Sin never sleeps.

Genre: Crime, Drama
Role: Ashleigh James (guest appearance)
Episode(s): Ep. 2.23 “The Hunger Artist”
Status: Original airdate May 18 2002 (U.S.)
Series creator: Anthony E. Zuiker
Other cast: William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan, George Eads, Jorja Fox, Eric Szmanda, Paul Guilfoyle, Robert David Hall, Susan Misner (guest), Bill Sage (guest), Mark Sheppard (guest)
Network: CBS

More at Tricia Helfer Fan’s ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’ Photo Gallery

CSI episode “The Hunger Artist” synopsis by Tricia Helfer Fan:

C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation is a popular CBS crime drama about the work of the forensics unit of the Las Vegas police department. In each episode, six Las Vegas crime scene investigators use forensic evidence to solve one or more murders.

In episode “The Hunger Artist”, a young woman is found dead in a shopping cart at a Las Vegas back alley with her face badly torn up, and Las Vegas CSI begin to investigate her death. Following an autopsy, one of the investigators recognizes the woman as model Ashleigh James, who is frequently featured on fashion and men’s magazine covers. As the CSI delve deeper into her life and the obscure circumstances of her death, Ashleigh is revealed as a drug addict and severely bulimic as well as having a homeless sister Cassie (Misner), a former moder herself.

Tricia Helfer portrays Ashleigh James, a deeply troubled and impressionable model and the corpse of the episode, whose circumstances of death are not entirely clear. As up-and-coming models, Ashleigh and her sister Cassie are drawn into the dog-eat-dog world of the modeling industry, with disastrous consequences for them both.

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• In the episode, Tricia Helfer portrays an emotionally damaged model who is seduced into the darker side of the modeling world. Ironically, “The Hunger Artist” was one of Tricia’s first professional acting gigs since letting go of her modeling career.

• Upon appearing as Ashleigh on CSI, Tricia was reportedly often asked how, in light of her modeling background, she felt about portraying such a deeply troubled model, to which Tricia responded she had no scruples about the part, because she’d already “seen it all”.

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Personal Thoughts:

Since the early episodes of Season 1 of CSI, I must confess I have not been a fan of the series, however popular it may be, and “The Hunger Artist” is no exception to the rule. Having seen better executed crime investigation series in the past, I’ve always been rather disappointed in the formulaic episodes of the later seasons of CSI, and have had very little interest in the series, save when there’s been a need to kill time.

Tricia as Ashleigh James delivers a very small contribution to the episode, but is once again surprisingly expressive despite her lack of onscreen time and dialogue, and, of course, considering her modeling background, makes a very convincing model in the “modeling” photos taken of her for the series. Whether you like the series or not, Tricia’s guest appearance on the show surely got her some much needed exposure in the Hollywood industry.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has received a total of 38 awards and 90 nominations. Check out the series IMDb page for a full list of awards and nominations!

This episode has not received any awards or nominations.

Below are some CSI: Crime Scene Investigation related links that may be of interest to you.

• CSI official site
• CSI TFL-approved fanlisting
• CSI TFL-approved Ashleigh character fanlisting
• CSI at IMDb.com
• CSI at MetaCritic.com
• CSI at Wikipedia.org

• Anthony E. Zuiker at IMDb.com
• Anthony E. Zuiker at Wikipedia.org

• Eric Szmanda at Eric Szmanda Web
• George Eads at George Eads Fan
• Jorja Fox at Jorja Fox Online
• William Petersen at BillyPetersen.com