Marg Helgenberger (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's Catherine Willows) takes the #41 spot.

Helgenberger is one of the television stars that Entertainment Weekly loves right now. The CSI star landed at #41 on their EW 100 list. The reason? Helgenberger is a rarity in Hollywood: a woman over 40 with a career that continues to be successful. Between a hit television show and several films, she has had a busy year.

Helgenberger has had the chance to work with a variety of actors aside from her usual CSI co-stars. She starred in Mr Brooks with Kevin Costner and said that she "loved" the experience. She described Val Kilmer, whom she worked with on Columbus Day, as "fun and charming". However, despite working with both men, she described Liev Schreiber's guest role on CSI as a real high point. "He brought so much to the table," she said. "He's just enormously talented both as an actor and as a writer."

CSI's seventh season received praise from critics and pulled in 20 million viewers despite going up against ABC's hit Grey's Anatomy. "I certainly was motivated by the competition," Helgenberger said. In the first episode of the season, Catherine was drugged and abducted. Helgenberger herself suggested the idea to producers after learning from a real-life criminalist that some bartenders in Vegas had been paid to dose women's drinks with date-rape drugs. "I thought that was an interesting idea, to have a criminalist — someone who's always watching her back and always hip to suspicious behavior — have that happen to her," she said.

The original article is from Entertainment Weekly.

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