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Weddings of '98 - Lucy Lawless and Rob Tapert - March 28, 1998

Who Weekly
(Australia)

6 July 1998

 

Scanned / Transcribed by MaryD

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 fringe) 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, LA, the 1.8m Kiwi beauty dazzled her groom, Xena executive producer Rob Tapert, 43, in a low-cut, hand-beaded ivory-gown by her show's costume designer, Ngila Dickson. Lucy's 10-year-old daughter, Daisy (from her first marriage, to Garth Lawless), was maid of honour.

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 meal that included rack of lamb and a four-tier wedding cake, couples hit the dance floor.

Although Lawless was a laid-back bride, she had insisted that the Xena crew learn ballroom dancing, bringing instructors to the show's New Zealand set before the wedding to teach the foxtrot and the rumba. So well did the tactic succeed that the Xena-ites kept up their footwork even after they returned to work. "It really picked up everybody's spirits," reports 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."

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