In Step With...Catherine Bell
We admired tall, lovely Catherine Bell as Mac MacKenzie, a Marine Corps attorney coping with military law for nine seasons on JAG. And we have empathized with her loving devotion as Denise Sherwood on the Lifetime television series Army Wives. So, when Catherine and I chatted the other day, I inquired, “When do you join the Air Force?”
“Funny you ask,” she replied. “Just recently there was a motorcycle rally of USAF personnel, and I promised everyone my next duty station would be Air Force. With all my time on JAG, I feel like an honorary Marine.”
Perhaps she could be a real one. Catherine is very athletic: skiing, kick-boxing, running, wake-boarding. Is she a gym rat?
“No,” she said. “My secret is moderation. I have a busy life and a 5-year-old. But I lift weights and do Pilates, and I follow an 85% healthy diet.” And the other 15%? “My weaknesses,” she said, proceeding to list them, “are chocolate, cookies, and peanut butter sandwiches.”
When she is not running after her daughter or on a beach, Catherine also works on various film projects. She co-starred in the hit Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey and Steve Carell. “I love them both,” she said of the actors. So, what’s next?
She may do a sequel to the successful Hallmark movie The Good Witch, take on some producing herself, and, “Oh, yes,” she said brightly, “my husband and I are taking flying lessons.”
I’d read that she and best friend Jenna Elfman are both Scientologists. Does it bother Catherine to be asked about Scientology?
“No, I don’t mind at all,” she said, refreshingly candid about the somewhat controversial subject. I took a chance at humor: “So Tom Cruise and John Travolta didn’t come along one day and kidnap you?”
The actress played right along. “Never been kidnapped, not even once,” she said.
But being kidnapped by Cruise might have been fun, I suggested. The actress laughed. “Might have been…,” Catherine replied, trailing off.
Brady's BitsBorn in London to an English architect and an Iranian nurse, Catherine came to the U.S. at age 3. While she was at UCLA, her lanky looks attracted modeling offers, and she was off to Japan for lucrative runway and magazine work. “It was fun,” she admitted. “The shoots are glamorous, and they airbrush away your flaws.” When we spoke, Catherine was driving to the South Carolina set of Army Wives near Charleston, where she and her family have rented a beach house on a picturesque cobblestone street. “This new season, my husband’s in Afghanistan,” she disclosed. “There will be phone calls and scenes from the war, where something happens to one of the husbands.”
PersonalBorn Aug. 14, 1968, in London. Married to Adam Beason since 1994. One daughter.
Why You Know HerShe has played in various military-themed TV series, including JAG, and has appeared in films such as Bruce Almighty.
What You Don't KnowShe speaks Farsi with her Iranian-born mother and was a pre-med student before leaving UCLA to pursue modeling.
Source : Parade.com