Actress Lucy Lawless Arrested in Oil-ship Protest

Actress Lucy Lawless Arrested in Oil-ship Protest

Actress Lucy Lawless and five other Greenpeace environmental activists were arrested on Monday after spending four days protesting aboard an oil-drilling ship docked in New Zealand.

Lawless, 43, New Zealand native, is widely known for her title role in the TV series "Xena: Warrior Princess," and for starring in the cable television series "Spartacus," more recently.

Police shooed the group from atop a 174-foot (53-meter) drilling tower on the Noble Discoverer in Port Taranaki. Lawless and the other activists climbed the tower on Friday in an attempt to prevent the ship from leaving and to raise awareness about oil drilling in the Arctic.

The ship, which has been chartered by the giant oil company, Shell, had been due to leave last weekend for the Arctic to drill five exploratory wells.

All the activists, including actress Lawless, are now being charged with burglary and unlawfully boarding a ship. The group has been released, however, and expected to appear in a New Zealand court on Thursday.

Lawless spoke to The Associated Press from atop the tower last Friday, where she said she felt compelled to take action against the oil-drilling activity in the Arctic and in general, against global warming.  She also said that wind gusts were making it difficult for the group to stay put.

Lawless had tweeted over the weekend describing some of the challenges of staying atop the tower.

"I found last night pretty darn scary. Not for sissies," she wrote.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Tuesday February 28 2012, 5:32 AM EDT. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Entertainment, Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0