THIS WEEK IN XENA  NEWS . . .  
TWXN 78
06/20/97
Friday

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. This TV guide on sale for this week mentioned the
rise in the name "Xena" for baby girls. This trend has
been covered in XMR and TWXN.

2. This issue covers 02/10/97 through 02/15/97. Among
today s myriad references, we encounter a Xena cite in
the "women in the military" debate; check out a local
NZ promo for the return of Xena to their airwaves; Xena
makes it on a St. Valentine's Day List even though her
name is misspelled; the fanclub address is given; and a
woman with a chicken named Xena is interviewed.

3. Next week in Monday's edition, we will find out that
Hong Kong saw DEATH IN CHAINS in February; NZ was still
promoting the return of XWP to their airwaves; a critic
compared Hermia in MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM to Xena;
those wild and crazy HIGHLANDER people still politely
were dissing XWP; the NY Times considered a Greek myth
revival; and Xena was cited as "wholesome, harmless
hooey"! All that and more, on Monday. 

4. WHOOSH! is going to be expanding its staff in the
near future. Stay tuned for a want ad for two html
coders. Details will be in a future TWXN.



[    ] 02-10-97

THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (Jacksonville, FL). Monday.
Page A-1. 770 words. "Gender tensions in military defy
simple solutions" By Knight-Tribune News Service

EXCERPT:
Attorney Henry Hamilton of Columbia, S.C, spends a lot
of time defending soldiers accused of romancing or
harassing Army women.

He believes the military has a gender problem.

So does Laura Miller, a sociologist who studies how men
and women in uniform get along.

But that's where the two part company. Hamilton thinks
the armed forces have gone to absurd lengths to
accommodate and protect women. That accommodation has
spawned a climate where men are sometimes wrongly
accused of offenses they didn't commit, he says.  

Miller comes to a different conclusion. She thinks
military women are repeatedly victims of 'gender
harassment,' which she defines as subtle but effective
methods to undermine their authority...

...But Hamilton believes the Army and other services
have ignored problems caused by well-meaning policies
gone awry.

'On the one hand, female trainees are supposed to be
Xena the warrior princess, but at the same time, they
can't contend with someone looking at them sideways
without it being sexual harassment,' Hamilton says.
 
'If women can't deal with that, how in the hell are
they going to close with and destroy the enemy?'


[    ] 02-10-97

THE EVENING POST (Wellington). Page 3. 230 words. "Xena
still packing a punch"

REPRINT:
IN SHORT
What: Xena: Warrior Princess.
Where: TV3.
When: 8.30pm, Friday.

SHE HAS to have been blessed by the gods to have gone
from a guest appearance on a hit series to the star of
her own spin-off in such a short time.  

But that's what Lucy Lawless did in Xena: Warrior
Princess, and it was a demi-god who made it all happen.

The New Zealand actor signed on for three episodes on
the series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys during its
first series. Before her stint was over, she was
headlining her own show Xena: Warrior Princess.

Lawless first appeared on Hercules as a feared, evil
marauder who flattened everything in her path. Problem
was, audiences loved her. So Xena did a quick about-
face and now battles evil with the best of them.

A new series of Xena: Warrior Princess begins this
week.

The idea all came about, says Lawless, with a phone
call from Hercules' co-executive producer, Rob Tapert,
who asked her if she would like a show of her own.

"I said, Pardon?' and he repeated it," she says.
"Then I said Ah Mr Tapert, that sounds very nice. Why
don't you get back to me at a later date when it's more
concreted."

Obviously he did.

Xena: Warrior Princess is one of the highest rating
one-hour series in the United States.

GRAPHIC: MATES - Xena (Lucy Lawless) and sidekick
Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor).


[    ] 02-14-97

THE TORONTO SUN. Friday. Page V10. 1338 words.
"Dunford's Top 10 List" By Gary Dunford

COMMENTARY: He spells Xena 'Zena'. 

EXCERPT:
Smart. Strong. Funny. The Valentine's Day Sweeties List
came much quicker than usual. Evidence that either (a)
there are more prominent women around who match the
qualities just given, or (b) I have totally lost my
mind. I know which one I'm betting on...

...8. Lucy Lawless, Actress
 
She's Zena, Warrior Princess! Leather-clad Amazon!
Heroine to millions of fans, many of 'em girls. Every
Cyclops' nightmare. A cynical buddy calls Zena,
"Baywatch without boats." Pow, pal! You're toast! It's
the highest-rated series in syndication. And its
six-foot star has a refreshingly cool take on why her
character rocks 'em, socks 'em with fists and kicks:
"It makes Zena crotchety to be trussed up like a
chicken." She hates the action figure of her character
too: "They put my head on a He-Man's body!" Don't mess
with her. Hercules tried that: Zena left him sputtering
in the dust. The 29-year-old New Zealand actress says
she thinks the idea of being a role model for girls
stinks. Okay, how about being a Valentine?...

...GRAPHIC:...(8) LUCY LAWLESS 


[    ] 02-14-97

THE TORONTO SUN. Friday. Page 6. 34 words. "for the
Love of Dunf"

REPRINT:
Dunford's gone to the mountain to choose his annual Top
10 Sweeties, lovebugs. (Xena: Warrior Princess ? The
lady cop from Fargo?) Dunf's full report is in the
Valentine's Day supplement this morning.


[    ] 02-14-97

NEWSDAY. Friday. Page B43. 214 words. "Kidsday / What's
Cool for Kids"

EXCERPT:
In honor of Valentine's Day, here are the fan mail
addresses of some popular celebrities....Lucy Lawless
(Xena on "Xena: Warrior Princess) c/o Creation
Entertainment 411 N. Central Ave. Suite 300 Glendale,
Calif. 91203...

GRAPHIC:...(3) Lucy Lawless


[    ] 02-14-97
MEDIA DAILY. No. 5. Vol. 4. 431 words. "Overset:
Broadcasting and Cable"

EXCERPT:
...For the second consecutive week (ending Feb. 2), the
action-adventure series, "Xena: Warrior Princess," was
the most watched syndicated show. "Hercules" finished
No. 2, followed by "Outer Limits" and "Baywatch," which
has seen its ratings decline 36% in the past year....


[    ] 02-14-97

THE EVENING POST (Wellington). Page 12. 255 words. "Top
10 Trivia"

EXCERPT:
1 Xena: Warrior Princess returns tonight (TV3, 8.30).
For whose US chat show did star Lucy Lawless break her
pelvis in a stunt that went wrong?...

...Answers
1 Jay Leno's...

GRAPHIC: FEARLESS - Lucy Lawless


[    ] 02-14-97


THE EVENING POST (Wellington). Page 12. 373 words. "Vet
puts competition to bed" By Phil Wakefield

EXCERPT:
THE new Friday night drama, The Vet (TV1, 8.45), could
turn into appointment television.

The programme's premiere won its time slot last week
and its popularity should rise as more viewers discover
this preferable alternative to macho action hours (like
the return of Xena: Warrior Princess at 8.30pm on
TV3)...


[    ] 02-14-97

CHATTANOOGA FREE PRESS. Friday. Page A2. 396 words.
"Quick Glance at Today's News" By Howard Cross (Free
Press Copy Editor)

EXCERPT:
...ENTERTAINMENT The adventures of "Hercules" and
"Xena" are racing far out in front of any other
syndicated television series. E1...


[x062] 02-15-97

THE VANCOUVER SUN. Saturday. Page G3. 904 words. "The
buck-buck stops here: Which came first, the chicken or
the egg? The answer, it seems, is neither" By Lloyd
Dykk (Vancouver Sun)

COMMENTARY: A rare non-XWP Xena reference. A woman has
a chicken named Xena.

EXCERPT:
....A correspondent who lives on the Gulf Islands, a
librarian who fancies herself a countrywoman, writes
regularly. I've never seen her estate or even met her
but imagine her striding through muck in tweeds, pearls
and Wellingtons, mistress of all she surveys, every
inch the English countrywoman.

She writes great letters that evoke the American
essayist E.B. White - no minutiae too minute to exclude
human interest. She has a mud-room, and chickens with
names:

"This summer Madonna disappeared into the woods for two
weeks....Zsa Zsa, not to be outdone, laid eight eggs
under a bush...Xena got some infection so I took her to
the vet and she had to be put to sleep. To his credit,
the vet treated her as any other pet - chickens usually
get short shrift in the pet dept."


