Lucy Lawless & Rob Tapert
March 28, 1998
Did she cry? Yep. Sure, tears are as rare as scrawny biceps on Xena: Warrior Princess. But an emotional Lucy Lawless, 30, left
her iron-maiden persona (and her trademark bangs) behind on her wedding day. "She really got choked up," says a friend. "It
was the most moving moment of the whole ceremony." At the traditional Catholic wedding service in Santa Monica's Saint
Monica Church, the 5'11" Kiwi beauty dazzled her groom, Xena executive producer Rob Tapert, 43, in a ]ow-cut, hand-beaded
silk-satin ivory gown by her show's costume designer, Ngila Dickson. Lawless's 10-year-old daughter, Daisy (from her first
marriage, to Garth Lawless), was maid of honor.
At the reception in the ritzy Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, an Elvis impersonator entertained some 340 guests, including Kevin
Sorbo, star of Tapert's other series, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. And after a repast that included rack of lamb and a
four-tier wedding cake, couples hit the crowded dance floor. Although Lawless was generally a laid-back bride, she had insisted
that the Xena cast and crew learn ballroom dancing, bringing instructors to the show's New Zealand set a few weeks before the
wedding to teach the fox-trot and the rumba. So well did the tactic succeed that the Xena-ites kept up their footwork even after
they returned to work. "lt really picked up everybody's spirits," reports Lawless pal Renee O'Connor, who plays Xena's sidekick
Gabrielle. "The other day I saw a couple of guys in the lighting department doing the mambo."
