‘Spartacus’ and ‘Xena’ Actress Lucy Lawless Arrested after 77 Hours Oil-Ship Protest
Lucy Lawless was among seven people arrested on Monday after having boarded on Friday an oil-drilling ship owned by Shell.
Ms. Lawless, whose TV fame credits include a lead role in the long-defunct 'Xena: Warrior Princess' and a major role in currently running 'Spartacus,' was among seven people who were arrested and charged with burglary, the New Zealand Herald reported.
It is not clear whether the seven had indeed taken anything from the ship.
Ms. Lawless joined six others, who are all Greenpeace environmentalists, in stopping the Shell ship from leaving port by boarding the Noble Discoverer at Port Taranaki on Friday. They spent 77 hours sitting atop its 175-foot drilling tower.
The ship had been due to leave the port Sunday to drill three exploratory oil wells off the coast of Alaska.
The actress in protest has told the media she is one with Greenpeace in trying to save the Arctic from drilling.
"I've got three kids. My sole biological reason for being on this planet is to ensure that they can flourish, and they can't do that in a filthy, degraded environment. We need to stand up while we still can," Ms. Lawless told the Associated Press.
The seven are due to appear in New Plymouth District Court on Thursday to face Shell's charges against them.
"Seven of us climbed up that drillship to stop Arctic drilling, but 133,000 of us came down," Ms. Lawless said, referring to the 133,000 people who took out their protest on Shell's computer server by simultaneously sending protest emails to the oil company.