<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0448dfc3.jpg"> <div> <B>Return to </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id236.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2002 Articles"><U><B>2002 Articles</B></U></A></FONT><B> page</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Main Menu Options:</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="All About Mac"><U>All About Mac</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Harm Mac"><U>Harm & Mac</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id152.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MACnopsis"><U>MACnopsis</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id212.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JAG Timeline"><U>JAG Timeline</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photos/Articles/Interviews"><U>Photos/Articles/Interviews</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id106.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Catherine Bell "><U>Catherine Bell </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Insider Info"><U>Insider Info</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News/Gossip"><U>News/Gossip</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Episode Information"><U>Episode Information</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Trial Stats"><U>Trial Stats</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U>Links</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fan Mail/Email Owner"><U>Fan Mail/E-mail Owner</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id363.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JAG DVD Petition"><U>JAG DVD Petition</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Site Updates"><U>Site Updates</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=132 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0458dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#336666" FACE="Arial" ><B>Mac on JAG</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mac on JAG"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id439.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Harpers Bazaar (12/02)"><U>Harper's Bazaar (12/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id383.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sophisticates (12/02)"><U>Sophisticate's (12/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id425.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Glamour (10/02)"><U>Glamour (10/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id413.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="People (10/28/02)"><U>People (10/28/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id408.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Canada TV Guide (10/02)"><U>Canada TV Guide (10/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id373.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Vanity Fair (10/02)"><U>Vanity Fair (10/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id369.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Brentwood Mag (10/02)"><U>Brentwood Mag (10/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id423.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Series Mag (Sept/Oct. 02)"><U>Series Mag (Sept/Oct. 02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id243.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Short Hair (Autumn 02)"><U>Short Hair (Autumn 02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id244.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="In Style (8/02)"><U>In Style (8/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id245.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TV Crosswords (8/02)"><U>TV Crosswords (8/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id246.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TV Vue (7/21/02)"><U>TV Vue (7/21/02)</U></A>   |   <B>GCB TV Guide (7/20/02)</B>   |   <A HREF="id248.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Star Mag (7/9/02)"><U>Star Mag (7/9/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id249.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TV Guide (7/6/02)"><U>TV Guide (7/6/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id250.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="LA Daily (7/02)"><U>LA Daily (7/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id251.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FHM (7/02)"><U>FHM (7/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id252.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sophisticates (6/02)"><U>Sophisticate's (6/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id263.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="NY Post (6/20/02)"><U>NY Post (6/20/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id254.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Nautiques (6/13/02)"><U>Nautiques (6/13/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id255.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Short Hair (summer 02)"><U>Short Hair (summer 02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id256.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Celebrity Hairstyles (5/02)"><U>Celebrity Hairstyles (5/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id257.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Daily Variety (5/24/02)"><U>Daily Variety (5/24/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id258.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="People.com (5/17/02)"><U>People.com (5/17/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id259.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Star Mag (4/23/02)"><U>Star Mag (4/23/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id264.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fox News (4/8/02)"><U>Fox News (4/8/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id265.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="NY Times (3/31/02)"><U>NY Times (3/31/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id266.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="AskMen.com (3/02)"><U>AskMen.com (3/02)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Yahoo! 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I thought, that was it," says Bell, who stars alongside David James Elliott in the military-legal action series <I>JAG</I>.</div> <bR> <div> "I had thyroid cancer - and if you're going to have cancer, I guess that's the one to get.</div> <bR> <div> "They took out my thyroid gland and, today, I'm perfectly fine. I take a hormone pill every day and I don't have any side-effects. I'm fortunate."</div> <bR> <div> The experience forced Bell to reassess her values. She had a second chance and didn't want to waste it. </div> <bR> <div> "It made me realize I needed to chance my way of life, and I did," she says.</div> <div> Now Bell, 33, enjoys international stardom playing naval attorney Sarah 'Mac' MacKenzie.</div> <bR> <div> In troubled post-September 11 times, American viewers turn to old friends for solace.</div> <bR> <div> <I>JAG</I> is enjoying its best-ever ratings in the US and is consistently in the top 10.</div> <div> That's an amazing achievement for a program that was axed after its first US season, in 1995. The series was picked up as a mid-season replacement by another network the next year.</div> <bR> <div> Bell sighed to play the love interest for Elliott's Commander Harmon Rabb, but her character was killed off after just one episode.</div> <bR> <div> "I never imagined I'd get the chance to rejoin the series. When your character died that's the end of it," she says.</div> <bR> <div> After NBC axed the show, she heard CBS was looking to pick it up and wanted Rabb to have a female colleague.</div> <bR> <div> Reading the character breakdowns for the revamped <I>JAG</I>, Bell saw that Mac was her height, had brown hair, was tough, feisty and that experience in martial arts would assist an actor in winning the role. </div> <bR> <div> "Everything about Mac was me. I'd even been doing tae-bo for years," says Bell, who lives in California's Malibu Hills with her actor husband Adam Beason, 32.</div> <bR> <div> "I immediately wrote to Don (<I>JAG</I> creator and executive producer Don Bellisario) and suggest I be allowed to audition, despite being killed off. I said it would be interesting if Rabb's new partner looked like the dead love of his life - and that did the trick."</div> <bR> <div> Now one of TV's hottest properties, Bell is constantly in demand to pose for raunchy magazine photo shoots.</div> <bR> <div> She received a huge offer from <I>Playboy</I> to bare all for a nude pictorial after appearing in a blue bikini in an episode of <I>JAG</I> filmed in Sydney.</div> <bR> <div> Aussie actor Trevor Goddard, who played Mic Brumby in the series, recalls Bell creating a sensation when shooting her bikini scenes on Bondi Beach.  "They came from everywhere to see her," the Perth-raised actor says. "Cath was a knockout."</div> <bR> <div> Far more comfortable in Mac's uniform, Bell graciously declined the <I>Playboy</I> offer.</div> <bR> <div> "It's not that I'm a prude," she says. "I've done numerous spreads, but it's been this show that's made me what I am and that's not Mac.</div> <bR> <div> "We have 17 million viewers here (the US) but no one writes about us. It drives me nuts.</div> <bR> <div> "I'm not sure why they don't. They only thing I can think of is that we don't get naked and have affairs.</div> <bR> <div> "We're a PG show and while we've had a story about someone who was gay in the military, it's never going to be a case of, 'Hey, lesbian kiss tonight on JAG,' or anything like that."</div> <bR> <div> {THE END}</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>