Catherine Bell: 'JAG' Star

(CBS)  For the past seven seasons, Catherine Bell has played the feisty, "by the book" Lt. Col. Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie. Her character is a member of the elite Navy and Marine Corps. of lawyers who prosecute and defend military criminals on the CBS drama "JAG."

Bell visited The Early Show Tuesday to discuss her role. This season on "JAG," her character finds herself going undercover as a pregnant wife, a role in which Bell recently had some real-life experience.

During the shoot for the show, she was pregnant. Since then, Bell became a new mom, delivering her child three weeks ago.

"She's so beautiful," Bell says of her baby.

But motherhood doesn't seem to be slowing down the adventurous woman. Although she plays a very conservative character on television, she has taken some risqué photos for FHM magazine to go along her traditionalist poses of motherhood on other magazines.

"I'd meet people and they go, 'I thought you were much older and much more conservative.' I'm like, 'Hang on, there's this other side of me.'"

Bell got her big break by briefly appearing on "JAG" six years ago as a murdered Navy lieutenant. It was the foot in the door she needed, because the producers invited her back as a female lead in a television world filled with testosterone.

"That kind of a role on television is so great," says Bell. "When I found out that they were casting … I had to go after it."

Now, she hopes to expand her television success to movies. Bell will appear in the highly anticipated Jim Carrey movie, "Bruce Almighty," this summer in which she plays one of his co-workers, a news anchorwoman. In the movie, Carrey's character gains godly powers with hilarious results.

"[Carrey] is so funny," says Bell. "He's just incredible. He's so much fun. I had a blast."

Bell says in her new year of changes, she has a new movie and a new baby, but she continues to have fun.

Some Facts About Catherine Bell

• Catherine Bell was born in London, England on Aug. 14, 1968.
  
  
• She moved with her parents to Los Angeles at the age of 3.
  
  
• Bell began her acting career after modeling in Japan, she says, damaged her self-esteem.
  
  
• Bell has been featured in numerous theatrical films, including "Death Becomes Her" and "Men of War."
  
  
• Her television credits include "Friends," "Dream On," "Misery Loves Company "and the syndicated series "Hercules"; she also starred in the television movie "Cab to Canada," on CBS.
  
  
• Bell lists skydiving, kickboxing, bungee-jumping, snow-boarding, motocross, racing, water skiing and painting as her interests.