Put Your Sunglasses On: Gasol On CSI Miami

Did Gasol move to Los Angeles to play with the Lakers or break into acting?

By KURT HELIN

Updated 1:34 PM PST, Thu, Oct 29, 2009

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Like millions of people over the years, Pau Gasol moved Los Angeles to break into acting.

Well, there is that whole Lakers gig as well (which pays the bills), but suddenly acting is in his blood. The 7-foot Spaniard will have a guest role on the episode of the hit show “CSI: Miami” set to air Nov. 16.

"It was a very attractive opportunity. I play Victor, a normal person who is involved in a car accident and police are suspicious that I am responsible for what happened. I have good, meaty dialogue with an officer," he told daily newspaper El Pais.

No word yet on whether Pau Gasol will put on sunglasses with a dramatic flair during the episode.

This is not Gasol’s first stint in a prime-time CBS drama, last year he played himself in an episode of “Numb3ers” along with Jordan Farmar. This time though, he gets to play the role of a Barcelona native who apparently is not a very good driver.

Right now there are thousands of Cheesecake Factory and TGI Friday’s waiters and waitresses saying, “Why can’t I get a break like that?” The answer is simple: The key to breaking into Hollywood is getting noticed, and a good way to get noticed by the casting directors and power brokers in this city is to be a exceedingly tall man with a pretty jumpshot and diverse basketball game, then to get traded to the Lakers. All of the people who can hire you for acting jobs are at Lakers games focusing on their Blackberries, but when they look up they keep seeing Gasol doing something good. It’s just that simple.

Plus, he knows Jack Nicholson and Denzel Washington. That never hurts.

Gasol has had plenty of time to hype "CSI:Miami" as he has been injured and did not play in the Lakers home opener. He also missed the last six games of the preseason and a lot of practices with his tweaked hamstring. He will not play Friday night against Dallas but may be in the lineup Sunday against Atlanta.

That is if he doesn’t get another acting gig before then.

Kurt Helin wears his sunglasses at night, and wears them while writing for the NBA/Lakers blog Forum Blue & Gold (which you can also follow in twitter).