THIS WEEK IN XENA  NEWS...  
TWXN 85
07/11/97
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.

Editor's Insane Rantings:

1. The launch of the new and improved XMR is scheduled
for July 14, 1997. We still have to work out a few bugs
with the new list server, but I am optmistic that
something will get out. At this time we are still about
650 addresses behind in our conversion. Even if we will
not be able to send it out to all subscribers, it will
be placed in the XMR archive website for downloading.
After that, we are going to see if we can keep it
coming every two weeks. Diane Silver will be the editor
of the even numbered issues and Maria Erb for the odd
ones (well, okay, they are all odd, but you know what I
mean). 

2. Today's issue is a HEAVY dose of Sam Raimi. When it
rains, it pours! True confession time! I had a serious
crush on Sam Raimi when I was a younger tyke. I have
seen Stryker's War and Indian Summer way too many
times. More than any mortal should. 

3. And what do we have waiting for us on Monday? Well,
if Fortune is smiling on us, that will be the day that
XMR #22 will be FINALLY released after a painful 7
month hiatus. Ouch. I guess I finally earn my slacker
badge. But for you TWXN fans (and I know there are at
least two of you out there...hi mom! hi sis!), we have
an attack from THAT OTHER RAIMI. Yup, the Tedster. I
guess he got irked that brother Sam was getting some
limelight, so Ted gets an interview in a Michigan
paper. Also, we take a trip north of the border to
Canada where we will learn of a Canadian politician who
has a nickname of "Xena" and some Canadian hi-jinks
from "This Hour Has 22 Minutes". Then we will have a
big finish with some serious stuff where Xena is listed
with the likes of Hilary Clinton and Sojourner Truth.
All that AND MORE this coming Monday. 


And now....the news:


[    ] 03-02-97
   NEWSDAY. Sunday. Page E13. 1003 words. "Gardens / a
Veggie Patch Coming along Nicely" By Irene Virag 
   COMMENTARY: You know you have made it when the
character of your television show is the role model of
mild mannered gardeners. 
   EXCERPT:
   ...We're going to move our vegetable garden to the
front yard this spring, and I'm placing the plants in
my mind's eye as I look out the window. It's the best
kind of daydream, because, unlike winning the lottery
or spinning gold, I can make it come true. I have hope,
desire, a bin full of compost ready to work into the
soil and the seeds on order.
   Meanwhile as I wait for the mail to bring me new
beginnings, I can wallow in descriptions of some of my
favorite veggies and some flowers, too, whenever I feel
like it. All I have to do is look at the catalogs to
remember what I've ordered. On winter nights
especially, seed catalogs are as absorbing as Jonathan
Kellerman mysteries or junk TV. I admit that I couldn't
wrench myself away from the adventures of my new role
model, "Xena: Warrior Princess," but there was one
night when I gave up "The X-Files" to read about
killer-diller tomatoes and giant eggplants and daikon
radishes that look like they could take over the
world...


[    ] 03-02-97
   MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. Sunday. Page TV2. 1206
words. "Coming right up: Lawyers, lovers, losers and
spies" By Joanne Weintraub
   COMMENTARY: Incredibly minor mention but, hey, it's
Sam, and we know who likes Sam, so Sam is "in".
   EXCERPT:
   ...Not surprisingly, the best of the new series come
from such brand-name creators as Dick Wolf ("Law &
Order," "New York Undercover"), David E. Kelley ("L.A.
Law," "Picket Fences," "Chicago Hope") and Sam Raimi
("Hercules," "Xena," "American Gothic"). Annoyingly,
two of the top three are about lawyers, who now
dominate TV as thoroughly as they dominate, well,
everything else....


[    ] 03/02/97
   THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR. Sunday. Sports. Page D15. 74
words. "Meet Micah Peter" 
   COMMENTARY: Mr. Peter is a College diver who
includes XWP among his many hobbies.
   REPRINT:
   Born: July 20, 1973, in Frankfort, Ind., the
youngest of nine children.  
   Education: Junior fine arts major at Ball State.
   Hobbies: Computer art and design; camping; raising
ferrets "Angel," "Xena" and "Zeeby. "
   Favorite food: Subway, Papa John's pizza.
   Favorite TV shows: Friends, X Files.
   Favorite book: Breaking The Surface by Greg
Louganis.
   Quote: "Diving makes me feel special, like I'm
something and not just somebody. "


[    ] 03/03/97
   THE PLAIN DEALER. Monday. Page 2E. 676 words. "Some
Reeeeally Old Stuff Turns on a Today Browser" By
Caoilte Joy
   COMMENTARY: A positive review for an Australian
website that features...who else, but our favorite
warrior princess.
   EXCERPT:
   I don't know how to start this column other than to
say that all the Web sites are about old stuff. Really
old stuff. Older than the family fruitcake. Older than
pegged pants. I think you get the idea....
   ...Now, I bet you thought that - for better or worse
- the only things to come out of Australia were
Crocodile Dundee, cute accents and silverchair. But did
you know that we might be able to thank the Ancient
Aussies for crayons, too! Yup. Check out the story
about Crayola's ancestor, the 60,000-year-old crayon at
the Ancient World Web.
   This is a great site. It's huge and it has links for
everything old, from "Xena: Warrior Princess" (which is
based on something old) to serious anthropology
journals to aborigine music. It's sort of the Yellow
Pages of the Ancient World.
   Well, that's all for the Web Goddess this week, my
little webbies...
   ...GRAPHIC: Here are World Wide Web addresses for
the sites recommended this week by the Web
Goddess:...Ancient World Web: http://atlantic.evsc.;
virginia.edu/julia/; AncientWorld.html...


[   a] 03/03/97
   THE TIMES UNION (Albany, NY). Monday. Page C4. 684
words. "The 'Xena' team plays a new 'Spy Game'" By Mike
Duffy (Knight-ridder)
   COMMENTARY: Sam Raimi interview about Spy Game &
Renaissance Pictures. Hey!!! Sam!!! Glad to see you
back. 
   REPRINT:
   Sam Raimi's gone big time. But he hasn't gone
Hollywood.
   ''We're too busy to go Hollywood,'' jokes Raimi, the
filmmaker and producer who first gained cult fame more
than a decade ago as the young director of the loopy
and kinetic ''Evil Dead'' horror movies.
   But entertainment life goes on.  
   And now Raimi, whose stylish, comedy-laced
ghoul-movie carnivals never crossed over to the big
money mainstream, finds himself atop a thriving pop
culture fiefdom that includes the globally popular
syndicated TV shows ''Hercules: The Legendary
Journeys'' and ''Xena: Warrior Princess.''
   In addition, he's about to launch his first colorful
action fest for a major network, ''Spy Game,'' a
lighthearted, live-wire update of such 1960s spy shows
as ''The Avengers,'' ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' and
''I Spy.'' It debuts at 8 tonight on ABC.
   Raimi would never engage in extravagant
self-promotion. He's way too modest and sweet-natured
to proclaim himself an emperor of cool, new-wave eye
candy for the masses. In fact, Raimi and longtime
business partner Rob Tapert are just beginning to savor
their good fortune.
   ''For so many years, what Rob and I did never found
a large audience,'' Raimi says, speaking by phone from
his car in Los Angeles.
   But then Raimi and Tapert dreamed up ''Hercules,'' a
syndicated series that debuted in early 1995 and
quickly developed a loyal following for its high-energy
mix of fantasy, cheeky comic dialogue and the Hong
Kong-style action sequences that Raimi adores.
   It didn't hurt that long-haired Herc was played by a
fabulously good-looking actor named Kevin Sorbo. He's a
hubba-hubba action hero for the '90s.
   ''Hercules'' was soon followed by ''Xena,'' the
eye-popping spin-off starring Lucy Lawless as a
leather-clad warrior princess who never backs down from
a good fight. The athletic Lawless, like Sorbo, has
become a pop icon, feted at fan fests by devoted
Hercheads and Xenaphiles.
   ''I'm surprised. I'm very surprised,'' says Raimi of
the widespread success of ''Hercules'' and ''Xena,''
both of which are filmed in New Zealand.
   Raimi began directing at age 13 in Birmingham,
Mich., with homemade Super 8 movies, including a
30-minute horror short that became the spark for the
original ''Evil Dead.'' He met Tapert at Michigan State
University in the late 1970s, where they teamed up with
Raimi's longtime pal Bruce Campbell.
   The trio launched Renaissance Pictures on a
shoestring budget and left MSU to finish ''Evil Dead,''
which was released to instant cult buzz in 1983.
   Campbell, the acting specialist in the group,
starred in Raimi's ''Evil Dead'' trilogy, which also
included ''Evil Dead II'' and ''Army of Darkness.'' He
has since gone on to TV, starring in Fox's humor-fueled
Western series ''The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.''
Campbell has a recurring sitcom role on ABC's ''Ellen''
and also has guest-starred in and directed episodes of
''Hercules.''
   Meanwhile, Raimi and Tapert rave on with Renaissance
Pictures.
   The duo produced ''Hard Target'' and ''Timecop,'' a
pair of Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. And Raimi has
continued to direct his own films, including ''The
Quick and the Dead,'' a hellzapoppin' 1995 Western that
starred Sharon Stone.
   It's the surprising success of ''Hercules'' and
''Xena'' that has Raimi and Tapert on a happy
television roll.
   And ''Spy Game'' represents their best chance yet to
achieve major network success with their sly and lively
storytelling, which features a breezy comic book
sensibility with a smart edge.
   ''Spy Game,'' with Linden Ashby (''Mortal Kombat'')
and Allison Smith (''Jerry McGuire'') as an
action-ready pair of Generation X spies in the
post-Cold War '90s. Each episode is an enjoyably
over-the-top espionage caper.
   ''We loved all the gadgets and gimmicks of the '60s
spy movies, the James Bond pictures, 'The Avengers,' ''
Raimi says. ''But we thought we could update it by
putting it in the modern world, where all these spies
are no longer employed by the Soviet Union or the
United States. They're now 'free agents' and in
themselves are a threat.''


