Xena actress spends cold night on rig atop oil drilling vessel

Feb 25, 2012, 0:23 GMT

Wellington - Lucy Lawless, star of television series Xena: Warrior Princess and Spartacus, was among activists who spent a night high aboard the Noble Discoverer to prevent it leaving New Zealand to drill oil wells off Alaska.

Lawless and six other Greenpeace supporters boarded the ship Friday morning in the port of Taranaki in the central North Island. They scaled the 53-metre-high rig and secured themselves to it with climbing ropes.

Late Friday, police said the group were trespassing, but after talks with protesters and the ship's owners said they would not intervene for now.

A Greenpeace spokeswoman said Saturday that Lawless and the others had spent a cold, windy night on the vessel but were determined to stay as long as possible.

Lawless said she was acting to protect the planet.

'Deep-sea oil drilling is bad enough, but venturing into the Arctic, one of the most magical places on the planet, is going too far,' the New Zealand-based actress said.

She acknowledged that a criminal conviction could harm her career, but said she was passionate in her beliefs about the environment and climate change.

A spokeswoman from oil giant Shell, which has contracted the ship, said the company is disappointed over the protesters' actions, which have put ship's crew in danger.