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''....

