Catherine Bell

By Rob Hill

WHO IS SHE?
As Lt. Col. Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie on CBS' hit show JAG, London-born Catherine has been getting a lot of attention for her fiery sex appeal, gorgeous body and her ability to hang with the boys.

WHAT HAS SHE DONE?
After conquering the model world with numerous print and TV commercial campaigns, Catherine was nabbed to be Isabella Rossellini's nude body double in the movie Death Becomes Her. After scoring guest spots on Friends, Dream On and Hercules, she was cast on JAG and became an instant fan favorite as her presence sent the ratings skyward.

WHY DO WE CARE?
Catherine is a gorgeous woman who looks great in her uniform and, well, out of it, too. She likes to shoot guns, skydive, kickbox and ride motorcycles. She wants to become a female action hero in the future—and she probably will. In fact, she'd be perfect for the rumored Terminator 3, don't you think? (Are you reading this, Arnold?)

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PLAYBOY: You're a great-looking, tall woman who wears a military uniform on your show. How do you find men reacting to this?

BELL: Well, with guys in a uniform the reaction is more automatic. Men seem to love me in a uniform but are sometimes surprised what I look like out of the uniform, too. Sometimes when fans of the show see me looking sexy, they are like, "Wow, Catherine, I knew you were cute...but, wow!" I like that.

PLAYBOY: Kinda like the old, sexy librarian, bait-and-switch, eh?

BELL: Yes. I like to be sexy and show people I'm sexy. Whenever I go on talk shows or do photo shoots I like to dress really sexy because, well, I wear a uniform most of the time. It's good to be feminine and sexy.

PLAYBOY: Well, you did show it all as a nude body double and looked quite good.

BELL: Thanks. Yeah, that was fun. I got to meet Bruce Willis and Meryl Streep. I don't mind nudity when it's done tasteful and not just gratuitous T and A. They showed my butt! It was fine, though. I think the female body is beautiful.

PLAYBOY: Before you got into show business you were studying to be a doctor at UCLA. What made you give it up?

BELL: Well, I've always been interested in math and biology, but I wasn't really into it for a career, so I decided to give modeling a try. I went to Japan for four months and it was crazy. I was 19 at the time.

PLAYBOY: Were the dirty old men harassing you?

BELL: Yeah. Men would follow me down the street all the time. The men there—most of them being businessmen in their 40s and 50s—are super aggressive. One time this man in a business suit grabbed my breast in an elevator. I wound up slapping and hitting him, and he tried to call the police. Another time this guy rode his motorcycle up to me and grabbed my butt and breast. It was crazy. They are a very repressed culture. I mean, even the nudie magazines there don't show pubic hair and they put duct tape over the girl's nipples. My friends and I went out to villages where the kids would stare at us and grab our hair like they'd never seen American women before.

PLAYBOY: Yeah, but you know kickboxing, so I bet no one does that anymore.

BELL: Yeah. They better watch out.

PLAYBOY: What kind of fan mail do you get?

BELL: Mostly really nice letters. Some stuff from guys in prisons. Believe it or not the letters from the guys in prison are really cute. They love the show. I get the odd, disgusting picture of some guy doing something weird, but my manager shields me from most of those. This one guy sends me a card for every known holiday in the world. He really wants to meet me, but I don't know about that.

PLAYBOY: Ever been stalked?

BELL: This limo driver who drove me once fell in love with me and kept sending me all these letters. It was weird because he knew where I lived. But nothing ever happened.

PLAYBOY: You shoot guns, ride bikes, jump out of planes. Are you an adrenaline junkie?

BELL: No. I just like to do stuff that's scary and exciting. I like the rush. If you do what scares you then it doesn't have any power over you anymore. I like to do what I want, ya know?

PLAYBOY: What scares you right now?

BELL: Yeah. They better watch out.

PLAYBOY: What kind of fan mail do you get?

BELL: Mostly really nice letters. Some stuff from guys in prisons. Believe it or not the letters from the guys in prison are really cute. They love the show. I get the odd, disgusting picture of some guy doing something weird, but my manager shields me from most of those. This one guy sends me a card for every known holiday in the world. He really wants to meet me, but I don't know about that.

PLAYBOY: Ever been stalked?

BELL: This limo driver who drove me once fell in love with me and kept sending me all these letters. It was weird because he knew where I lived. But nothing ever happened.

PLAYBOY: You shoot guns, ride bikes, jump out of planes. Are you an adrenaline junkie?

BELL: No. I just like to do stuff that's scary and exciting. I like the rush. If you do what scares you then it doesn't have any power over you anymore. I like to do what I want, ya know?

PLAYBOY: What scares you right now?

BELL: Flying a plane. I'd like to do that. But I don't skydive anymore because the last time I did it I crashed and got really scraped up.

PLAYBOY: Okay. If you could fly that plane anywhere right now, where would it be?

BELL: Italy. I love it there. It's sexy, romantic, has great wine, the best pasta. The culture is amazing. The people, everything.

PLAYBOY: Speaking of food, is it true that fast food helped launch your career?

BELL: Yeah, I guess. God, I'd have to ask my mom, but when I was six or seven I did either a McDonald's or Jack in the Box commercial. I also did a Baskin-Robbins commercial.

PLAYBOY: You were born in London. Do you still like drinking beer and hanging out at pubs?

BELL: I love beer. There's nothing like having an ice-cold beer. Wine is good, too. My wild partying days of college are behind me, I think. Now if I get wild I seem to remember everything in the morning. It can be scary. For sure.

Photo: Getty