After many seasons of tromping across New Zealand, strapped into a leather bustier and wielding all manner of sharp-edged weapons as "Xena: Warrior Princess," Lucy Lawless loves her new role in The WB's "Tarzan," airing Sundays.

The updated version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' pulp classic stars Travis Fimmel as John Clayton, aka Tarzan, and Sarah Wayne Callies as NYPD Detective Jane Porter. While they must film on location all over Toronto -- night and day, rain or shine -- Lawless keeps warm and dry as pampered princess Kathleen Clayton.

Lawless says, "Sarah's out under the rain machine, doing her scene in the middle of the night, and I'm sitting in the limo, waiting for her to come and chat with me. I cannot believe my luck, right?

"Usually, it's been me being crucified under rain machines and winter. So I'm so delighted. I cannot believe my luck, and they're making me look really pretty."

Introduced in the show's second episode, Kathleen is Tarzan's aunt, a powerful publisher and bitter rival fighting her brother, Richard Clayton (Mitch Pileggi), for control of New York-based family business Greystoke Industries.

It appears that young John, who had been lost in a plane crash with his family in Africa at age 5, now stands to inherit one-third of the company's stock, giving whoever wins his trust a controlling interest.

Kathleen offers Tarzan a home in her Fifth Avenue mansion, which is equipped with an overgrown indoor garden (all the better for Tarzan to be able to run around half-clad in the depths of winter).

"She is what they needed -- a home base for him," Lawless says. "And he needed a friend, because nobody else is his friend. She's also the audience's voice. She can ask the questions and elicit information from him, because he's not a big talker.

"Tarzan has to remain a mysterious stranger. He needs a friend and somebody to draw it out of him in the same way that Gabrielle [played by Renee O'Connor] did for Xena. I just get to prance around looking good and having a great time."

New Zealander Lawless has nothing but praise for Fimmel, who's from Australia, that other Land Down Under, and says there is no Kiwi-Aussie tension on set.

"No, that stuff's really stupid. I've never been a sports lover, so I've never understood that silly rivalry. It's a very juvenile trait in all of us, and our countries are slowly growing out of that. Apart from that, he's a darling. He's great.

"Travis is very smart and funny and committed. He wants to be a great actor, and I feel he's right on course, because he pays attention. He's got a really strong work ethic, which is very important to me. I don't appreciate lazy people, and he's just phenomenal in that regard."

Lawless also appreciates Pileggi, for entirely different reasons.

"Here's me and Mitch Pileggi having a raucous great time on set, because he's only the funniest human being you've ever met in your life. He's so cool. I love him. He's very naughty."

This underlying affection makes it easier for Lawless to find the soft heart at the core of Richard and Kathleen's fierce sibling rivalry.

"There is a love relationship there. You've always got to keep looking for the love, what brings these people back together, what's at stake.

"If there's nothing to lose with them fighting, if they just have an all-out battle, there would be no tension there. It would let all the pressure out, and of course, you've got to keep the pressure-cooker lid down nice and tight. It compels the audience to react."

The role also allowed Lawless to return to her natural ash-blond hair color after years of dark hair dye for "Xena," and lets her to explore her more fashionable side.

"Kathleen wears classic clothing, so we're trying to give it a twist. She considers status symbols are for losers and wannabes. She's the sort of woman who'll buy a piece from Galliano or Manolo Blahnik if she likes it, and it's practical to her needs. But, for the most part, she likes to discover her own contemporary artists and her own designers. She catches them before they get big.

"She follows the beat of her own drum. I guess you try to make characters the epitome of everything you'd like to be, sort of a far more fabulous version of yourself."

Currently inked for the bulk of the initial 13-episode order of "Tarzan" (with an option for more if the series takes off), Lawless also has a development deal with The WB.

"One wasn't dependent upon the other," she says. "The WB was incredibly candid about that. Even if I had said no to 'Tarzan,' they would still have me. I just felt they were far more honest than I had come to expect out of Hollywood people."

Although "Xena" fans might be thrilled if Lawless were to pick up a sword again, don't expect to see her starring in another action drama. Her commitments to husband Rob Tapert, a former "Xena" producer, their two young sons and Lawless' teen daughter from a prior marriage must take precedence.

"That's just not a lifestyle I can have anymore," Lawless says. "I've got three kids, and I would never see them. I brought them into this world, and I feel I should be there for them.

"It's every working mother's dilemma. I've talked about it to mothers on the crew, and we've all got a heartache about not being there. Yet, the reality is, we've all got to set up for our old age and our kids' education now, while the sun is shining.

"But here, I can come and go. I can still be Mom and then have this outlet of a few days a week at work. I feel I'm a much better mother that way. If I'm home all the time, I just get suburban neurosis."

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