XENA MEDIA REVIEW (XMR) #21 Part 2 of 4 ============ CUT HERE ================== [184] 03-01-96 THE EVENING POST (Wellington). Page 10. 417 words. "Capital himbos get a shot at big break on Hercules" By Phil Wakefield COMMENTARY: News of a casting call in NZ for HTLJ. It was mentioned in the article that although XWP had already had a casting call locally in Wellington, most of the actors cast were from the Auckland area. The article included a short interview with Di Rowan, HTLJ casting director. The key skills she looked for were "talent and American accents". The article concluded with a short promo for HTLJ's NZ release of THE WARRIOR PRINCESS (HTLJ #09) and a quote from ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY referring to pre-adolescent boys. EXCERPT: ... EXPECT TO see more Wellington actors on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. This month the show's casting director, Di Rowan, will be in the Capital to audition clients of talent agencies such as Real Kiwis. Rowan, who cast Lower Hutt schoolgirl Anna Paquin in The Piano, says she has auditioned Wellington actors previously for the hit fantasy series and its spin-off, Xena: Warrior Princess. But most of the actors who have appeared on either show to date have been Auckland-sourced. However, given the limited pool of actors in this country it's inevitable Rowan will have to start moving further south to avoid the same actors playing too many different roles. "But we are environmentally-friendly," Rowan jokes. "We are happy to recycle actors." She and her team spend five days a week auditioning actors for Hercules and Xena. Hercules has been in production for two-and-a-half years and given its popularity in the US, seems likely to continue for at least that long. The key qualities Rowan looks for when auditioning are talent and American accents. Obviously in a show like Hercules, physique helps as well. As Entertainment Weekly said of Lucy Lawless, who graduated from a guest stint in tonight's episode to playing Xena: "The fierce, wild-haired Xena has been popping out of her breast plates all year...An awful lot of pre-adolescent boys are going to get hooked on Greek mythology."... [186.5] 03-04-96 THE EVENING POST (Wellington). Page 3. 398 words. "Lawless days for ancient warriors" COMMENTARY: Detailed NZ promo for HTLJ's THE WARRIOR PRINCESS (HTLJ #09). Included extensive resume for Ms. Lawless. REPRINT: IN SHORT -------------------- What: Hercules. Where: TV3. When: 8.30pm, Friday. -------------------- ANCIENT warrior Hercules meets his match this week when he comes face to face with Xena, The Warrior Princess, played by Auckland actress Lucy Lawless. Lawless makes her debut as Hercules's deadly opponent in a performance that so impressed the show's American producers they created an entirely new series for her. The spin-off is now almost as popular in the United States as the original Hercules. Sharp-eyed Hercules fans may have already spotted Lawless as Lyla, the courageous bride of Deric the Centaur, in an earlier episode. But it is her work as Xena which catapulted the actress to stardom in the United States. Almost 1.8 metres tall, with dark hair and intense blue eyes, Lawless is the fifth of seven children and the oldest girl in her family. A self-confessed tomboy as a child, she appears every bit as independent as her strong-willed character. After finishing high school, where she appeared in many musicals and plays, she attended Auckland University before leaving for Europe "to go grape-picking on the Rhine". When she ran out of money, she went to Australia and worked for a gold-mining company in the small outback town of Kalgoolie. One of a few female miners, Lawless did the same work as the men, digging, mapping the ground, driving trucks and pushing huge core samples of earth through a diamond saw. She married in Australia and returned to Auckland where her daughter Daisy, now seven years old, was born. At the age of 20 Lawless landed her first real acting job alongside Comedy Central's Willy de Wit, in the comedy series Funny Business. She then moved to Vancouver, Canada for eight months to study drama at the William Davis Centre for Actors' Study. When she returned to New Zealand in early 1992 she accepted a job as co-host for travel show Air New Zealand Holiday, which she continued for two seasons. Lawless sees the role of Xena as her first major breakthrough as an actress. She describes the character as "a woman as strong as any man or woman has ever been, who lives by her wits, but is also a fighter. She's a very human hero, who knows all about the darker side of human nature since she must battle it within herself every day." GRAPHIC: Princess Xena (Lucy Lawless). [219a] 04-02-96 GLOBE. Page ?. 427 words. "Princess Xena Dumped Hubby For Show Exec - Pals Reveal" COMMENTARY: The date was originally stated as unknown and assigned April 1, 1996. The date of the periodical was April 2, 1996. Please correct accordingly. [219b] 04-05-96 TRUTH (Auckland). Page 5. 468 words. "HERCULES Star Lucy Runs off with Boss. Warrior Xena Goes Weak at the Knees..." COMMENTARY: You know you are dealing with a quality publication when they refuse to acknowledge who wrote the article! This article was a complete rip-off of the April 2, 1996 THE GLOBE article titled "Princess Xena Dumped Hubby For Show Exec - Pals Reveal". Strangely enough the article cited THE GLOBE as THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER and repeated the information that Ms. Lawless was a "former Mrs New Zealand pageant winner". Again, I have only seen this information listed in two other sources: THE GLOBE and THE SUNDAY MAIL from the UK. I suspect the SUNDAY MAIL got its info from THE GLOBE. REPRINT: NZ ACTRESS Lucy Lawless has set Hollywood tongues wagging--by dumping her husband. Lucy, who plays brawny beauty Xena the Warrior Princess in the TV3 action series Hercules, has run off with the show's producer, according to American tabloid the National Enquirer. The gossip magazine says Lucy, the sword-wielding siren built like a Greek temple, has left Garth, her husband of eight years, for Hercules producer Robert Tapert, the man who made her an international star. Just two years ago, when Lucy was hosting TV One Saturday night show Holiday, she said "If my acting career stopped tomorrow, I'd be all right because I have Garth, my daughter Daisy and a wonderful family." The National Enquirer says the 30-something Hercules producer hand-picked the just under six foot tall Lucy to star as the mythic warrior Xena--Hercules' sexy archenemy-turned-girlfriend-- who was then spun off into her own hit show. Soon after, Tapert broke free of his bonds to common law wife Jane Goe, a screenwriter, to be with the 27-year-old muscle-bound mum-of-one, say sources. "It was very rough on Garth," reveals a close friend. "He stuck with Lucy through the lean years when she was studying as an opera singer and actress. "They met as teenagers in Auckland and got married in the Australian outback when Lucy was 20. She had her daughter Daisy nine months later." But all that changed faster than one of Zeus' lightning bolts when Tapert tapped the former Mrs New Zealand pageant winner over five other athletic actresses to don Xena's lusty leather bodice and start bashing bad guys--for $ US25,000 a week. Tapert recently spent three weeks on location in Auckland finalising details for the new season of Hercules' and Xena's shows, which begin filming in New Zealand later this year. Insiders say he spent the whole trip at Lucy's cozy Auckland home. "I guess Garth just isn't part of the world she moves in anymore, but Rob definitely is," the friend told the National Enquirer. The cooing couple may feel like they're on top of Mt Olympus now, but neither will feel immortal if they run into the scorned common law wife Tapert left behind. "Robert and I were very happy till Lucy Lawless disrupted our life together," Jane says. "He was the most loving, caring man, the only man in my life and the best man in the world. "I can hardly stand thinking about what's happened. It hurts too much for me to bear." A source close to the show confirms that "Lucy and Rob Tapert are seeing each other and are very happy. "Rob recently ended a 12-year relationship with a longtime companion, but that was before he started seeing Lucy...who is amicably separated from her husband." GRAPHIC: BIG HIT: Lucy Lawless stars as Xena in TV show Hercules. [234.5] 04-14-96 THE SUNDAY NEWS (Auckland). Page 27. 369 words. "Goodbye, fame - hello, journalism" By Paulette Crowley COMMENTARY: Ms. Lawless was mentioned in a gossip column. No doubt following in the footsteps of THE TRUTH article (XMR219b) which was a rif-off of THE GLOBE article (XMR219a), which sensationalized Ms. Lawless' divorce. EXCERPT: ...LURING Lucy Lawless, the goddess-like Xena in Hercules who used to be Stanley's mum in a bank ad, was a mission for producer Robert Tapert, who is to have reported to have finally succeeded. Apparently he chased after her for years before he caught her. "Every time they were looking for someone to cast, he would say: "Let's get Lucy Lawless" - even if the part did not fit her. He never stopped talking about her," said the source. Meanwhile, on the Hercules set, Kevin Sorbo's fling with the wardrobe mistress is said to be all over. Apparently she has dumped the hunk in favour of her former lover. It seems even demi-gods don't win all the time... [276c] 05-20-96 THE CHATTANOOGA TIMES. Monday. Page A8. 485 words. "In business" COMMENTARY: Lucy Lawless made #8 on the top ten who's beautiful list on Pathfinder. Reprint of XMR276a EXCERPT: ...Cyber beauty contest Users of different on-line services have very different ideas of who's beautiful, according to People magazine. People polled users of its on-line sites on CompuServe and Pathfinder, and asked them whom they would put on the magazine's list of the most beautiful people. On CompuServe, the top 10 were, in order: Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Mel Gibson, Jennifer Aniston, Cindy Crawford, Sharon Stone, David Duchovny, Antonio Banderas, Mariah Carey and Pamela Anderson. On Pathfinder, the top 10 were: Gillian Anderson, Teri Hatcher, Mitch Pileggi, Kevin Sorbo, Duchovny, Claire Danes, Geraint Wyn Davies, Lucy Lawless, Alicia Silverstone and Gary Cole.... [276d] 05-20-96 THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC/THE PHOENIX GAZETTE. Monday. Page E1. 163 words. "Beauty Tough to Agree on" By David Hoye COMMENTARY: Clueless in cyberspace, a reporter stated his surprise that two different web sites could achieve different results in an on-line beauty contest. He must have thought the determination of beauty was more of a science than in the eye of the beholder. REPRINT: Mark this down under the category "go figure." People magazine recently asked online users to nominate the 50 Most Beautiful People for 1996. Two lists were created, one from visitors to the People area on CompuServe, the other from visitors to the People site on the World Wide Web. The lists couldn't be more different. CompuServe users said Brad Pitt was the most beautiful person, followed by Sandra Bullock, Mel Gibson, Jennifer Aniston, Cindy Crawford, Sharon Stone, David Duchovny, Antonio Banderas, Mariah Carey and Pamela Anderson Lee. Web users nominated Gillian Anderson as most beautiful, followed by Teri Hatcher, Mitch Pileggi, Kevin Sorbo, Duchovny, Claire Danes, Geraint Wyn Davies, Lucy Lawless, Alicia Silverstone and Gary Cole. The People people don't know why the lists are so different. To check the entire lists on CompuServe, use the Go function and the keyword "people." The Internet list is at http://pathfinder.com/people on the Web. ----------- ANNOTATIONS ----------- [288] 05-16-96 THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. 256 words. "Talkers Shine in May Sweeps Ratings Climb" By Stephen Battaglio COMMENTARY: ALTARED STATES (#19), 1st release, 04/22/96. Ranked 2nd action hour with 5.0 rating. Comparison with other action hours: (1) ST: DEEP SPACE 9 with 6.5; (2) XWP with 5.0; (3) HTLJ with 4.9. EXCERPT: ...for the week ended May 5.... ...Among the action-adventure hours, Paramount's "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" posted a 14% increase over the previous week with a 6.5, the highest ranking show of the week in that genre. MCA-TV's "Xena" jumped 22% over its previous week's outing with a 5.0 rating, good enough to pull ahead of the studio's "Journeys of Hercules," which scored a 4.9.... [289] 05-17-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 7. 16 pages. 6318 words. Annotations XMR041-054. Edited by and annotations by Kym Masera Taborn. COMMENTARY: A world press review of coverage on XWP, Renee O'Connor, or Lucy Lawless. Covered 09/03/95 to 10/02/95. Reviews and coverage of the first three XWP episodes aired and the first major press interview with Lucy Lawless. Editorial discussed critics reaction to XWP; Lucy Lawless' appearances on HTLJ; news of special issues in summer. [290] 05-17-96 ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. Page 12. 435 words. "Hollywood Classics" By Kristen Baldwin COMMENTARY: Nominal mention of XWP in discussion of TV and movie productions centering around ancient Greece and mythology. Mentioned XWP (once) and H:TLJ as examples of ancient Greek productions on TV. EXCERPT: Attention all residents of Mount Olympus: Beware of Hollywood agents bearing three-picture deals. Screenwriters are excavating the treasure trove of ancient lore to bring Greek-themed stories to the screen. Hellenic heroes are already thriving on television in the form of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its spin-off, Xena: Warrior Princess, both of which are top 20 syndicated shows. So maybe it was just a matter of time before others picked up the scent.... ...So why is Hollywood, the town known for creating myths, now importing them? "Greek themes and mythology are mysterious, sensual, and exotic, which makes for great adventure," says Kevin Sorbo, TV's Hercules (watch for his new action figures, due out July 15). Others offer less generous answers. "Grotesque lack of scripts," says Peter Pappas, director of the Foundation for Hellenic Culture, an international organization that promotes Greek art and literature. "Hollywood is always looking for stories, and [myths] have got a pretty good shelf life." Or maybe it just comes down to the bottom line. As Halmi points out, mythology "is public domain. You don't have to pay a dime for it." [291] 05-18-96 through 05-25-96 NOTE: BEASTMASTER reared it's head once again. The references to XWP and HTLJ were passing mentions in an attempt to share some of their veneer with BEASTMASTER. To its credit, the TAMPA TRIBUNE was not fooled! [291a] 05-18-96 THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT (Norfolk). Television Week. Page 1. 809 words. ""Norma Jean and Marilyn" Come Face to Face in HBO Film" By Larry Bonko, COMMENTARY: Nominal mention (once). Stated that BEASTMASTER was "in the spirit" of XWP and HTLJ. EXCERPT: ...In the spirit of the Hercules and Xena series about adventures in a faraway, long-ago land of thieves, evil sorcerers, the MCA Action Pack network brings on "Beastmaster III: The Eye of Braxus" on WGNT Saturday night at 8. Marc Singer returns as Dar the Beastmaster.... [291b] 05-21-96 CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Tempo. Page 3. 715 words. 'Hair-raising Tales; for Marc Singer, Dealing with Costars on 'Beastmaster' Is an Adventure All its Own" By Allan Johnson COMMENTARY: This article promoting BEASTMASTER included a nominal mention (once) of XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS in context to the other shows produced under the "Action Pack" umbrella. EXCERPT: ..."Beastmaster III," produced under the "Action Pack" umbrella of TV movies and series that brought the world "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess," airs at 10:30 p.m. Saturday on WGN-Ch. 9.... [291c] 05-24-96 THE NASHVILLE BANNER. Page C1. 720 words. "Beastmaster Finds Critters Tough Tackle" By Jim Molpus COMMENTARY: More BEASTMASTER promos. Explained that hopes were high because the "sword genre" of XWP & HTLJ was so successful. EXCERPT: ..."The first Beastmaster we did was one of the top five most-requested videos in the entire Turner library for years and years. The standard joke in the early days of cable was that HBO stood for 'Hey, Beastmaster's On,' because it played all the time. "I think the reason it came back around is because it has so much popularity and one generation of Beastmaster fans has turned another generation onto it." The timing is right, since the sword genre has been revitalized by the success of syndicated series like Hercules and its spinoff, Xena: Warrior Princess.... [291d] 05-25-96 THE TAMPA TRIBUNE. Page 1. 475 words. "Show Brings out the Beast in Actor" By Walt Belcher COMMENTARY: Yet another nominal mention, but wisely brought up the fact that BEASTMASTER "unfortunately" had different producers than XWP and HTLJ. EXCERPT: ...It's from MCA/Universal, the same folks who distribute "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess." Unfortunately, it has different producers, and poor Singer is surrounded by inferior supporting actors, a dumb plot and cheesy special effects. The monster, Braxus, who shows up in the finale scenes, is a guy in a laughable foam rubber suit... [292] 05-19-96 through 08-11-96 NOTE: One thousand thirty-nine words as a cover story in the New York Times, albeit Section 12, is nothing to snuff at! It was a very pleasant article. Ms. Lawless was quoted as saying that she suspected that some of her internet web site visitors were "55-year-old lawyers who want[ed] to be spanked". Ms. Lawless was further quoted referring to her previous Hercules roles with "I was sort of a Bolshie lieutenant to the Amazons...I brutalized Hercules a bit and then we raped and pillaged a village down the road," (she was referring to her role in HERCULES AND THE AMAZON WOMEN as Lysia, the Amazon who got to bed Zeus) and she also described her appearance as "a centaur's moll" (she was referring to her role as Lyla in HTLJ's #06 AS DARKNESS FALLS and reprised in HTLJ's #18 THE OUTCAST). It was an article you would expect from THE TIMES: very thoughtful and it attempted to rationalize and understand why XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS was so popular. It did not read like STAR LOG, but it did not call the show "stupid history" either. It struck a happy medium without either talking down or up to its readers. It had more depth than most, but it was not THE VILLAGE VOICE. Ms. Lawless got the graphic on the cover! There was also a photo of Ms. Lawless and Ms. O'Connor in the text part. [292a] 05-19-96 THE NEW YORK TIMES. Page 12-4. 1039 words. "A Woman Wielding Many Weapons, Among Them a Sneer and a Stare" By William Grimes REPRINT: Try to imagine a time before history began, in a faraway land shrouded in mist and cloaked in green, where gods and mythic heroes walk the earth and mingle with mortal men. Try a little harder, and picture those mighty figures wearing the leftover costumes from a Hollywood B epic, and speaking dialogue that begins in classical Greece and winds up in the San Fernando Valley. Try extra hard, and summon up the vision of a statuesque, leather-clad brunette with major-league cleavage and a lethal steel frisbee who roams the countryside righting wrongs. This recipe for superior cheese is the formula behind "Xena: Warrior Princess," the most successful new syndicated series now on the air. Spun off from the even more successful and equally improbable, "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," "Xena, " which made its debut in Sept. 1995, is carried by 205 stations, reaching 97 percent of the viewing audience. In 24 of its first 25 of 29 weeks, it actually vanquished the awesome "Baywatch," making it number three among the so called action-hour series (as opposed to game shows and talk shows), behind "Hercules" and "Star Trek: Deep Space 9." Like "Hercules," "Xena" delivers a campy blend of adventure, martial arts, and loony dialogue, along with a wholesome, New Age message that promotes peace, cooperation and understanding among all peoples, be they centaurs, Amazons or classical heros. The air of unreality is helped along by the lush, rugged, very moist setting of New Zealand, where both series are filmed, and where indigenous actors deliver their lines in an American accent. Virtually anything goes. It's okay that Xena, played by Lucy Lawless, wields a chakram, a razor-sharp disc that dates to 16th-century Persia, liberates downtrodden peasants who seem to exist in the middle ages, and encounters Amazons, centaurs and Greek gods. It's okay for her chatty blonde sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) to tell Xena, hanging by her chained wrists from a dungeon, "I can understand why you might be feeling a little negative right now." It's also okay for Xena, in a Trojan War episode, to tell a bad guy, "What I can't figure out is why a scum-sucking opportunist like you would want Helen back with Menelaus." Lines like that, delivered with a sneer and a flash of her piercing blue eyes, have made Ms. Lawless, 28, a cult figure. Her web site on the internet attracts heavy traffic, some of it, she suspects, from "55-year-old lawyers who want to be spanked," and most definitely from loyal lesbian fans who just know that Xena and Gabrielle have a special relationship. Some fans have followed her since her first appearance as the ruthless head of a girl gang in one of the television "Hercules" movies that preceded the series. "I was sort of a Bolshie lieutenant to the Amazons," said Ms. Lawless, who dyed her blonde hair black for the role and waved goodbye to her job as the host of a travel show. "I brutalized Hercules a bit and then we raped and pillaged a village down the road." In her next appearance, she was, as she describes it, "a centaur's moll." When "Hercules" was developed into a series, Ms. Lawless popped up in three episodes as Xena, who initially conceived as a villainess, left a wide swath of destruction in her path. The intent was to kill her off. But when stations began asking for a companion series to "Hercules," her life was spared. Xena underwent a conversion and renounced her evil ways, although not her fighting skills. Both programs were created by the director Sam Raimi and the producer Robert Tapert, who have served up nouvelle drive-in fare like "Darkman" and "Army of Darkness" for audiences in search of cheap thrills. When approached by MCA-Universal to make three two-hour Hercules films, they decided on an updated, viewer-friendly approach to the world of myth and adventure. Rule one: no togas. Downplaying the idea of Hercules as the strongest man in the world, they cast the buff but friendly Kevin Sorbo as a doer of good deeds who triumphs without ever killing anyone. "We kind of modeled him on a quarterback," said Mr. Tapert. Similarly, the approach to language was updated. "We always used, as a basis for the dialogue, 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' " said Mr. Tapert. "It's contemporary but not hip. We tried to give it a timeless quality." Although both men initially tried to keep the number of Greek gods down to a minimum, they have relented a bit. The old gods do have charisma. Again, they were given a contemporary face lift. "We made Hades into sort of a rebel without a cause," said Mr. Tapert. 'He doesn't like it that he's stuck as god of the underworld." The later time slot for "Xena" opened up darker, sexier possibilities. The producers also endowed their heroine with more streamlined fighting potential. Xena can send her chakram spinning with stunning accuracy, sometimes executing a three-carom shot. Her swordplay knows no peer among mortals, although she was once fought to a standstill by Aries, the god of war, who lusts after her. In hand-to-hand combat she is the equal of a dozen men, and she can, with a twisting motion of her thumb and index finger, block the flow of blood through the carotid artery, giving her victim 60 seconds to cooperate or die. "She uses anything that comes to hand," said Ms. Lawless. "In one episode she snaps a towel." In real life, Ms. Lawless says, she is no kung-fu master: "On the set, when I throw that chakram, everybody runs for cover." Xena needs many weapons but few words and only two basic expressions: a contemptuous sneer for the men foolish enough to challenge her, and a hard, resolute stare. Although American audiences may see traces of "Wonder Woman" and "The Bionic Woman" in Xena, Mr. Tapert says that he looked to the female action stars of Hong Kong cinema, especially Brigitte Lin. Ms. Lawless likes to think of herself as following the lead of Emma Peel in "The Avengers," a role that combined tongue-in-cheek humor with a killer black-leather look. "All this martial arts and free-for-all action is really sort of misleading," said Ms. Lawless. "I'm more the 'Sense and Sensibility' type.' " On the cover: Lucy Lawless stars as Xena. GRAPHIC: Photos: Lucy Lawless, above left, as Xena, and Renee O'Connor as Gabriella. (pg. 4) Michael Hurst, near right, as Iolaus, and Keven Sorbo, far right, as Hercules. (pg. 5); Kevin Sorbo as Hercules with Teresa Hill, Nemesis, a goddess. (MCA TV) (pg. 22) [292b] 08-11-96 CALGARY HERALD. Sunday. Page B11. 799 words. "Preview with Her Lethal Frisbee Shes Invincible Xena" By William Grimes COMMENTARY: Edited down version of XMR292a. ============ CUT HERE ================== Continued in Part 3