How CSI Nabbed Ann-Margret

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Kecks-Exclusives-CSI-1023527.aspx

What did it take to get Ann-Margret to appear on the October 14 episode of CSI? A plea from Anthony Zuiker, the creator of all things CSI, who personally wrote the episode after stepping away from his mother ship several seasons back.

"Ann-Margret is very, very difficult to woo, so I called her up personally to tell her about the episode," says Zuiker, whose new book, Dark Prophecy, is also in stores October 14.

"She was on the Queen Mary making a voyage from London to New York, and the Queen Mary was gracious enough to print out the script out for her to read. And it scarred the crap out of her!"

Margret's character is a philanthropic woman named Margot Wilton who raised an ill son confined to a wheelchair before deciding to end his suffering. She is stalked by a forensic-proof serial killer named Sqweegel, who is also the central antagonist in Zuiker's novel.

But did the still stunningly beautiful actress, who remarkably turns 70 next year, really count on being put through the tortures Zuiker whipped up for her?

"She's incredibly fit," Zuiker praises. "It was a very physical role — almost as many constraints as my villain, who is played by an actor who is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most flexible man. She had to fall out of an attic, fall down stairs and crawl across the floor with bloody hands. She was game to do every bit of it — with a little assistance from a stunt double — all with a blade-wielding villain in her face. It was very taxing and she did a phenomenal job."

Phenomenal enough to win her another Emmy to place alongside the one she just collected for Law & Order: SVU? We shall see....