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.").

