Alaska News

'Xena' star arrested for burglary after scaling Arctic-bound oil drillship

Xena's antics aboard an Alaska-bound drillship owned by Shell Oil Co. have gotten the warrior princess arrested, according to a Greenpeace press release.

Lucy Lawless, best known as the heroine of the cult classic TV show "Xena: The Warrior Princess," last Thursday boarded Shell's drillship, the Noble Discoverer, to protest Arctic oil drilling.

After four days of protesting atop the 170-foot drilling tower, police arrested the Greenpeace protesters and charged them with burglary.

According to Greenpeace, Lawless had this to say before her arrest by authorities in New Zealand, where the drillship was moored: "We did what we came to do. ... Together we sent a clear message to Shell that has echoed across the globe — it's time to draw a line in the ice and say: enough."

Greenpeace claims that over the course of the four-day occupation, more than 135,000 people emailed Shell Oil requesting The Hague-based supermajor cancel its Arctic drilling plans.

Read more about the occupation here.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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