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.''