By George he's got it

BY CATHERINE WOULFE

Compact and twitchy, with a strong Texan accent and a bit of a swagger, George Coleman Eads III takes a seat at our table and leans back, clapping his hands on his thighs.

"We need to liven it up, man. We need a DJ!" He turns to the stenographer. "Are you the DJ?"

It's not funny, but the eight entertainment journalists at the table all laugh anyway because Eads, 43, is a big fish in these parts.

He's done what everyone else in Los Angeles wants to and, after 10 years on CSI, has been asked to direct episodes.

Eads plays the gallant Nick Stokes on the long-running, respected TV crime show.

But all his attention today is on the recent spinal surgery that he says changed his life.

"You know, everybody talks about you having that event in your life that changes your life, changes your perception of everything, whether it be grieving the loss of a loved one or a traumatic event that has happened to you ... But this was my bad car accident. This was my death in the family. This was my, `this is really serious'."

Eads broke his back playing basketball when he first moved to LA from his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, in about 1994.

"I went up for a rebound, came down on my tailbone. Both my legs went numb. Of course, I was new in town. I was a typical ... I mean, I had no TV. I had a futon pad in the floor in Los Feliz. I slept on my dirty clothes. And of course, I had no insurance. So a week went by of excruciating pain. And then I just kind of – I learned to live with it."

Happily, the dodgy disc in his spine waited to herniate until 2009, by which time Eads had landed the CSI job, along with a Porsche 911, a silver Cadillac Escalade, two Harley Davidsons and no doubt plenty of cash to cover the operation.

It was a risky surgery – he had to sign a waiver saying he understood there was a 35% chance of paralysis – and Eads spent the summer in bed recovering.

It was humiliating for a guy who grew up huntin' with his Pa – now a retired District Attorney – and playin' football for his college Texas Tech. "But when you take everything away from somebody, especially when it comes to your health, everything becomes crystal clear. It's like life's in HD for me now."

Eads now has five titanium screws in his lower back which have made him half an inch taller.

So how's life, on a scale of one to 10? "Eleven," Eads says, with a twinkle in his eye and that famous crinkle in his smile.

He got engaged soon after our interview, to his long-term love and blonde California girl Monica Casey.

But the engagement, and paparazzi shots of the couple splashing around in Hawaii, have sparked a new round of rumours about Eads' sexuality. It seems half of Hollywood thinks he's gay and using Casey as a "beard", or decoy.

Conspiracy theorists point to clips that have vanished from the internet. In one Eads supposedly told Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson, "I went into the closet, I stayed there for a while but I had to come out eventually".

In the other, Eads joked with fellow Texan Ellen DeGeneres about how they both broke that state's rules.

Years after Eads allegedly "came out" the gossip remains confined to anonymous "blind" titbits and hardcore fans online, many of whom dream of a relationship between Eads and his co-star Eric Szmanda.

During our interview, in which personal questions are banned, Eads goes nowhere near the rumours, Casey, or his love life. The closest we get is when he's asked whether he misses his title as sexiest male actor in the TV Guide awards. Eads was pipped at the post last year by The Mentalist and The Devil Wears Prada star Simon Baker.

"But I'm not the sexiest," Eads says. "There were a bunch of people that were sexy."

He then quickly changes the subject to football and how he started "Jersey Fridays" on the CSI set, where everyone wears their NFL team jerseys.

Not only is he a Dallas Cowboys' fan, this Texas lad owns a gun, supports the death penalty, and scoffs at stalkers: "It would take a lot of guts for a guy to stalk me," he told reporters in 2006. "I'd pretty much take care of that problem myself." This year Eads made the cover of Men's Fitness magazine, looking buffed and clean in a white singlet and blue jeans.

"I'm stronger than I ever was," he says. But he still can't run, so Szmanda has taken over chasing the bad guys on screen lately.

I wonder whether his surgery, and the epiphany that came with it, made Eads consider retiring.

Surely he could afford it and, with acting legend Laurence Fishburne's arrival on CSI, so could the show.

"I'll try to put this in a box for you," Eads says, and his chocolate-brown eyes are shining and sincere.

"Why leave? I'm playing a guy who is a modern-day superhero, who is the most courageous, brave, athletic, charming ... I mean, he's everything I wish I was, and I get to play this guy."

- © Fairfax NZ News