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)."...


