Entertainment Weekly’s IT List 2002
IT fingerprint duster

WHY HIM? Because as ''CSI'''s ex-gambler Warrick Brown, he imbues a character as stimulating as a corpse with enough blue-eyed soul to wake the dead. Purrs costar Marg Helgenberger, ''He's incredibly sensual and smooth.''

ON 'CSI' HANKY-PANKY Any chance Helgenberger's Catherine and his Warrick might consummate their chemistry? ''I think Billy Petersen would get jealous,'' says the actor. ''But I don't think it would mess anything up if coworkers who get along happen to trip on their sexual organs once or twice.'' Adds Helgenberger, ''I recently did 'The View' and Star Jones said, 'You need to do him on the show!'''

CAREER HIGH Playing a creature slayer in his first big-budget film, ''Alien Resurrection.''

DREAM COLLABORATORS Morgan Freeman, Don Cheadle, and Samuel L. Jackson: ''The baddest actors right now.''

INSPIRATIONS ''Bob Marley, Bruce Lee, and Jimi Hendrix. They were strong, independent-minded artists who broke through the mind-set and broke their mold.''

WORST ADVICE ''Robert De Niro told me to send my head shot to every trade magazine. I did, but it didn't get me a job.''

NEXT Dourdan hopes to develop a film biopic about Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott, Ireland's first -- and only -- black rock star.