THIS WEEK IN XENA  NEWS...  
TWXN 105
09/03/97

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. WHOOSH! #12 was released on 09-01-97. It's THE FIRST
ANNUAL ALL-AMAZON ISSUE. There is more info about
Amazons in #12 than you can shake a stick at. Check it
out at http://www.thirdstory.com/whoosh

2. As stated yesterday, I am in a massive time crunch.
XMR should have been sent out 09-01-97. I am holding it
until I can get through the XMR sub/unsub mail which is
rather massive this week. I am hoping it will be out
BEFORE the weekend. Wish me luck. 

3. We are still in April and I have included some non-
XWP releated Xena items. A couple of them are really
cultural references. Most likely the horse and dog were
named after Xena, the warrior priness. The remaining
one just shows that there were Xenas before our
universe was Xenafied. 

4. Next TWXN we have the usual hodge-podge: more
rumbling about XWP besting ST:DS9; Sam Raimi mention;
Ms. O'Connor gets PR in Texas; a promo for the HTLJ
movies release; a promo for the "Xena Zone" on
tvguide.com; a promo for Ms. O'Connor's chat on AoL;
and a notice of an award LoDuca won for his scoring of
XWP. See you next time!



Here's the gnus:


[    ] 04-22-97
   THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Tuesday. Page 1. 970 words.
"HSPVA celebrates 25 years of Polishing performers" by
Cynthia Thomas, Staff
   COMMENTARY: Renee O'Connor's high school celebtrates
its 25th year of existence, and guess who attends...and
she gets a paragraph and a b/w graphic.
   EXCERPT:
   In 1971, the Houston Independent School District
created a high school for aspiring artists who could
major in dance, theater, visual arts or music while
also getting an academic education.
   The experimental school soon established itself as a
model for other ""magnet'' schools around the country
that draw students with an interest in a particular
subject.  It was also applauded for turning out a
steady supply of well-educated young artists.
   Some of those talented grads will be attending the
school's 25th anniversary reunion and first-ever
homecoming this weekend, but others - like Lewis
Wilkenfeld, a television and theater director in Los
Angeles - won't, because they didn't know about it.  
   The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
does a good job of turning out working arts
professionals, but it hasn't done as well keeping track
of them.
   ""All I can say is mea culpa, mea culpa,'' says Bob
Singleton, theater coordinator and a drama teacher
since 1977.
   He added that the situation is starting to change.
   The school is now re-establishing contact with the
students who've passed through its halls.
   Those Broadway actors, jazz musicians, modern
dancers, directors and photographers could be for the
new generation of students what they themselves lacked
as part of the experiment: role models.
   "This is the coming of age, and this is when we look
at the next 25 years,'' says Mary Martha Lappe,
director of the dance department and one of the
school's founding teachers.
   Principal Herbert Karpicke has named Lappe to the
new post of development director, with duties that
include tracking down alumni.  The school published its
first alumni newsletter this year and produced an
Internet site (http://members.aol.com/hspva/index.html)
that, among other things, requests information from
graduates.
   The school in the Montrose area may not be the star
factory some in Houston assume - its graduates aren't
household names, and about 60 percent leave the arts
field to pursue other careers.
   But the remainder do go on to careers in the arts -
people such as Wilkenfeld, who directed Cathy Rigby in
a touring production of Peter Pan; Amelia Marshall, an
actress on The Guiding Light; Jo De Romano, a flamenco
dancer in New York who toured with Jose Greco for 20
years; Megan McGavran Freemantle, assistant props
coordinator at Houston Grand Opera; Sue Schroeder,
founder of Several Dancers Core, a dance company that
splits its time between Houston and Atlanta; local jazz
musicians Sebastian Whittaker, Warren Sneed and
Everette Harp; and Mark Seliger, a photographer who has
shot for Rolling Stone.
   Graduates speak of the school in glowing terms, and
even those who didn't pursue an arts career are glad
they went there. 
   Students must pass an audition to be accepted and
then sign a contract agreeing to certain standards of
behavior...
   ...Each year about 800 freshmen audition; 160 are
accepted.  The enrollment has grown from 270 in 1971 to
655 today....
   ...Renee O'Connor, who plays Gabrielle on Xena:
Warrior Princess and is perhaps the most famous alumna
at the moment, is making time in a busy schedule to
attend Saturday's reunion.  Her popular TV show tapes
in New Zealand, and when she returns to the United
States her PR people keep her busy with interviews and
photo shoots.
   ""HSPVA challenged you to form your own opinions,''
says O'Connor, who attended the school as a sophomore
and junior but returned to Katy to graduate with her
lifelong neighborhood friends in 1989.
   She remembers the return to her Katy school as
""bittersweet,'' saying she missed the creative energy
at the arts school.
   O'Connor has been working steadily as an actress
since she graduated from high school and moved to Los
Angeles.
   Principal Karpicke, who has been at the school two
years, figures the first graduates are now at the age
when they start to think about giving back to their
school....
   ...'Anything Goes! '
   As part of HSPVA's anniversary celebration, students
will perform Anything Goes!, a musical by Cole Porter
at Miller Outdoor Theater in Hermann Park, 8:30 p.m.
Thursday through Saturday.
   Admission is free.  For information about tickets,
call the school at 713-942-1960.
   Saturday is alumni night with an open house at the
school and a reception at the theater before the
show....
   GRAPHICS: 4. Renee O'Connor (b/w)


[x066] 04-23-97
   NEW STRAITS TIMES (Malaysia). Sports. Page 39. 706
words. "Grand Abjar comes with good record"
   COMMENTARY: A horse by the name of Princess Xena in
Malaysia (but formerly knwon as San Jeronimo!)
   EXCERPT:
   MARINUS van Breukelen's Grand Abjar is the better
galloper among the two Class 1 newcomers entered for
the Perak Derby meeting starting in Ipoh this
Saturday....
   ...Also entered for the meeting are 27 Restricted
Terms newcomers. They are:...
   ...3bnzg by Omnicorp out of Keating, Princess Xena
(late San Jeronimo)...


[x068] 04-24-97
   THE NEW YORK TIMES. Thursday. Page D29. 59 words.
"Paid Notice. Deaths. HOFFMAN, XENA"
   COMMENTARY: Rare non-XWP Xena reference. Just to
show there were pre-Warrior Princess Xenas.
   REPRINT:
   HOFFMAN-Xena. Age 52, on April 18, 1997, of NYC.
Beloved mother of Zuri Wagner. Daughter of Lyla
Goldfarb and Henry Hoffman. Loving sister of Katie and
Eric Hoffman, of CA. Also survived by many deeply loved
nieces, nephews, friends and clients. Memorial service
to be held Friday, April 25, at 7:30 PM, Kingdom Hall,
169 West 107th Street, Manhattan.


[x069] 04-24-97
   MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. Thursday. Page 3. 361
words. "Police arrest teen after puppy is shot to
death, owner injured. Two other youths sought in
connection with the incident, police say" By Jessica
Mcbride (Journal Sentinel staff)
   COMMENTARY: A puppy by the name of Xena is killed in
Milwaukee.
   EXCERPT:
   Police arrested one teenager and were searching for
two others believed responsible for shooting a puppy to
death and then injuring the dog's owner when he came
looking for them.
   The string of events began Tuesday when Xena, one of
J.D. Jackson's two pit bull/Rottweiler puppies,
wriggled under his backyard fence in the 1500 block of
N. 34th St. and ran down the street.
   "I ran after her," Jackson, 35, said Wednesday. "A
guy told me the dog was on N. 35th St. and I got there
and a woman told me some dude shot my dog at 35th and
W. Cherry St. In the alley, there lay my dog. I picked
her up." 
   The dog, shot in the chest with a shotgun, "was
shaking, catching her last breath," Jackson said. "She
died before I got around the corner."
   Jackson placed the dog in his yard, then went
looking for the three teenagers he saw walking away
from the dying animal.
   "I went back on the street and hollered at them,
Why'd you kill my dog?' My dog don't attack nobody.
They said, Do you want some drama?' " Jackson said.
   Jackson left and went to call 911, but as he entered
his home, he saw two of the youths standing across the
street. He said one pulled out a handgun, the other a
shotgun, and they opened fire. A pellet caught Jackson
in the calf.
   "It hit me just as I was getting my leg in the
door," he said. "I told my wife to get on the floor.
They shot up the house."
   Wednesday afternoon, Jackson held pictures of the
six-month-old Xena and decried the neighborhood's
problems.
   "Kids hang out on the street and don't go to school
and don't do nothing but sell dope," he said. "But I
walk down that way, I walk my dogs down that way. I'm
not scared. They don't own this community.
   "My son asked if we were going to move, but I said,
No, we are not going to move because some 16- or
17-year-old kid is gun-happy.' "
   He said the dog was not vicious. "I train them and
they are obedient," he said. "I love my dogs. I clip
their tails myself."
   Police said the shooting of the dog appeared to be
unprovoked. A 17-year-old boy was arrested and might
face a charge of cruelty to animals. Two other youths
are being sought.
   GRAPHIC: Zeus (left) lost littermate Xena (right) to
gunfire. Xena was shot in an alley Tuesday.



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 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on
the XenaVerse, Hercules-Xena, and Chakram Mailing Lists
(thank you Lucia! I am greatly indebt to you), the MCA
NetForum, the Xenite Message Center, and alt.tv.xena. I
also would like to thank sirvin@law.wfu.edu for
assitance 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". 



