THIS WEEK IN THE XENA NEWS.... TWXN 30 10/01/96 Brought to you by Xena: Media Review (XMR): http://www.teleport.com/~gater/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. NEWS FROM THE FRONT: XMR #18 is about half way through. I am still toying with some design changes which hopefully will allow me to release XMR more often. WHOOSH #1 has exceeded my expectations and we are gearing up for Whoosh #2 which will be released on-line on or about October 17, 1996. If you have an article about Xena just dying to be published, send it to me at ktaborn@lightspeed.net by the 10th of this month for possible inclusion in Whoosh! #2. The IAXS (International Association of Xena Studies) webpage site has become soooo popular that we had to get rid of carrying the back issues of TWXN on that site in order to cut down on our bandwidth. Therefore, TWXN is looking for a home on the web. If you have the space to carry back issues of TWXN, then please e-mail me at ktaborn@lightspeed.net. And now for the news... [ ] 09-19-96 NEW MEDIA MARKETS. 425 words. "Sky 2 Comes down to Earth with The Simpsons" COMMENTARY: XWP was the top rated program for Britain's Sky 2 for the week ending September 8, 1996. XWP logged in 214,000 viewers that Sunday at 7pm. The competition was ST: Deep Space Nine, showing on Sky 1 at the same time, and ST:DS9 logged in 228,000 viewers. [ ] 09-23-96 ELECTRONIC MEDIA. Page 32. 707 words. "Askin Taking Tribune Shows Right to Action" By Greg Spring COMMENTARY: Tribune Entertainment announced development of two more action hours to join their previously announced project of Battleground Earth. Both will be based upon comic book franchises: "Terry and the Pirates" and "The Nightman". Tribune Entertainment President Dick Askin was reported as saying he was hoping that those shows will do for the Tribune Group what MCA's "Hercules" and "Xena" has done for them. [ ] 09-26-96 U.P.I. Thursday. Domestic News. 171 words. "Klingons top Halloween costume survey" COMMENTARY: Paul Blum, owner of Abracadabra, a Greenwich Village masquerade shop, gave the results of an informal survey of 150 customers about their early top 10 list of disguises. The winners were: (1) Klingons; (2) Darth Vader; (3) Xena; (4) Wonder Woman; (5) Catwoman; (6) Princess Diana; (7) Ru Paul; (8) Howard Stern; (9) vampires; and a tie for (10) President Clinton and Bob Dole. Mr. Blum stated that the recent interest in space creatures generated by the discovery of possible life on Mars and movies like 'Independence Day' may have boosted science fiction figures like Klingons and Darth Vader to the top of the list. [ ] 09-26-96 DAILY VARIETY. Production lists. COMMENTARY: In an untitled production listing, XWP was listed after HTLJ: "MCA TELEVISION(818) 777-1242...XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (synd) (in assn w/Renassiance Pictures) EXP, Robert Tapert, Sam Raimi; CO-EXP, R.J. Stewart; SUPR PROD, Steven Sears; PROD, Eric Gruendemann; CO-PROD, Liz Friedman; CASTING, Beth Hymson-Ayer." [ a] 09-26-96 DAILY VARIETY. 984 words. "Preem Week Presents No Hits in New Shows Syndie Freshman Start Slowly: Syndies Struggle" By Jenny Hontz COMMENTARY: Callisto (#22), 2nd release, 09/09/96. Ranked as the 3rd action hour with a 4.5 rating. [HTLJ and ST:DS9 tied on 1st with a 4.8; and Baywatch placed 4th with 3.4]. [Callisto's 1st release (05/13/96) ratings: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine tied for 7th in rank with 5.6, and placed first in the action hours. XWP ranked 13th with 5.1, and placed 2nd. HTLJ tied for 14th with 4.7, and placed 3rd. No other action hours made it to the top twenty.] [ ] 09-28-96 THE WASHINGTON POST. Saturday. Page D01. 1327 words. "'Early Edition': Stop the Presses!; Series Is Not Good News" By Tom Shales COMMENTARY: Two passing mentions of XWP in a review about "Tarzan: The Epic Adventures". Mr. Shales described the show Tarzan as "slow and serious rather than crazy and campy, the way the Herc and Xena shows are". Mr. Shales implied that crazy and campy was good. [ ] 09-29-96 THE WASHINGTON POST. Sunday. Page Y03. 425 words. "The Political Race And 'The Lottery'" COMMENTARY: XWP was mentioned as a season return for Washington D.C., Tuesdays at 9pm on WBDC and Thursday at 9pm on WNUV. [ ] 09-29-96 THE SEATTLE TIMES. Sunday. Page M2. 484 words. "For Warn, 'Insomnia' Brings Creative Energy" By Anthony Flinn COMMENTARY: In a review of an new book of poetry by Seattle poet, Emily Warn, called "The Novice Insomniac", Mr. Flinn started out his review by stating, "Emily Warn is one tough Seattle poet, tougher than John Wayne and Xena the Warrior Princess combined." [ ] 09-29-96 SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE. Sunday. Page 1G. 747 words. "Pride Lights up Screen at Tampa Film Festival. Tampa's 7th Annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Runs Thursday Through Oct. 13." By Jay Handelman COMMENTARY: In a listing of the films to be shown in a Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the film "Wing Chun" was described as "a 1994 comedy-adventure film from Hong Kong, star[ing] martial arts expert Michelle Khan, who plays a woman described as 'a cross between Hong Kong's answer to Sandra Bullock and an Asian Xena: Warrior.'"