too much time on their hands. But for younger fans, "Xena," along with the equally silly "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," from which it was spun off, is obviously striking some deep mythopoeic chord. It also, in contrast to "Sailor Moon," makes the traditionally male superhero genre cool for girls without hollowing out the strong message. Yes, the blue-eyed, raven-haired Xena does cavort in revealing leather jerkins and thigh-high boots: an outfit that got her anatomically correct action figure included on an annual list of "warped Christmas playthings." And her moral pronunciamentos aren't much more sophisticated than Sailor Moon's - "It takes a lot more strength to resist violence than to surrender to it," she opines in one episode. But they are at least based on hard-won experience. And Xena never has to be rescued by a man; on the contrary, she does the rescuing herself. You might think "Xena" is just comic-book cheesecake, the way Lynda Carter's Playboy-style "Wonder Woman" series was in the seventies. But don't underestimate Xena's ability to inspire self-reliance in young female fans, even a kind of new-style power feminism. In this age of explicit tele-visual disclosure of bodily attributes, when "Baywatch" is the worldwide standard of what's watchable, the warrior princess compellingly combines action with appearance. In an episode that found her transported into the equally luscious body of her archenemy, Callisto, Xena shut down one man's amorous approach by saying, "It's not my body that makes me who I am - it's my deeds." Then she punched him. If only Sailor Moon would do that to Moonlight Knight once in a while. [ b] 02/01/97 CNN SHOWBIZ THIS WEEKEND. Saturday 10:15 am Eastern Time. 614 words. "Hercules and Xena, Two of the Hottest People on TV" By Jim Moret, Bill Tush REPRINT: It appeals to kids because of the action, it appeals to adult because you see good-looking people in not many clothes, and with a combination like that -- you can't find it anywhere else on TV. You can come and find it on " Hercules" and "Xena". BILL TUSH, CNN ANCHOR: And now we're going to meet Hercules and Xena, two of the hottest people on television today. JIM MORET, CNN ENTERTAINMENT NEWS (voice-over): He's the world's original super hero fighting all manner of monsters, madmen, and warriors. "Hercules" and fellow Greek legend "Xena, Warrior Princess", have spawned a new breed of fantasy-based syndication television shows, apparently tapping into something the audience craves. KEVIN SORBO, HERCULES: Both of us have great charm and good looks. No. I don't know what the -- it's -- you know, I think there's a combination of things. I think the -- that the fantasy element that -- people like that sort of television show. CRAIG TOMASHOFF, ASSOCIATE BUREAU CHIEF, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: It appeals to kids because of the action, it appeals to adult because you see good-looking people in not many clothes, and with a combination like that -- you can't find it anywhere else on TV. You can come and find it on "Hercules" and "Xena". MORET (voice-over): Kevin Sorbo plays the mythological hero. His femme fatale counterpart, Xena, is portrayed by Lucy Lawless. They have much to celebrate with the runaway success of their respective shows, each shot on location in New Zealand. SORBO: Lucy and I will sit there and talk about things sometimes. I can't believe the way, you know, the things have taken off, and it's just a -- nuts. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Kevin Sorbo! (END VIDEO CLIP) MORET (voice-over): Nowhere was that more evident than at the inaugural Hercules and Xena convention held recently in Burbank, California. Back-to-back sellout days saw 4,000 fans gather, many dressed for the occasion, to buy and sell their wares, even fight. The shows were set in an age where problems were solved by the sword, long before concerns of TV violence. SORBO: It's not violence in terms of something that people would be offended by, I don't think. We get the letters now and then, but most people understand the humor of the show and they understand the fighting sequences in the show. The fights are actually quite humorous. MORET (voice-over): Fans will have animated versions of both shows to watch in the future. SORBO: It's fun to be a cartoon. Hey, what can you say? Well, he's taller than I am, though, I think. We'll have to work on that. MORET (voice-over): Who could have known the legendary son of Zeus would become a TV star? Jim Moret, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood. [ ] 02/02/97 THE TORONTO SUN. Sunday. Page 6. 698 words. "Let's Run it up a Flagpoll" By Gary Dunford EXCERPT: "Do a poll and you'll find Canadians think crime is on the increase," says Michael Adams, president of Environics Research Group. "But in Toronto, the murder rate is lower than it was in 1948. There were fewer murders this year in Canada than last year. Child abuse? It's on the decrease. Spousal abuse? Decreasing. The reason they're on the front page is because they're so unacceptable. We have zero tolerance. That's why I see a disconnect between perception polls -- things are really terrible -- and values research where people say, 'Gee, my life isn't so terrible. I've adapted.' It's our tolerance for this kind of thing that's declined." Environics has tracked the moral values of Canadians since 1983. Adams' Sex in the Snow (Penguin) takes data on a nation of Elders, Boomers and Generation X and fashions a surprisingly optimistic Zodiac for the next millennium The pollster identifies 12 national tribes with differing values. The answer to the bar question "Are you a Libra?" might soon be: "No, I'm an autonomous post materialist (there's more to life than money, icons Bart Simpson, Xena, Warrior Princess)."...