CSI STAR TICKLED PINK
March 1, 2001
An FYI to sharp-eyed awards show aficionados: When you’re watching the TV Guide Awards — airing March 7 on Fox (8 pm/ET) — resist the urge to adjust the color contrast dial on your TV set. That’s right, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation star Marg Helgenberger’s red tresses are supposed to be frosted hot pink when she takes the stage to accept her show’s trophy for New Series of the Year. But why?
“Boredom,” she tells TV Guide Online with a chuckle. “I had to get my hair trimmed for the show and just said, ‘What can you throw in there to alleviate my boredom?’ I suggested the pink, which is a good color for redheads. I thought, ‘If it’s a good color on my torso, it’s probably a good thing in my hair.'”
It seems unlikely we’ll see Helgenberger sporting those pink locks on CSI, since desert detective Catherine Willows probably wouldn’t make such a bold coiffure choice. “I don’t think the writers will really let me,” the actress grins mischievously. “But she’s the kind of character who’s a loose cannon. Being an exotic dancer in her former life, I think that she lives a little bit on the edge. So I’m going to try to convince them of that!”
Hair affairs aside, the actress feels CSI — which airs Thursdays at 9 pm/ET — has found a formula for success that needs little tinkering. “I think people generally like crime-solving, and the forensics is a different angle,” says Helgenberger. “It’s a real puzzle that people have to follow through the use of the flashbacks, which put the audience into the investigators’ minds and their thought process. The use of all the extreme close-ups with toenails and fibers and hair follicles — people just sort of dig that style. It’s on the moody, dark, off-kilter side, and I think people respond to all of that.
“I think we’ve taken maybe just a bit of a bite out of our [timeslot] competitor, Will & Grace,” Helgenberger adds gingerly. “But as it turns out, there’s a little something for everybody on Thursday night. It’s a potpourri of entertainment.” Spoken like a true lady. And a pink lady, to boot! — Daniel R. Coleridge