THIS WEEK IN THE XENA NEWS....
TWXN #13
http://www.teleport.com/~gater/IAXS.html
07/20

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.


[Tentative 324c] 07-18-96
   DAILY VARIETY. Thursday. 6026 words. "TV and Cable Production
Chart"
   COMMENTARY: Production chart for LA area: HTLJ and XWP. Same
info as XMR324a


[Tentative 333] 07-19-96
   NOTE: July 19, 1996, in New York's Cinema Village, the series
"Girlfriends: Lesbian Short Films From Around the World" opened.
Included in this series was Christine Parker's "Peach", which
included Lucy Lawless in it's supporting cast as the "mysterious
tow-truck driver". The New York Times and Village Voice ran
articles about this series.


[Tentative 333a] 07-19-96
   THE NEW YORK TIMES. Friday. Page C8. 591 words. "Film Review;
A Lesbian Perspective" By Stephen Holden 
   COMMENTARY:  Mr. Holden deemed Peach one of the two strongest
movies of the eight shorts in the "Girlfriends" series. 


[Tentative 333b] 07-23-96
   THE VILLAGE VOICE. Page 66. 387 words. "Girlfriends: Lesbian
Short Films from Around the World" By Elisabeth Vincentelli
   COMMENTARY: In a review about a Lesbian short film festival at
a local New York cinema, Ms. Vincentelli attempted to determine
what made a film a lesbian short film.  In developing her thesis,
Ms. Vincentelli made the observation that a lesbian nomiker is
not solely based upon content. She stated, "I would also argue
that Lucy Lawless is far more lesbionic in Xena, Warrior Princess
than in Christine Parker's 'Peach,' though in that film she plays
a mysterious tow-truck driver who seduces a young mom. (She does
look pretty swell in 20th-century clothing, though, so now I'm
praying for a team-up with Gina Gershon.)"
   I have never came across the term 'lesbionic' before, however
that may not necessarily mean it is not in wide use by some (I
know it will enter my vocabulary!). However, for my purposes, it
appears to be a first coinage. It was a very clever pun
especially in a Xena context, since it conjured up both the
bionic woman ethos and the alleged lesbian subcontext(s) which
flow from the presentation of a strong woman who is not afraid to
travel around with only another woman as her companion.  I will
not go into this further, in part because it is a topic which is
so rooted in the very fabric of our society that I could never do
it justice as an annotation; and also in part because I
anticipate this topic will be discussed thoroughly in several
articles which will be published in Whoosh (The Journal of the
International Association for Xena Studies). 
   The sentence "seduces a young mom" is true but in a symbolic
sense.  In the film the peach represented a character's approach
to life: Sal admired the peach from afar, and when it was given
to her as a gift, she then put it on a pedestal and admired it
further, and kept people, including herself, from eating it.  In
came the "mysterious tow-truck driver" who advised Sal (in a
somewhat intense and unique way) to eat the peach.  Sal ate the
peach.  Thus, the Lucy Lawless character did "seduce" Sal to
experience more from her life, but not in the sense of a
completed physical seduction (even though, then, it was a
complete seduction in that Sal did eat that darn peach).  Peach
was an art film so many more things were happening in it than
just an interrupted kiss between two women.  [I do not want the
reader to think Peach was a one message, exploitative, or polemic
film. It was not. It had many levels and dealt with many aspects
of life. I regret I am not doing the 16 minute short justice in
this annotation.  However, this is not an essay on Peach.]  Also,
in the film it was strongly implied that had not the baby cried,
a non-ambiguous non-metaphorical seduction could have happened. 
   Later in the article, in a circumstantial reference to Xena,
Ms. Vincentelli expressed her disappointment that in a lesbian
film short festival she did not see more action roles for women.
She wrote, "I personally would have loved seeing women fight
aliens, make giant aquariums explode, or at the very least wave
enormous swords and kick Hercules's butt.  Expensive? Look at
what Monty Python could do with a broom handle and papier-mache!"


[Tentative 334] 07-19-96
   DAILY VARIETY. Friday. Page 8W. 382 words. "Syndicated
programs suffer holiday blues" By Jenny Hontz
   COMMENTARY: Ratings for 2nd release of Mortal Beloved (#16):
XWP took 3rd place in action hours (1st for HTLJ, and 2nd for
ST:DS9), with a 4.9 share (up 11% from last week).
