Jan 13 - Xenaverse News Several online retailers are now taking pre-orders for the Friend in Need DVD. As this is the first US DVD or video release on general release (the box sets were mail order only I believe), this is undoubtedly a marketing test. If sales are poor then we probably won't see much else in the way of retail releases. So get those credit cards working! There are more details of the schedule for this years Official XENA convention at Pasadena at the Creation Web Site. As suspected, Renee O'Connor will ONLY appear in the Saturday evening cabaret. Bet that will be wild...Lots of other GREAT guests though. Someone emailed me asking about the UK Xena Con this year so a reminder of the link for that - www.chariotsofwar.co.uk Pre-Order Your Friend in Need DVDs!! 7th January 2002 There is now an official release date for the much talked about Region 1 release of the A Friend in Need DVD. The DVD file web site reported on the release, and sites like DVD Express and DVD Empire already have the disc available for pre-order! Interestingly,DVD file reports that there will be 30 minutes of extra footage, and this is also mentioned on the DVD Empire site. That's even more than the Oxygen TV Directors Cut! And don't forget as well that there will be an episode commentary from Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor and Rob Tapert, so it's a must buy. Worldwide fans with multiregion DVD players, and US fans can expect to pay from about $19 to $24. March 26th is the date to mark in your diary.. Jan 3 - Happy New Year Everyone! What will 2002 bring to XENA fans? Well there are video and DVD releases scheduled, Conventions in the US and UK soon, more Creation merchandise is out, another baby on the way for Lucy...just a shame there are no more XENA episodes! As always, the latest news will appear here, so keep popping in! Looking for online shopping bargains? Well, the Official Xena and Hercules Store is doing the season box sets for $99.95 - although that is the videos only, no extra gifts, but is for all SIX seasons of XENA! For those of you looking for the new Creation Calendars, or the latest XENA trading cards, Powerstar have them in stock (UKers - and quite a bit cheaper for postage too..) In the mood for a challenge?? Then why not try my online Xena quiz - its been around for a little while, but not too many people have tried it I think! Or how about THIS - last year's Xenaversity Challenge Quiz! or maybe the 1998 Xmas Xena quiz Happy New Year Vote in the ARGO Legacy Awards - a celebration of six years of XENA. Click on the banner above. Voting is open until January 11th 2002. The XENA Year in Review.. 28th December 2001 2001 has been a pretty momentous year all round, and generally speaking the bad has outweighed the good. For XENA fans, 2001 will always be the year the show finally ended, and the airing of A Friend in Need 2 in June marked the ending of 6 years of avid viewing of Xena and Gabrielle's adventures. That finale was certainly the hottest topic of the year too - it is undoubtedly the most debated episode ever. On a brighter note, May 2001 marked the first appearance of Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor on stage together at the XENA convention in Pasadena, California - which I was lucky enough to go to. Seeing the two actors on stage together was a magical experience for me and the thousands of others there. For the actors too, 2001 will be one to remember - Renee O'Connor becoming a mother for the first time in September with the birth of baby Miles, and Lucy Lawless announcing that she is expecting baby number 3 in April 2002. Lucy Lawless also made her first post XENA appearance in the premiere of season 9 of The X Files, as well as filming a brief cameo for Sam Raimi's forthcoming Spiderman movie. 2001 also marked the end of the old fandom.com website - and can I take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who followed me over, and to ALL of Xenaville's visitors. This site isn't going anyway and will continue to report on Lucy and Renee and happening XENA-related! Happy New Year and Battle On everyone! Renee O'Connor announced for Pasadena Con Cabaret! 20th December 2001 Creation Entertainment sent out an email announcing that Renee O'Connor would be appearing in the Saturday evening cabaret at this year's annual XENA convention in Pasadena, California in February 2002. The email doesn't say she will be a convention guest, but she is listed on the Creation web site, so I guess she will be.. "..Creation Entertainment is thrilled to announce that RENEE O'CONNOR will appear live on-stage in AR Gurney's moving play LOVE LETTERS. This special event offers an amazingly rare opportunity to watch this dynamic star in an exclusive theatrical performance. LOVE LETTERS, with a male lead still to be announced, will take place on Saturday Night of the Annual Official XENA Convention, this year set for February 15-17, 2002 at the Pasadena Center." Head to the Creation site for more details and online booking December 19 - Multimedia Bits With the general release of Lord of the Rings this week, you might want to take a look at this Tourism New Zealand site. Obviously getting on the LOTR bandwagon, it is about "New Zealand - Home of Middle Earth". However, the extremely nice video presentation about New Zealand is narrated by Lucy Lawless. Longish download, but worth it. A video clip I don't remember seeing when Lucy was promoting her X Files appearance, this clip is about 3 minutes of Lucy discussing her role on The X Files, before it was announced she wouldn't be returning. It's a Real Media 5mb file. December 17 - New Photos of Lucy Lucy Lawless and her daughter Daisy (who clearly has inherited her mother's unique clothes sense :) ) were at the LA premiere of the movie The Lord of the Rings this week, and there are some nice photos at the fansites website. A Friend in Need and Season 6 on DVD!! 15th December 2001 While UK fans have been enjoying a busy video and DVD release schedule, US fans have not been so lucky recently. However, good news, DVDs are coming! Sharon Delaney of Creation Entertainment sent a message about a forthcoming DVD release of A Friend in Need I had a conversation with Rob Tapert today as he was driving back from a commentary session with Lucy and Reneé for . . . the director's cut DVD of A Friend in Need He also told me the studio will be releasing season six on DVD in the near future. Not sure at this time if Lucy and Reneé will be doing commentary on any of the other DVDs. These DVDs are for the U.S. and I expect that if sales go well, they will release seasons one through five as well. No date has been set yet for the release of either "Friend" or season six, but I believe it will be in the Spring of 2002 and we will be offering them for sale. 13th December - Video and DVD Releases Those UK video and DVD releases just keep on coming! Good old Universal Playback - we can ALMOST forgive them for that ridiculous cock up over episode order on the S1 DVDs.... Anyway, the next date to mark in your diary is February 11th 2002, when you can get Season 5 boxset 2, and the first part of the Season 2 DVD box set (presumably in the correct order.) And if you haven't bought it yet, the first part of Season 5 - not yet aired on terrestrial UK tv - is out now. Use these links to order via Blackstar. You may also want to check out other online video retailers. Universal Playback in the UK are selling their video box sets cheap until January 1st 2002. You can pick up the S1 DVD part 1(mixture of eps!) for a modest £10.49, all 5 Hercules TV movies for £14.99 or the Xena box sets for £19.49. Free shipping to the UK too.. Meanwhile, the Official Xena and Hercules Online store (also known as Davis Panzer) have the US Season 1 to 5 box sets on special offer. Just $135.95 for a full season and loads of extras. December 9 - A Friend in Need reviews For UK fans (or any others), I thought I would post links to some reviews of A Friend in Need. The series finale aired in the UK this weekend, with the usual Sky TV cuts - no headless bodies for us! Anyway, you can read my review right here. I also have some guest reviews, Terri's is fabulous (but long), and Laura's is also excellent and worth reading. If you are lost and wondering what now? Well, why not try this VERY good Virtual Season 7 story, A Friend Indeed. Definitely recommended. UK Viewers, don't forget, the XENA series finale A Friend in Need 2 airs on Sky One this Sunday (9th) at 1pm...have the kleenex on standby! Lucy Confirms No More X Files 6th December 2001 Lucy Lawless spoke to TV Guide this week and in the course of the interview, she confirmed that due to her pregnancy, she won't be back as super soldier, Shannon McMahon in The X Files. Lucy was at a Hollywood celebrity charity do, waving this Argo-looklike stuffed toy in the name of child literacy. Read the article at the TV Guide website More XENA Stuff to Buy 5th December 2001 Creation Entertainment are still producing plenty of merchandise for XENA fans to buy, so now's the time to direct your relatives to the Creation web site for your Xmas gifts! New this week are a batch of nice new photos (including this one of Lucy Lawless in drag!), scripts for S6 episodes and the always fab Creation Calendars are ready too. Get Shopping at the Creation site 5th December 2001 Just uploaded my own MUSIC VIDEOS to the site that you might have missed! I did them last year (so no S6 clips) the first being a look at Xena's many outfits to Suede's She's in Fashion. The other one is to ABBA's Dancing Queen and features a compilation of dance sequences. Let me know what you think. 2001 Pasadena Video available - Break Open the Piggy Bank! 30th November 2001 It's been promised for ages, and finally Creation Entertainment have annouced that a 2 hour video of Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor on stage together at last May's Pasadena convention is available. For those of you who couldn't make it (or even those who went but were in a daze - like me!) this is a chance to hear Renee sing, check out Lucy's nose ring and hear their replies to Sharon Delaney's questions. The bad news, Creation's riduculously inflated prices! The video is $37.50 plus $2 P&P to the US and Canada, but us in the UK have $12 postage, plus an extra $7.50 for a PAL tape. Almost $60 for one video....! Still, if you want to order, visit the link below. https://creationent.safeserver.com/XENA/last_dance_order.html Read my Pasadena Con report and see my photos 30th November - XENA Series Finale on UK TV this week UK fans, don't forget, A Friend in Need part 1 airs on Sky One this Sunday at 1pm, with part 2 - the very last episode - next Sunday, December 9th. The UK TV and Satellite Weekly has a nice little feature on the show this week. Even the Radio Times makes it a Pick of the Day. Lucy on The X Files reviewed 25th November 2001 With the annoucement that Lucy Lawless is expecting a baby in April, came another - that Lucy would not be reprising her role as Shannon McMahon on The X Files. But how did she do in her first major post-XENA role? Read my review of the show, and Lucy's appearance. 25th November - UK Season 5 videos out soon UK Xena fans have video and DVD releases coming thick and fast. Next up is the Season 5 box set part 1. Not yet seen on terrestrial TV, the much maligned Season 5 is out on December 3rd in the usual half box set. This box contains the first 11 episodes of Season 5. Episodes to look out for on this half box set included Fallen Angel, Chakram, the 100th episode Seeds of Faith, and the camp classic Lyre Lyre, Hearts on Fire. Preorder through Blackstar right here for £22.89 (£27.39 including postage) 21st November - Lucy's New Look Lucy Lawless announced on the Craig Kilborn show last week that she was going for a new look, and getting a haircut. What we wondered? Blonde? Spikey? Very short maybe? Well Lucy attended a movie premiere this week, and revealed that its pretty much her usual look, but shorter and rather stylish. Lucy, who announced her pregnancy this week, was looking very swish in a nice white mumsy outfit. The perfect look for the mother-to-be about town.... Go to the Lucy Lawless Picture Palace site to see a load of photos of her at the Spy Games premiere Another Baby for Lucy and Rob! 20th November 2001 Some good news...E! Online report that Lucy Lawless and husband Rob Tapert are to have another baby - a little brother or sister for Julius and Daisy! The baby is due in late April. No wonder Lucy needed a body double for those nude scenes in The X Files! So, sadly, no return for Shannon McMahon.... Interestingly, this was what Lucy said in a recent (September) interview on ET.. ET: Are you thinking of having more children? LUCY: No. (smiles) Well, I wouldn't rule that possibility out, either. You know, they come along when they come along. Lucy on The X Files part 2 19th November 2001 Lucy Lawless' X Files role seemed to be pretty well received generally speaking. Whether she will be back remains a mystery... For now, you can see a ton of screengrabs right here, and visit this page to download video clips of some of Lucy's scenes. I've had a few people ask me about video clips of the UK TV show that was on this week.(See below) I am hoping to have a clip here soon...stay tuned! Lucy, Renee, Ted and Rob on UK TV! November 18th 2001 The UK Channel 4 Top Ten Show last night features the "Top Ten TV Sex Bombs", and in at number 10 was Xena! Best of all though, was that there was a 7 or 8 minute feature on the show that included brand new interviews with Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor, Ted Raimi and Rob Tapert.  See my exclusive screengrabs and read more details about the show here   Nov 16 - New Look for Lucy? Lucy Lawless appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn and revealed that she is to revamp her image, with the XENA-trademark long dark hair probably for the chop! See the screengrabs here at MaryDs Sharon Delaney of the XENA fan club sent out an email about looking out for Lucy on an ET special, so all may be revealed soon...However, the ET Website for today has that very good interview with Lucy that went out on September 11. UK TV Alert - Saturday Nov 17th UK Xena fans, tune in to Channel 4 tomorrow (Saturday November 17th) to the Top Ten Show at 10.15pm til 11.50pm. This week its Top Ten TV Sex Bombs, and Lucy Lawless is in there! Not sure what number mind you. Her competition includes Pat Phoenix, Diana Rigg, Felicity Kendall, Letitia Dean, Catherine Zeta Jones and Farah Fawcett!! Visit the Xena Virtual Season 7 Page!