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CONFERENCE CALL WITH EMMY AND TONY AWARD WINNER LAURENCE FISHBURNE AND “CSI” EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS CAROL MENDELSOHN AND NAREN SHANKAR AVAILABLE UNTIL FRIDAY, AUG. 22
The media conference call with Emmy and Tony Award winner Laurence Fishburne and “CSI” executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar will be available until Friday, Aug. 22 at 12:00 AM, ET/ 9:00 PM, PT.

REPLAY CALL IN NUMBER: 1-888-348-4629

PASSCODE: 635684

Oscar nominee and Emmy and Tony Award winner Laurence Fishburne (”What’s Love Got To Do With It,” “The Matrix,” “Miss Evers’ Boys”) will join the cast of the CBS Paramount Network Television and Jerry Bruckheimer Television series, CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, on the CBS Television Network. His character will debut in this season’s ninth episode.

Fishburne will play a former pathologist who is now working as an itinerant college lecturer, teaching a course in criminalistics. His focus is on understanding criminal behavior, how and why people commit acts of violence - tendencies he disturbingly sees within himself. In the course of a murder investigation, he comes into contact with the CSI team and ultimately joins the Las Vegas Crime Lab as a Level-1 CSI.

“CBS asked us, ‘Who’s at the top of your dream list?’ say CSI executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar. “Without hesitation, we said Laurence Fishburne. He is a powerful and intense actor, with an incredible range. We had the opportunity to see Mr. Fishburne in ‘Thurgood’ on Broadway a few weeks ago, and it was a truly profound experience. The actor disappeared and Thurgood Marshall was standing there on the stage. Mr. Fishburne is also a talented writer and director. If you distill CSI down to its essence, it’s a collaboration - and we are so looking forward to collaborating with Mr. Fishburne. For all of us at CSI, this is truly a dream.”

Source: CBS

Thanks to the WPAP for the heads-up!

Fame & Fortune: Marg Helgenberger

By Bonnie Siegler • Bankrate.com

Prior to becoming the captivating star she is on the hit TV show “CSI,” Marg Helgenberger had a very interesting career path while living in Nebraska. Besides being the local weather girl, she also worked in the meat packing plant where her father was a meat inspector.

But Helgenberger had bigger plans in her sights. Just two weeks after graduating from Northwestern University with a drama degree, she moved to New York City and landed a role on the daytime soap, “Ryan’s Hope.” But it was her turn as the drug-addicted prostitute K.C. on the TV series “China Beach” in the late 1980s that really established Helgenberger’s career and personal life.

While doing the series, she met actor Alan Rosenberg, to whom she is now married. They have a son named Hughie, whose namesake is Helgenberger’s dad Hugh, who passed away from multiple sclerosis.

Helgenberger went on to play opposite Julia Roberts as a chemical exposure resident in “Erin Brockovich” and as the clueless-yet-glamorous mogul wife Mrs. Brooks, opposite Kevin Costner in last year’s “Mr. Brooks.” But it’s her current role as Catherine Willows, a former-Las-Vegas-stripper-turned-criminal-detective in “CSI” that has brought her worldwide recognition and job security for the last seven seasons.

The 49-year-old actress credits her disciplined Midwestern values and the support of her husband with the success she’s enjoyed.

Bankrate: During the writers’ strike, you had more than two months off. What did you do with that time?

Helgenberger: I did a bit of everything. I’m in the process of renovating our house right now, so that’s kept me very busy. And I got a new puppy, a shepherd mix named Henry. He’s a lot of work, but I love him.

Bankrate: So while everyone was counting their pennies, you were out spending them?

Helgenberger: I’ve got to say it probably would have been more fun if I knew a salary was coming in, but nonetheless, I knew we would eventually get back to bringing in the cash.

Bankrate: I know you worked in your father’s meat packing plant, but what was your first paying job?

Helgenberger: Oh gosh, that was just grueling work. But besides baby-sitting, my first paying job was working in the bean fields; then I went on to work in the corn fields. I made a little bit of money in agriculture (laughs). Not much though. When I was doing corn, I made about $1.75 an hour.

Bankrate: What was your first big splurge when you made it in acting?

Helgenberger: Well, out of college, I got the job on the soap opera. I still wasn’t very extravagant when I lived in New York. I guess I would buy certain articles of clothing that I wouldn’t have purchased had I not had that job. I had a nice enough apartment and that’s a splurge in itself. Nothing that I would call nice now. It was your first apartment type of place. Most 23-year-olds now in New York couldn’t afford it unless you had three other roommates.

Bankrate: And your last big splurge?

Helgenberger: It’s something for the house. It’s insane when you go through these renovations. It’s going to be an awesome house, if I say so myself, but everything is expensive. We’ll be living in it in our retirement. Just the decision to actually go ahead with the renovation was expensive.

Bankrate: You were raised in Nebraska. Any Midwestern values you still use in your everyday life?

Helgenberger: Besides the work ethic, it’s the practicality that the Midwest has. No matter how much money you make, I think there’s a real practical quality many people have back there and I still do.

Bankrate: Do you ever worry about the tenuous nature of your business — and your husband’s — and your family’s financial security?

Helgenberger: I think when you get into this business you take that risk anyway, knowing that a job can be over at any time. This television series, “CSI,” is one of the few that has had an incredibly long life. Usually you make a pilot and nothing much happens with it, or you get a show that doesn’t last that long. So this is one of those rare instances. I never forget how fortunate I am, though.

Bonnie Siegler is a freelance writer in Los Angeles.

Source: Bankrate.com

Updated albums:
» CSI 100th Episode Party (November 13, 2004)
» 58th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards (January 28, 2006)
» Lie Down with Lions (a.k.a. Red Eagle) promotional pictures

New album:
» 43rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (August 25, 1991)

Updated:
» American Idol Season 4 Finale (May 25th 2005)
» 14th Annual BAFTA/LA Awards Season Tea Party (January 12, 2008)
» An Inconvenient Truth premiere (May 16, 2006)

New:
» Beyond Rangoon premiere (August 22, 1995)
» Distant Cousins ( a.k.a Desperate Motive) promotional stills

Updated:
» Opening of The Cherry Orchard (February 12, 2006)

New:
» Rally for public school funding (April 5, 2003)
» 2003 Voices of Our Children Benefit for Penny Lane (October 18, 2003)

Also, don’t forget to participate in the Margamania Birthday Project 2008. We need your support. :)

» Marg in Brentwood, CA (August 4, 2008)

You can also view scans and the cover from the magazine right here.

MediZine’s Healthy Living Fall 2008 Issue
Written by Bonnie Siegler

AS CSI’S TOUGH, SMART AND SASSY CRIME SCENE investigator Catherine Willows, Marg Helgenberger routinely gets down and dirty. But that’s nothing new to the stunning redhead. “I made some money in agriculture,” she says, referring to her job toiling in the Nebraska cornfields as a teenager. “I worked in my father’s meatpacking plant too.”

Working night shoots and some 16-hour days on the set of CSI, the disciplined Midwest native has learned how to juggle career, motherhood (son Hugh is 17) and marriage (to fellow actor Allan Rosenberg). “I do find it easier working on a regular show than to be flying all over to different movie sets in different cities,” she says. “I’m not saying it’s easy working these hours but our whole crew is awesome.”

And Marg takes time for herself when she can. “I meditate every morning,” says the actress. “I also do yoga two to three times a week if I can fit it in. Yoga is as much for exercise as it is for peace of mind. And good reading material is always important for relaxation. I have a book club with a couple of friends that I have found very enjoyable.”

During the 2007-2008 writers’ strike, Marg took up the guitar. “I like being creative, so picking up my guitar and playing music that I like or am trying to learn puts me in a different mind-set,” she says.

Looking at least a decade younger than her 49 years, Marg sounds downright sensible in her approach to beauty. “I certainly want to look the best I possibly can,” she says. “But I keep coming back to this theory that you have to work with what you’ve got and grow older gracefully. I have fair skin and freckles, so I work with that. And I don’t wear some of the clothes I wore 10 years ago, and certainly not the ones I wore 20 years ago. Even if I can pull it off, it’s tacky.”

Five foot six and a healthy weight, the actress includes among her nutritional staples yogurt, fresh berries, fresh papaya, sliced turkey, salad and cheeses. On a typical day, Marg starts off with a smoothie made with yogurt, rice milk and fresh fruit, followed by a lunch that “could be a tuna or turkey sandwich or a salad topped with protein.” Dinner is usually fish or chicken with veggies and salad.

As the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, Marg is keenly aware of risk factors for the condition. “I just do what my doctor recommends, which is a yearly mammogram and regular self-examinations,” she says. “I don’t eat that many soy products, because I don’t handle soy that well. I do eat edamame, but I don’t eat tofu or drink soy milk.”

She looks to her mother, Kay Helgenberger, as a role model for strength. “My mother is a breast cancer survivor, yet she has always looked on the bright side of life. I find that kind of person fascinating– someone who has been through a hardship but is able to keep going with a positive attitude.”

Taking a well-balanced approach to her health, Marg does indulge in the occasional guilty pleasure. “I love chocolate chip cookies,” she admits. “And those Girl Scout thin mint cookies are hard to pass up too. They make me feel good. I also love fried chicken with macaroni and cheese, but I don’t eat those too much because of the cholesterol and fat content. And I grew up in Nebraska, where my father was a meat inspector, so I do like a good steak, too.”

The clock never seems to stop for Marg. “I can never really relax,” she muses. “I can’t let the ball drop for very long, because otherwise it all passes you by. And I enjoy life too much for that.”